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 32-34.

    The people of Israel belong to God, they are His special possession among the people’s of this earth. Despite the many things He has done for them, time and again they have turned to other gods. They have chosen to place their priorities on things which are not God. In response God has raised up peoples and nations against the people of Israel to show them the error of their ways. He has repeatedly held back from destroying them because their enemies would fail to recognize His role in their fall.
    There are many ways in which Moses’ song in this passage can be applied to those who have chosen to follow Christ. We too have been selected by God to be His special possession among the people of this earth. We too have witnessed God’s many marvelous acts on our behalf. Finally, we too have become fat and complacent when God has blessed us. We have turned from God and sought other things in His place. And we have learned that there is no god other than God. Let us return to loving God once more (if we have not already done so) and rejoice as He brings justice to the earth.

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 29-31.

    In yesterday’s passage, the blessings for following God’s instructions, and the curses for failing to do so, were laid out. In today’s passage, Moses reminds us that sometimes we will fail to follow God’s instructions and fall under the curses. However, we can always repent and turn back to God. If we recognize our failure, that the suffering we are experiencing is a result of our sin, and turn back to God, God will change our hearts so that we will love Him with all of our heart, mind, and soul. If we repent of our sin, He will welcome us back and allow us to experience His blessings once more.

    Today we are given a choice. We can choose to love the Lord and commit ourselves completely to Him. If we choose this, we are choosing life. If we choose not to do this we are choosing death. I love the way Moses lays out this choice for us. God does not ask us to do some difficult pilgrimage in order to find out what He wants from us. We do not need to find some guru who has gone to heaven, or across the sea, or climbed some high mountain to tell us what God commands us. God has sent His messengers to us and He will reveal in our hearts right where we are what He desires of us. Even when we are in the depths of sin, God will come to us where we are to make His will known to us. We only need to listen and obey…and the best part is, if we sincerely desire to obey God He will give us the strength and ability to do so.
    The hard part about this choice is that we have to make it every day. However, that means that if yesterday we chose not to do God’s will, today we get to change our minds and accept His offer of blessings. I pray that each and every one of you reading this chooses life today, and every day going forward.

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 27-28.

    The passage contains instructions for an interesting “compare and contrast” exercise which Moses instructed the people of Israel to do once they crossed over the Jordan River. One half of them were to stand on Mount Ebal and one half on Mount Gerizim. Those on Mount Ebal were to declare curses on those who failed to keep the commands which God had given the people of Israel. Those on Mount Gerizim were to declare blessings on those who did keep those commands. The curses are the mirror image of the blessings. Doing God’s will results in positive consequences. Refusing to do God’s will has negative consequences. We do not always see the connection between doing, or not doing, God’s will and the consequences which result, but that connection is there nonetheless.

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 24-26.

    Today’s passage is another one where it is a listing of miscellaneous commands, many of which are restatements of commands given previously. These commands contain a thread which goes through many of them in one way or another. One should not use one’s economic power to oppress those less fortunate. When we make loans we should not take as security for those loans the tools the other person needs to make a living, nor should we take things which the person needs to live. There is even a command against entering someone’s house to obtain the object they are giving as security against the loan. All of these commands are related to not using your stronger economic position to gain additional advantage over those less fortunate than yourself.
    Finally, there is the instruction regarding tithes. There are two aspects of the tithe instructions I want to mention. One aspect of our tithing is to acknowledge that God gave us the things we have. The tithe is but a returning to God what He gave us in the first place. Another aspect is to use our good fortune to help those who have been less fortunate by sharing with them. There is more to helping the unfortunate than just sharing from our wealth. We are also to manage our business so as to leave options for those less fortunate to gather the resources to care for themselves.

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 21-23.

    When I came to Deuteronomy I was expecting to struggle with what to write about it. After all, Deuteronomy means, more or less, “Second Law”, so I perceive it too a large degree as being a repeat of things said in earlier books (primarily Leviticus). I was pleasantly surprised as I read through it this year with the new perspectives on things I found there. Until today. Today’s passage contains a lot of miscellaneous regulations to which I see no common theme. That being said, I still believe there is value in reading through it regularly and I suspect that next year I will have a different perspective on it.
    There was one section that I want to expand on a little. When I was a child there was a saying we often used, “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” I knew many adults who used it as well (although, I am pretty sure my parents never used it and discouraged my siblings and I from using it). In this passage, God makes it clear that that saying is not His ideal either. If we find something of value, we should seek to return it to its rightful owner. If we know who they are and they live nearby, we should take it to them. If we do not know who they are, or they live more distantly, we should hold it for them until they can be identified and/or arrangements can be made for them to retrieve it. The next verse is on a similar theme. If we witness someone struggling with a task, we should assist them.

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 18-20.

    God warned the people of Israel not to imitate the detestable customs of the people who were living in the land He was about to give them. The very first of those detestable practices which He singled out was that they were not to sacrifice their children. In many ways, all of the other practices He condemned here are intrinsically tied to that. All of the practices which are condemned here are attempts to warp the world around to serve our selfish desires. They are attempts to become gods, if only in a small way. I think in some ways we gain an understanding of this by comparing a prophet sent by God to those practicing the divination practices which were forbidden. The prophet sent by God is given a message from God concerning some future event so that his (or her) audience will more closely follow God’s will (Joseph received a prophetic message from God so that he would take Mary and Jesus to Egypt). The diviner seeks seeks to determine specific information about the future so that he, or those consulting him, can use it to their advantage. There are times when the line is a bit blurry, such as when we seek God’s guidance in making a decision, but even there we should be seeking to make the decision which most clearly adheres to God’s will, not the one which advances our desires. Sometimes that is the same thing and the closer our walk with God the more that will be true. More and more today I see people adopting the detestable practices God described here, practices which led God to drive the people living in the Promised Land out.