Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 32-34.

As Moses prepared to turn over leadership of the Israelites to Joshua he gave to them a song for their descendants to remember his warnings to them, a song which would remind them of why they suffered after turning away from God.  The song speaks of those who have turned away from God and refused to follow His instructions.  The song describes those who turned from God despite the many ways in which He had blessed them.  They made God jealous by giving their worship to that which was not even a god (note the lower case), let alone the Creator who had made them and been their Father.  So, He would make them jealous by turning His favor to those who had not been a people.  God made those who put their trust in Jesus His people in order to make the descendants of Jacob jealous so that they would turn back to Him.  God has made Himself our Rock that we can rely upon in the storm-tossed sea of life.  If we turn from Him, He will cast us away as He cast away the descendants of Jacob when they turned from Him, but if we turn back to Him, He will welcome us into His arms, just as He longs to welcome all of the descendants of Jacob.

I will make them envious by those who are not a people;
    I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 29-31.

Having told the Israelites the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience, Moses warns them that there will be people who will turn aside from following God; people who think that they can disobey God and remain safe.  There will be, there are, people who, despite knowing God and His laws, believe that they can be safe even if they do not follow His laws.  God will single them out from those who obey Him and they will bring suffering on only themselves.  However, if their numbers increase the whole land will suffer, and it will be those who are obedient who are singled out.  In this latter case, they will be singled out for blessing.  When those who disobey God become numerous and the land becomes barren, if they turn back to God, He will welcome them back and restore the land.

Moses finishes up this portion about blessings and curses by telling the Israelites, and us, that God’s commands are not too difficult for us, nor are they beyond our grasp.  We do not need to ascend into heaven to learn what God commands, nor do we need to cross over the seas, or mountains, to retrieve them.  God has put them in our hearts and in our mouths.  If we wish to follow God’s commands, we need not fear that we do not know what to do, God will make them known to us.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 27-28.

Moses told the Israelites that if they obeyed God they would be blessed, if they did not obey God they would be cursed.  The blessings, or curse, would come upon them in the city and in the country.  They would happen when they came in and when they went out.  If we obey God and act as He desires, the land we live in will be verdant and bountiful.  On the other hand if we disobey Him and act counter to His desires, the land we live in will suffer drought and blight.  Obeying God leads to good health and to prosperity, disobeying God leads to poverty and disease.  The ideas of these blessings and curses as laid out here apply to groups of people, not so much to individuals.  Although the principle applies to individuals as well.  Individuals who seek to follow God’s will, will be blessed.  Those who refuse to do God’s will, will be cursed.  While this sounds like God judging people, which He does, it is actually about natural consequences.  Actions have consequences.  The actions which God commands have positive outcomes, actions which violate God’s commands have negative outcomes. God gives us the commands which He gives us because doing the good things He commands have positive consequence while doing the things He commands us not to do have negative consequences.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 24-26.

This passage contains a number of commands about not taking advantage of the poor or of those who are social outcasts.  Other commands require leaving opportunities for them to care for their needs by putting out effort.  The commands included some which prohibited following up your initial harvest pas to make sure you got every grain, or every fruit when you harvested your crops.  God commanded that we leave hard to gather portions of our “crops” for those struggling to provide for themselves to gather.  Another command forbade taking a person’s means of livelihood as security for a loan.  We should remember that if not for the grace of God we might find ourselves among the unfortunate and leave them opportunities to care for themselves.  Further, God commanded that they set aside a tenth of our productivity to celebrate our worship of God.  Most of that should be used for our own celebration, but a third should be set aside to be shared among those who minister to our spiritual needs and those who do not have enough to fund celebrations of their own.  We should leave openings and opportunities for the less fortunate to provide for their needs, but we should also help them directly.  God has made us His people, so let us obey His commands and care for those around us as He has cared for us.  I want to point out that all of these commands are directed to the people of Israel, not to its government.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 21-23.

There is a saying which I heard from others when I grew up, “Finders keepers, losers weepers,” which many took as the rule to follow regarding things which were lost and later found by someone else.  For those who never heard it, its meaning was that if you found something which someone had lost, you could keep it, even if you knew who had lost it.  A more generous understanding was that if you found something and had no idea who had lost it, you could keep it.  Today’s passage disagrees with both of those understandings.  It says, if you find something that you know someone lost and you know who it belongs to, return it to them.  If you do not know who lost it, or the person lives far away, take it home and take care of it until they come looking for it, then give it back to them.  This rule applies to stray animals, cloaks, or any other item of value.   The following rule is related.  It tells us that if we see that someone’s beast of burden fallen, we should help them get it to its feet.  Here is the thing both of these have in common: if we see our neighbor struggling (and Jesus makes it clear that everyone we may interact with is our neighbor), we should not ignore their struggle.  We should do what we can to help.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 18-20.

I know I wrote abut this last year when I covered this passage, but it still seems like the most important point to be made.  Moses tells the Israelites that they must not imitate the detestable practices of the people who lived in the land that God was giving them.  He tells them that they must not sacrifice their children, they must not practice divination, or sorcery, they must not consult the dead.  I find it telling that killing your children as a sacrifice to your god is lumped in with divination and practicing witchcraft as equally detestable things.  God was driving the people out of the land in order to give it to the Israelites because they did these detestable practices.  All of these things are detestable to God.  He will drive from His presence anyone who practices them, just as He drove these people out of the land which He gave to the Israelites.  Moses goes on to tell the Israelites that God would raise up prophets to give them guidance, so that they need not turn to divination to know what to do.  We should pay careful attention to what those prophets say, but those who claim to speak in God’s name when He has not spoken to them are just as detestable as those who practice the previously mentioned acts.  If someone claims to be a prophet of God, and what they say does not come true, they have spoken presumptuously.  We can safely disregard what they say.

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