Deuteronomy 4:26

That is, people claim that their future in the land of Israel is indefinite. It is just going to go on. Now, when Ezekiel wrote this, the Assyrians had already deported the ancient Israelites. The land was depopulated of Israelites up in the northern part. This passage does not refer to ancient Israel, but it refers to today's Israel. And, today the average Joe Israelite believes that the North American civilization he inhabits will have no end. Some go as far as to assert that the PAX Americana (that is, the peace America supposedly brings), as well as the American world hegemony, will be around for centuries. I have seen that written. There is no end in sight! The days are prolonged.

If they had taken a look, if they had read and believed Deuteronomy, they would have known better. In Deuteronomy 4:26 it simply says that if people disobey God's law and fall into idolatry, they "shall not prolong [their] days" in the land, "but shall utterly be destroyed." Verse 27 tells of God's scattering, of His depopulating the land, or prolonging their stay in it. Deuteronomy 4:40 near the end of the chapter tells us that we prolong our days in the land when we obey God's law.

Deuteronomy 4:25-26

It is time to bring out the big guns. It is time to bring out the grandparents. Of course we understand that parents have the prime goal in raising children. I am certainly not denying that in any way. And certainly, I understand that we in the Church must consider the degree to which the kids' grandparents are converted. Even if once converted, a person may become apostate, backsliding in his old age. Notice the warning against idolatry and how it focuses on old people in Deuteronomy 4. Moses here specifically addresses the older people.

Unconverted, backsliding, even hostile, grandparents, with values quite different from ours, can do significant damage to our own efforts to raise our children in the nurture of the Lord. These are real issues that need to be considered. In some extreme cases, it may be absolutely unwise to bring grandparents into close contact with our children.

Deuteronomy 4:25-29

We are all going to go off the path that God has plotted out for us. We are all going to sin from time to time, but because God is faithful, He is holding the door open for us, like the prodigal son, to come back. Certainly, there are stipulations. There are requirements that we have to meet, and we have to seek Him with all of our heart and with all of our soul.

Deuteronomy 4:24-31

God is teaching us there what defragments our mind. It is seeking Him with passionate desire to be like Him which defragments our mind and makes it one with Him.

Deuteronomy 4:23-26

I read that to you so you get a sense of the feeling that He has against somebody who is breaking up a beautiful relationship.