The Issues of the Heart
Volume # 1 - The writings of Moses
by Theodore Logia



Chapter 17

Israel is not to Fear Their Enemies

Deuteronomy 7:17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more
than I; how can I dispossess them?

18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD
thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

19 The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the
wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD
thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people
of whom thou art afraid.



A few generations removed from te beginning of the German liberal movement
in the 1890's. In what is now being called the post-modern era, we can
grasp as believers the same battle that Israel was warned about in chapter 7
of Deuteronomy. How can we have victory over the post-modern views of this
age where it is believed that we need to go back to ground level and explain
the very foundational truths that were accepted just a few decades earlier
as common knowledge? If this is fact we must stand ready to retrain the
world in the basic fundamental truths and re-establish the Biblical mindset
in this next generation.



Israel's problem was first a fearful heart. Moses says in verse 17, "If
thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I
dispossess them." They feared they level of the strength of the nations in
Canaan which was overwhelming in their eyes. Was this true? Or was it just
a figment of their faithlessness? On a purely logical viewpoint there were
absolutely right, the Canaanites were a more powerful people. But this is
not really the point whatsoever. Israel was not to live by sight; they were
to believe God in His promises.



Israel's focus was not to follow their hearts. We have seen how the heart
is desperately wicked and followed only after evil continually. This heart
thought forsook all that God had demonstrated to them over the past 40 years
and had proven before to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob their common father's. Do
not obey your heart Israel, obey your God and see the proof in his words and
in what He did in His the exodus out of Egypt in teir very generation.



Moses chose this as their lesson for them to learn. Follow God in their
hearts and He will guide them in victory. He said, "Thou shalt not be
afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto
Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; the great temptations which thine eyes saw, and
the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm,
whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto
all the people of whom thou art afraid" (Deuteronomy 7:18, 19).



Our hearts may fail us as we are deceived by our own thinking and lust. God
will not fail us nor forsake us. Israel did have many victories under their
general, Joshua. Joshua took his orders from the Captain of the host of
Israel. It is said by military tacticians that Joshua was brilliant
tactician himself. Under the leading of faith, our Captain will lead us to
victory after victory as we look to him only and as we guard our hearts
under His Lordship.



Israel had their victories, but they became complacent as they were
satisfied with only the lowlands and let the mountains and the hills to the
Canaanites. This led to generations of misery and centuries of oppression
for Israel. Let us take not only the fertile lowlands, but let us press on
to mountains movable only by faith.