I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 14-17.

    Today’s passage is a clear reminder of why we call this book “Deuteronomy” because it consists of a rehash of laws given earlier. Today’s passage provides less detail on many of these laws, but also presents them in a way which provides fresh insight into them. As an example, the laws regarding what animals and insects can be eaten significantly reduce the risk of disease and food poisoning. Then there is the restatement of the Sabbath Year, except that here it only talks about canceling debts and freeing slaves. The purpose here is to give people who made bad choices, but who learned from them, the opportunity to “start over” free from debt.

    As I was reading the description about justice in the land a couple of things stood out. While they were told to appoint judges, seeing that justice was carried out was not just the job of those judges. The people were instructed to judge people fairly, to not twist justice. If the death penalty was called for, those who had accused the perpetrator were to be the first to carry out the sentence…meaning that if they had falsely accused the person the accuser was guilty of murder.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 8-10.

    Moses explains that the Children of Israel learned to love and obey God during lean, trying times. During their time in the wilderness, God disciplined them as a loving father disciplines his children. Now they were about to enter a land of plenty and face a new temptation. Moses warned them that when times got good for them it would be easy to become proud and forget God. When times are good it is easy to become complacent and forget God, thinking that our ability and success will provide for our needs. We must remember that our success comes from obeying God and that if we fail to continue to do so, He will remove His blessings from us. I do not think I can stress enough how hard it is for us to remain faithful when things are going well for us.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 5-7.

    The passage begins with Moses restating the Ten Commandments (as we know them), which are referred to in Hebrew as the “Ten Words” or “Ten Sayings”. Moses reminds his audience that these words were spoken by God to all of those assembled before the mountain at Mt. Sinai. Moses instructed his audience to wholly commit themselves to obeying the commandments which God had given them. I really love what Moses says in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. God is our only god and we must love Him with all of our being, with our minds, our emotions, and our physical abilities. Truly loving God means doing as He has instructed us. In order to be sure that we do as He has instructed we need to repeat God’s commands again and again, to ourselves, to our children, and to our neighbors. Let us talk about God’s will for our lives, both long term and for the next minute, when we are at home, at work, or on vacation, when we get up in the morning and when we go to bed at night. How does what I am doing right now fit into the instructions which God has given me?

    Moses goes on from there to remind the Children of Israel that God did not choose them because of how wonderful they were. He chose them because He loved them. The same is true of us today. God did not choose us because we were wonderful. In fact, we were the opposite of wonderful when God chose us. Each and every one of us has done terrible, horrible things deserving of complete condemnation, but God has chosen to redeem us and transform us. If we accept His transformation of ourselves we need fear no one and nothing. God will not allow anyone or anything to disrupt the transformation He has in mind for us, although He will not force us to accept that transformation. Part of accepting God’s transformation is ridding ourselves of the desire for the detestable things which we did before we encountered Him.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 3-4.

    Moses finished recounting the events which the people had experienced between the time they left Mt. Sinai until they arrived east of the Jordan. He expressed how deeply he desired to enter the Promised Land while explaining how God had denied him the privilege because of his reactions to the stresses the people had put him under. Which led him to remind them of the importance of obeying God’s commands. Obeying God’s commands will cause those around us to honor God. One thing which helps us to obey God’s commands is remembering the things He has done, especially our first experience with His power and glory. That first experience with God’s power and glory shaped how He taught us His commands. We must be careful not to substitute some image or object for the glory of God’s true presence.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 1-2.

    When Moses realized that his days were reaching their end, he gave a speech to the Children of Israel recounting their travels from Mt. Sinai to where they were at that time, east of the Jordan. It was important for him to do this, since none of those listening had been adults when they left Mt. Sinai (except for Caleb, Joshua, and Aaron’s sons) and most had not even been born. Moses described how he had consulted with the people to appoint leaders over them. By doing so, he reminded them that the authority of leadership goes both from the bottom up and from the top down: leaders at all levels need to have the support of the people they lead, but they also need to be approved of by those above them.

    Moses reminded them how their parents had refused to follow his leadership and trust God when first commanded to enter the Promised Land. I never noticed before how Moses subtly reminded them of the importance of following the correct leader into battle here. Initially, they did not trust that God would give them victory through Moses’ leadership going into battle against the Canaanites. Then they attempted to attack the Canaanites without any plan at all. The latter ended in disaster. This was an important reminder to follow Joshua’s commands as they entered the land. Moses also showed them how God had guided them in their approach to their present location. God wished for them to avoid conflict with the Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites. Those three nations did not attack them when they approached their borders. However, the Amorites preemptively attacked the Children of Israel, showing that they were “fair game”. The Israelites utterly defeated them and took their land.