Just before the children of Israel were, after some delay (40 years), to enter into the Promised Land, Moses gave a series of speeches that, in essence, told them to remember God’s grace in their lives and to live faithfully and obediently under the covenant that God had “cut” (Hebrew kārat) with them.
In Deuteronomy 4, Moses reminds the Hebrews of the “statutes and judgments” (Deut. 4:5) that the Lord had given them, and that their obedience to these would be their “wisdom and . . . understanding in the sight of the nations” (verse 6, KJV). Notice, it wasn’t their possession of these statutes and judgments that made the difference, but their obedience to them.
Moses then says, “For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” (verses 7, 8, KJV).
I can’t help it, and make no apologies for not being able to, but how can we not see the principle here applying to us, today, as Seventh-day Adventists? Look at what we have been given as a people. I’m not judging anyone, but come on! The seventh-day Sabbath, established in Eden (Gen. 2:2, 3), is rejected for Sunday, a day grounded in paganism and in Roman Catholicism, and not in the Word of God. And the idea of the immortal soul, also pagan and unbiblical (Matt. 10:28), has overflowed into Christianity like a broken sewer line saturating the faith with the foolish belief that at death the righteous soul goes immediately to Jesus in heaven and, even worse, the lost are tortured for eternity in hell for whatever number of temporal sins they committed here.
How diligently do you keep your own soul, your own being, your mind?
And where do we even begin with all that we have been given through the Spirit of Prophecy?
Right after the Lord reminded them of what they had been privileged with, however, He cautioned them to “take heed to thyself, and ušmor nfškā m’od,” which means—“keep thy soul diligently” (Deut. 4:9, KJV).
Keep your soul diligently? In other words, Yeah, sure, you have been granted special privileges, but you [the pronoun is singular] better, personally, make sure you guard your faith and your relationship with Me. Ancient Israel was given light far in advance of anyone else. Wonderful. But in the end, unless that light guided them into salvation, it would condemn them instead. Which, with exceptions, is what happened (read Jesus’ lament in Matthew 23:37).
Don’t worry about someone else in the pew. Or what the conference might or might not have done. What about nfška (your soul)? How diligently do you keep your own soul, your own being, your mind? (The Hebrew word for “keep” also means “guard.”) Are you feeding yourself on the Word of God, and on His truths, and applying them in your life, or are you feeding yourself on Facebook, TikTok, or all the grievances that you might, even justly, have?
Only you know. You, and the Lord who has given you, like each ancient Israelite, so much.
