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

I recently learned a Bible study method which is good for those who are new to reading the Bible, and can be useful to those who have long studied it.  The method consists on asking three questions when looking at a passage: What does this passage tell us about the nature of God?  What does this passage tell us about the nature of mankind? And, how can we apply this passage to our lives today?  I have not used this method for writing my blog up until now, but today it felt like the right approach.

So, what does this passage tell us about God?  God is upright, faithful, and just.  He brings blessings upon those whom He has chosen, but vengeance on those who oppose Him.  He disciplines those He loves and forgives them when they turn back to Him after sinning against Him.  And what does it tell us about mankind?  We forget God when life is good and turn against Him.  We turn to other things in place of God, things which only have power which we give them.  So, how do we apply this to our lives?  Let us recognize our temptation to believe that we do not need God and turn to Him, both when times are good and when they are bad.  Recognize that God cares for us, and will discipline us when we do wrong.  He will strive to teach is to do what is right, His will.  Let us praise Him and recognize that there is no God, but He.

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.

Moses tells us that God’s commands are not too difficult for us, nor are they difficult for us to understand, or even difficult to learn.  God has put His word in our mouths and in our hearts, even in the mouths and hearts of those who reject Him.  You may have heard the statement that there are many paths to God.  Implicit in that statement is the idea that finding God requires a difficult journey.  That is only true if we make it difficult.  This passage, and others, remind us that God has revealed Himself through nature.  We know the nature of God and have a choice.  We can choose life, or we can choose death.  We can choose blessings, or we can choose curses.  We can choose to obey God, or we can choose to rebel against Him.  If we choose to listen to the words God has placed in our hearts, He will reveal Himself to us.  If we accept His gift, He will empower us to obey His commands and we will receive life and blessings.  If we reject Him, we will receive death and curses.  If we examine our hearts, we know this to be true.

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 when they crossed over the Jordan they should build an altar on Mount Ebal and write God’s commands on the altar.  Then, half of the tribes should stand on Mount Gerizim to pronounce blessings on the people, and the other half should stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce the curses that would occur if the Israelites failed to keep God’s laws.  What struck me first was that the tribes were listed according to the sons of Jacob.  Manasseh and Ephraim were not mentioned as tribes.  They were lumped together under their father Joseph.

Once the tribes were in position, the Levites were to call out a list of commands which would bring curses on people and the people would affirm theses commands as binding.  Then Moses lists the blessings which will come from obeying God’s commands, followed by the reciprocal curses for disobedience.  The blessings, or the curses, would come whether they were in the city or in the country, when they came home and when they travelled.   If they obeyed God’s commands. their families and livestock would reproduce healthily.  If they disobeyed, their families and their livestock would be sickly and diminish.  If they obeyed, all of their economic activity would prosper.  If they disobeyed everything to which they turned their hand would fail.  If they obeyed God’s commands, their enemies would scatter before them.  If they disobeyed, they would scatter before their enemies.   Now, as I read these blessings and curses, Moses goes into more detail on the curses.  The curses include disease and plague, inflammation and fever, drought and heat, sores, madness, and confusion.  As I read this, the curses seem to me to be those which fall on a society which honors self-indulgence, greed, envy, and sexual immorality.  On the other hand, the blessings look like those experienced by a society which practices honor, self-discipline, and generosity.  Look around, where you see the first of those, you see the curses described here, where you see the latter, you see the blessings.

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.

Today’s passage contains various miscellaneous commands, but many of them touch on ethical business practices (or, perhaps, on forbidding unethical business practices). Let’s take a look at some of those rules:

• Don’t take the tools someone uses to make a living as security on a loan
• Don’t use a loan as an excuse to invade someone’s privacy
• Do not take advantage of hired workers by withholding their wages for a few days
• Don’t use different measures for different people
• When harvesting your crops, don’t go back over your fields to make sure that you didn’t miss a few sheafs of grain, a few grapes, or a few olives.

I see many businesses coming up with excuses as to why violating these are good business.  In a way, the justification for all of these amounts to violating that last one.  I interpret that last one this way: when you are a dominant player in “the market” leave room for others to make money in the margins.  Don’t manage your business so as to make sure that you don’t “leave money on the table”.   It may be “good business” to act in this manner, but it is bad for society, and it is bad for your soul.  The philosophy of “never leaving money on the table” makes people dependent on the biggest players to ever greater degrees and prevents them from independent.  The philosophy of “don’t leave any money on the table” means that you figure out how much someone can pay for something they must have, and making sure that you charge every penny of that.

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.

Verses 21 through 23 are the reason the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to have the bodies of Jesus and those crucified with him taken down before the end of the day. After the Resurrection, when the apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin Peter also alludes these two verses (or, at least, he seems to do so).  In fact, that reference suggests an explanation as to why the Sanhedrin wanted to have Jesus crucified rather than stoning Him.  In the Acts passage, Peter contrasts the Jewish leaders killing Jesus by hanging Him on a cross (in other words having His body exposed on a pole) with God exalting Him by raising Him from the dead.  The Jewish leaders hoped the ignominy of Jesus being hung on a cross would destroy His followers’ faith in Him because this passage tells us that anyone hung on a pole is under God’s curse.  So, in a way, the Jewish leaders sought to put Jesus under God’s curse by hanging Him on a pole, but God turned it into raising Him up like the bronze snake which Moses placed upon a pole.  So that, by looking upon Him, those who were under the curse of sin might be healed, just as those suffering from the bite of venomous snakes in the wilderness were healed by looking at the bronze snake.

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.

Moses tells the Israelites that they must not imitate the detestable practices of the nations who in habit the land they are about to enter.  Then he lists some of the practices which they are not to imitate.  These practices are divination, sorcery, witchcraft, interpreting omens, consulting the dead, and sacrificing your children.  Moses told the Israelites that those practices were why God was going to drive those people out of the land before the Israelites.  I find the fact that this passage considers sacrificing children to be on par with divination and sorcery strange.  When I was young I was taught that divination, sorcery, interpreting omens, etc. were foolish and silly, but that sacrificing children was an horrific evil.  Perhaps the failure of the generation before me to recognize the evil of practicing divination led to so many in my generation, and younger, to no longer recognize the evil of sacrificing children.  Certainly, as sacrificing children has become more acceptable, so too has seeking to divine the future by various means and to cast spells has also become more acceptable.

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

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

I do not have any profound thoughts about today’s passage, but there are a couple of things which inspire thoughts about how we interpret Scripture.  The first of these has to do with the way in which Orthodox Jews interpret kosher food laws.  In particular this phrase from verse 21 of chapter 14: “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”  The traditional Jewish interpretation of this command leads them to not cook any meat with any dairy products.  But this passage does not say anything about sheep or cattle, just goats, as do all of the other places where the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) repeats this command.  Looking at this causes me to observe how often we read more into a passage then is actually there.

Following that is an injunction to set aside a tenth of what the fields produce, the tithe.  Moses instructed the Israelites to set aside a tenth of what their fields produced and take it to a central location where they would all worship God together.  When they got there they were to eat the tithe.  So, the purpose of the tithe was to supply a feast which would be consumed along with all of the Israelites as they worshiped and thanked God.  This passage also discusses three feasts for which all of the Israelites were to gather in order to worship God together.  All together, the instruction to tithe and the three feasts, indicate that God’s people should gather regularly in order to live in unity and peace with one another.  In the same way today it is important for God’s people to gather to worship God and fellowship with one another so as to remain united under God.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 11-13.

Today’s passage reminds us that those who are children have not seen the wonders which we have seen God perform.  But not just those who are children, many of those younger than ourselves may not have seen wonders which we have seen God perform.  We need to teach those too young to have seen what God has done in the past.  When we listen to them we need to keep in mind what examples of God’s power they have seen, and what examples of it happened before their time.  The passage goes on to remind us that if we faithfully obey God, He will provide for us.  Our memories of how we have seen God work in the past will help us have faith that He will act in the future.  More than that, when we read this passage we need to consider whether we are in the place of the children who did not see God’s wondrous power.  If that is the case, then we need to keep in mind the stories which the generations which went before us shared with us.  Let us study the ways in which God has acted in the past so as to remain faithful, trusting that He will act similarly in the future.

I use 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 tells the Israelites that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word which comes from the mouth of God.  When Moses says this he is not just referring to food.  He means that material things do not bring us full satisfaction, that if we wish to live fulfilled lives we need to listen to the word of God.  Then he warns us against allowing ourselves to forget God when He gives us good things and our lives are going well.  Moses goes on talking about the importance of listening to God’s commands until he asks the question, “What does the Lord your God ask of you?”  Then Moses answers that question.  God asks us to fear Him (because His power and glory is so great that if we truly know Him we cannot help but fear Him).  God asks us to love Him (and we cannot love Him if we do not know Him).  God asks us to serve Him our of that love.  And finally God asks us to obey the commands and decrees which He has given us because they are for our own good.  The heavens and all the earth belong to God, yet from all of that He has chosen us.  Is it too much of Him to ask us to love and obey Him in return?  Especially when the things He commands us are for our own good?

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