The ETERNAL God is Thy Refuge

The title of this post is part of a very well known verse.

One of God's promises given by Moses to Israel. 

The ETERNAL God is thy refuge, 

and UNDERNEATH are the everlasting arms: 

Deut 33:27

It describes the nature of the LORD God, the El Shaddai, the Everlasting Father, our God = “ETERNAL” (from Collins Dictionary)

“1. without beginning or end; existing through all time; everlasting · 

2. of eternity 

 3. forever the same; always true or valid; unchanging. the eternal verities”

We are to keep our focus on the ETERNAL GOD.

He promised He would never leave us nor forsake us.

He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

He sees, knows, understands what we cannot in our finite, limited mind - worldly box.

Satan wants us to put our God in that worldly box... but that’s the path of discouragement. 

For our INFINITE God is immeasurable in His grace mercy and love for us... The LORD God Almighty reaches where we can never ever imagine. 

How many of us I wonder know the second part of that verse?

It struck me afresh today in its entirety. 

IF we ever needed to have second part of this verse to be fulfilled… it’s today in the left wing, anti-God controls of today’s governments worldwide. May God indeed thrust out the enemies of Truth and Righteousness and Destroy them! Especially in our nation's governments. 

Mercy please LORD, we plead Thee. Protect Thy servants everywhere! We flee to Thee for Refuge.

The ETERNAL God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: 

and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee;

and shall say, Destroy them. Deut 33:7

This verse is a promise to Israel before they were to take possession of the promised land, and just one of many promises by God through Moses to each of the twelve tribes. 

Another well known one is this illumination I’ve done ‘ As Thy days, etc.’, which is a preceding verse and promise is to tribe of Asher, but both are also it maybe noted to the tribes of Israel (see verses 28, 29). 

Painted in 1990s in water colours, rather than gouache like my later works, the good water colours still faded too much hence changed to Gouache.
Full post on this can be found on my craft blog here, done in 2014.

Deuteronomy 33:24-29

[24] And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil.

 [25] Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. 

[26] There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. 

[27] The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. 

[28] Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. 

[29] Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, …

Verses 24, 25 were to Asher and were the concluding promises to each of 12 tribes. From verses 26 to verse 29, the end of chapter it’s to Israel whose name is also Jeshurun.

 Jeshurun (Hebrew: יְשֻׁרוּן Yəšurūn; also Jesurun or Yeshurun) is a poetic name for Israel used in the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible.

The importance and usefulness of these promises was necessary because of testing that lay before them. Does it apply to us today?

Most certainly, the LORD Jesus in His temptation with Satan used scripture promises in other parts of the scripture.. see here Matt 4:1 - 11

Or just looking at this example:

Matthew 4:7-10

[7] Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 

[8] Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

 [9] And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

 [10] Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

And that is key.. the battle is being fought today, through the living word, as much as in Moses and Joshua’s day. 

The enemy is the same father of lies and Accuser of the brethren and the LORD Jesus Himself. So we must gird ourselves in the Word of God.

As Jesus Who is called the WORD did!

Ephesians 6:16-17

[16] Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 

[17] And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

*****

The ETERNAL God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: 

and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee;

and shall say, Destroy them.

Deut 33:7

So God will not only now be our Refuge underneath us, but He will THRUST OUT our enemies, before us!

See hymn below or link to video here, words by A.B Simpson.

1	Art thou sunk in depths of sorrow Where no arm can reach so low? There is One whose arms almighty Reach beyond thy deepest woe. God th’ Eternal is thy refuge, Let it still thy wild alarms; Underneath thy deepest sorrow,   Are the everlasting arms.
	Underneath thee, underneath thee, Are the everlasting arms, Everlasting, everlasting,   Are the everlasting arms.
2	Other arms grow faint and weary, These can never faint, nor fail; Others reach our mounts of blessing, These our lowest loneliest vale. O that all might know His friendship! O that all might see His charms! O that all might have beneath them   Jesus’ everlasting arms.
3	Underneath us, O how easy; We have not to mount on high, But to sink into His fulness, And in trustful weakness lie. And we find our humbling failures Save us from the strength that harms! We may fail, but underneath us   Are the everlasting arms.
4	Arms of Jesus! fold me closer, To Thy strong and loving breast, Till my spirit on Thy bosom Finds its everlasting rest; And when time’s last sands are sinking, Shield my heart from all alarms, Softly whispering, “Underneath thee,   Are the everlasting arms.”

A beautiful promise - for the eternal God is Thy Refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. I pray this has blessed you as it has me.

May God richly bless you and those you love, wherever you may  be. Thank you SO much for popping over for a read, a meditate and especially if you’re able to chat.

Prayer hugs 🙏🤗 Shaz in Oz.x  

Addendum to post on the sudden passing of our faithful Queen Elizabeth II, after more than a seventy year reign.

Our very dear and so beautiful inside and out, Queen Elizabeth II, was reigning before I and many of us were even born..  

She  had a sudden arrival to a job of huge responsibility so young, but took it willingly with both hands and all her heart... a servant of her God and her people. 

Her faith was often shared in her Christmas messages, she was not ashamed of her Saviour, and the latter messages especially I remember.  It encouraged me as I watched it.  (Some of these Queen's Christmas messages are shared verbatim in this post here, the link left by Rita R. below)

I truly believe she heard "well done thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of the LORD." 

Amen, and may God save the King.. king Charles III ... for truly he is yet to acknowledge God as his King. 

🙏👆🙏👆🙏 may God have mercy on us all in every day ahead.

 If you are not sure if you are a Christian, a Christ follower, please read this post here - Who or What is a Christian?

PS. If you haven’t I'd love it you to join as a wonderful encourager of this blog ...  link HERE.  Thank YOU to those who have done so already. It really encourages me to keep on. 😁

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