What does Moses say that God will have against them?
God will send The Curse, The Confusion, The Contrariness down on everything you try to do until you've been destroyed and there's nothing left of you - all because of your evil pursuits that led you to abandon me. (28:20)
...you didn't serve God, your God, out of the joy and goodness of your heart in the great abundance... (28:47)
...you don't diligently keep all the words of this Revelation written in this book, living in holy awe before This Name glorious and terrible, God, your God... (28:58)
...you didn't listen obediently to the Voice of God... (28:62)I wonder how the Israelites received these words from Moses. Did it scare them that he was predicting that they'd fall flat on their faces, doing exactly what God told them not to do? Did they resolve to try really hard to be obedient? Were they optimistic and hopeful that they'd be able to keep the commandments?
I imagine it's a lot like me with my New Year's resolutions this year. I had good intentions and a plan. I kept at them for awhile, but life happened. A two-week-long cold and sinus infection at the end of January derailed me. It's March, and I've slipped back into old patterns. So much for will-power and optimism, huh??
Similarly, as much as I want to "gut it out" and try really hard to obey God so I can feel good about myself, life isn't sustainable that way. Paul makes that abundantly clear in Galatians:
The purpose of the law was to keep a sinful people in the way of salvation until Christ came, inheriting the promises and distributing them to us...Its purpose was to make obvious to everyone that we are, in ourselves, out of right relationship with God, and therefore to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete his promise. For if any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time.
Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. (Galatians 3:19, 21-23)Because of that perspective, as I read through the rules and regulations in Deuteronomy, I feel grateful instead of guilty. Grateful for a God who reveals Himself to me. Grateful for a God who wants to surround and protect me. Grateful for a God who has orchestrated history according to His plan. Grateful for a God who was willing to send His Son to die on a cross for me.
On the other hand, I don't want to underestimate or trivialize Moses' words to the Israelites:
Don't let down your guard lest even now, today, someone - man or woman, clan or tribe - gets sidetracked from God, our God, and gets involved with the no-gods of the nations...a person...exempts himself, thinking "I'll live just the way I please, thank you," and ends up ruining life for everybody. (29:18-29)
God, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It's up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation. (29:29)I pray, Lord, that you will give me the power to stay attentive to You. May I not get sidetracked or live just to please myself. The hidden things are Your business, but the revealed things are my business.
3 comments:
Chapter 28, verses 53-57 are chilling -- the most gentle and caring man or woman turns hard, turning against their own cherished family, eating child-stew! Chilling, but oh so sobering that that's who I really am, in my flesh, without Christ. That's the sinfulness in me that nothing could erase or cover except the blood of Christ.
Really different from the perspective that God saved me a church-going girl with a Christian heritage who had done nothing terribly wrong. No, His grace covered my very dark heart that deserved His full blazing anger and He gave me Life.
Cici, isn't it interesting how we start off a new year or a new season believing that this time we'll get it right, we'll really make it happen. I'd think that in my 40s I'd have figured it out by now that that's not the way it works! But, it's so much easier for me to hope in my abilities and self-discipline than to hope in and surrender all to my covenant God.
Grateful for His delight in me. When I know anything I do will never be enough. That's life changing.
Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18
God is so real. SO gracious, to us all- to matter what the story is! Last night I was with a friend sharing about God and I saw her cry, I saw her open up, I saw God moving in her heart. She prayed the most beautiful prayer...something like this, "Hi God, I don't know if I want to be a Christian or not. That is the question. Would you help me to trust in you? To trust that you would come into my heart and change my life? I look forward to learning more in Your Holy Bible." And I thought to what I was learning in His Holy Bible. I am so thankful for the Word. It is ALIVE. The journey to the promise land, learning more about God, its just a big journey with God. And that's exciting. Please pray for my friend to truly come to Christ after reading the Word for herself.
The Old Covenant: Deut 28:58 I have to diligently keep all the words of this Revelation written in this book, living in holy awe before This Name Glorious and Terrible. And no one anywhere can. I've thought a whole bunch the past couple of weeks about Romans 7:8 that sin came alive through the law and makes me covet all the more. Wretched man that I am! Rescued! Thank you O Glorious and Terrible One, Oh Name Above All there is. Thunder. Lightning. The Heavens just ripped open. I'm drawn in trembling.
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