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.
Moses made a second presentation to the Israelites where he laid out the specifics of the covenant which he called on them to keep in his first address. He starts off by restating the Ten Commandments, or the Ten Statements. He reminds the people that God has spoken these Words directly to the people of Israel at Mt Sinai. I was struck by a different understanding of one of them than how I had previously understood it. The one I am referring to I learned as, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,…” However, in the NLT it reads, “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” I learned the first one to mean that you should not use God’s name as an expletive. The second reads to me as a warning against using God to promote our own self-interest. When you use the name of God, or a quote from the Bible, to support the position you took on an issue you are running a significant risk of violating this command. When tempted to use the Bible, or your religious beliefs, to bolster your arguments, ask yourself this, “Did I come to my belief because of that Bible passage? Or, do I understand that Bible passage that way because of my belief?” If the former, then the passage is possibly relevant to the discussion. If the latter, use the passage with extreme caution.
Moses goes on to say that we must love God with all of our being. We should commit ourselves to him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our strength, with every ounce of what we are. I cannot emphasize enough the value of what Moses says here:
And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
The point of all of the above is that we should go overboard to make sure we know and remember God’s commands. Actually, it tells us that there is no such thing as going overboard in the attempt to know and remember God’s commands. By going back again and again and reading, reciting, learning what God has told us of His will we learn how to not misuse His name. Of course it is not enough to know God’s commands backwards and forwards. We must also desire to DO His will.
Finally for today, Moses reminded the Israelites that God did not choose them because of anything they were or had done. God chose them because He loved them. They did not deserve God’s love, just as we do not deserve God’s love. God loved them because He chose to love them, just as He chooses to love us. Because He loves us, He has told us what we must do to be blessed, but if we reject Him and His instructions He will not hesitate to bring down the full consequences of our actions upon us. The Bible contains account after account of those who suffered the consequences of rejecting God.