Deuteronomy 2:1-23 ~ The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness.

So God never explained the reason HE would not let the Children of Israel be part of the other nations was because they sacrificed their newly born children to the god of crop financial prosperity and happiness. The newborn's blood made profit in the crops.


And God had the reputation of being an angry and mean God. I guess HE just didn't see the need to explain for people who were going to say, "God better improve".

To see the Chapters and the Books connect for the Bible - takes Decades. To see the emotions written in the connections takes a willingness to have Wonder and Relationship with a Deity who says "I Am." Yes, you have to enter into faith believing God is Good. And you have to work with that belief - because God Himself says - faith is the 'work' of mankind. Doubt is easy.


In my decades and decades of looking at Scripture, I'd have to say - I believe I have found the reason for life. That's the story of, that's the glory of - all this mess, confusion, power positioning, envy, lust, trust, hope, glory, wonder, desire to be known, desire to know God - LIFE.

In my opinion, Life is like the Mississippi River, we are on the destination ride we do not control. We are on the path of the Prodigal Son. God has sent us off to college - life - and we are going on a journey God is waiting to see us present what we did with our souls. We are all going to see Jesus - the Scriptures tell us. We just sincerely hope Father God is going to run to see us coming Home with Joy.

The Life Journey

Wow. The Exodus. There is so much information in the Exodus, as our Bible Study remarked upon the Study we all have bits and pieces of information - and we are lifelong Christians. I write a Blog on Scriptures and I recounted a fiction work I read a decade ago to give Moses' wife Zipporah more dialog - as if this is true. It was not - I re-checked.

And the study said that the Children of Israel died before entering the Promised Land. That is incorrect - I re-checked. Only the warriors perished. God must have believed, known, they had the ability to take the Promised Land and had seen the wonders and refused.

Desert near Mt. Sinai

And that caused me to Wonder - 

How is the Promised Land 40 Years Exile

Comparable to 

The Early House Churches of Acts of the Apostles

We are told God is the same of the Old Testament and the New Testament - let's give that a whirl.

The New House Churches arrived, after Peter's House Church, (that archaeologically relates to the remains of Peter 80 feet under the Vatican Alter in Rome) from people who were exiled.

A journey of life we are all on, if we travel or not.

The Exodus was about killing nations and foreigners - so how does this relate to God who says, "I am a Light to the Nations" ?


God has been working His Plan far longer than 40 years for the Exodus or 70 years Jeremiah correctly explained for the Babylonian Exile (told also on Babylonian Chronicle Cuneiforms in the British Museums). God has been planning to be a Light to the Nations - even during Isaiah.

Isaiah 49

5 And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength),

6 He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, To the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers, "Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You."

We know correctly House Churches welcomed all nations. Where was this tenderness of Father God in the Exodus. This - covers Jesus being in Exodus as a child. God sees the honor of Jesus living in Egypt as an important saying of where His Son would go. God is God.

Hosea 11:1
"When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt."

Exodus 4:22
"Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD, "Israel is My son, My firstborn."

Hosea 13:4
Yet I have been the LORD your God Since the land of Egypt; And you were not to know any god except Me, For there is no savior besides Me."




Where is the Harsh God? Here is the tenderness of God:

Deuteronomy 2:1-23

Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir.

2 Then the Lord said to me, 3 “You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. 4 Give the people these orders: ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. 5 Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. 6 You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’”



7 The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness.



These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and
you have not lacked anything.




8 So we went on past our relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber, and traveled along the desert road of Moab.

9 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.”

10 (The Emites used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. 11 Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites. 12 Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the Lord gave them as their possession.)

13 And the Lord said, “Now get up and cross the Zered Valley.” So we crossed the valley.

14 Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley.

By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. 15 The Lord’s hand was against them until he had completely eliminated them from the camp.

16 Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died,
17 the Lord said to me, 18 “Today you are to pass by the region of Moab at Ar. 19 When you come to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to war, for I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.”

20 (That too was considered a land of the Rephaites, who used to live there; but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. 21 They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. The Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place. 22 The Lord had done the same for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them. They drove them out and have lived in their place to this day. 23 And as for the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites coming out from Caphtor destroyed them and settled in their place.)

This is Mount Sinai, and nearby the Tomb of Aaron. And the Monastery of St Catherine at the foot of Mt. Sinai. What happens when God provides a cloud protecting from heat and overwhelming desert? What about when a Fire by Night keeps desert cold away? What do clouds also provide. See the plant growth? What happens when food is provided? There is more time for community and conversation. Learning. Their clothes and shoes did not wear out.

How will we relate this to a House Church?

Luke 9
3“Take nothing for the journey,” He told them, “no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no second tunic. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that area."


Numbers 9:14
'If an alien sojourns among you and observes the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its ordinance, so he shall do; you shall have one statute, both for the alien and for the native of the land.'"

God does not separate out one rule for one people and another for another.


What God would say to the exiles bringing forth the Word of God of Jesus Christ to the Nations, something like this:

Joshua 1:7-9

1:7 Make sure you are very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do. 1:8 This law scroll must not leave your lips! You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper and be successful. 1:9 I repeat, be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.”


John 6:31
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”


Jesus is the Living Water flowing into the dry places - creating Life.


1 Corinthians 10:4
And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.


Isaiah 12:3
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Isaiah 58:11
And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

John 7:37-39
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit



Father God,

Grow within me an Oasis. Banish the desert.

Jesus answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person.

Father with Your help, I am forgiven, completed. Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing and acceptable to You, my Rock and Redeemer.

Blessed are You, Lord Christ. Help us to Journey in the Path and the Faith You have given us to travel. Bless those I love, bless the people You have given us. We look to You for the Nation and all the people of the world in the Communion of Saints to Pray. Amen covered in the Love, Mercy and Name of Jesus.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †