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.
Today’s passage could easily be divided up into a couple of different themes, but they all seem to be tied together. Moses starts by reminding the people, and us, to remember what God has done for us. After all, that was why he had rehashed the story of their journey before getting to this point. However, Moses warns us not to forget God when we become successful. We have a tendency to think that we succeed because we deserve success, especially when others seem to suffer at the same time. Moses wants us to understand that our success and their suffering is not because we are better, more deserving people. If we stop giving God credit for our success and stop recognizing the need to do His will, even if we seem to be successful, everything will turn to dry dust in our mouths. If we have success in this life, let us give thanks to God for His grace, and not begin to think that we deserve it.
Moses reminds us to never forget that if God gives us success He does so in order that we may do His will. God wishes for us to love Him and live in a way that pleases Him. How do we know what pleases God? Moses gives us a few examples. God ensures that widows and orphans receive justice. He loves the foreigners who live among us, giving them food and clothing. We should do likewise, ensuring that widows and orphans receive justice and showing love to the foreigners who live among us. **I want to make a note that this has little to do with the current debate on immigration going on in the U.S.. The current immigration debate is about which foreigners should be allowed to live among us.**