365 Reflections

Deuteronomy 13:6–9 (ESV) “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, 8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. 9 But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. This passage sounds a lot like the words of Jesus who said: Luke 14:26–27 (ESV) “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple....

Deuteronomy 12:8–12 (ESV)   “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord . 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Deuteronomy 12 starts what some c...

Only people who can rightly interpret their past can sustain themselves long-term in their future. For several chapters in Deuteronomy Moses has been unpacking the long tortured history of Israel. He has reminded them of their stubbornness, God's mercy in spite of it and how to this day they have struggled to fully trust and fully obey God. We come to chapter 11 of Deuteronomy and it opens with a BIG "therefore." Deuteronomy 11:1–7 (ESV) “You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. 2 And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 3 his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, 4 and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow ove...

Deuteronomy 10:14–17 (ESV)   Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. This is perhaps one of the most compelling appeals from Moses to Israel in all the Pentateuch. You hear his emotional call to this people known for mindlessly walking in disobedience over the course of 40 years since God saved them. And in this appeal, Moses goes all in on them realizing who God actually is, who they are because of Him and what their response should be.  First they are to understand that the Lord is God and owner of all things. He does not need Israel. He does not c...

Deuteronomy 9:4–5 (ESV)   “Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Israel is a blessing to our lives in many ways we do not understand. One of the ways is how Israel serves as a real life parable for the nations that God, not us, is the faithful One who keeps His PROMISES. Thankfully, He does not depend upon our actions to do what He said He would do.  Israel would be taught by Moses that God is acting in response to the ...

Deuteronomy 8:2–5 (ESV) And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord . 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. The root of discipleship is discipline. A disciple is one who is disciplined by certain events SO THAT they might do more important certain events. A soldier disciplines his body to run, crawl, hike, aim, shoot and press on in challenging circumstances. A musician practices rudimentary disciplines by re...

Deuteronomy 7 works as a whole. It begins with God's instructions for His people to totally destroy the nations they are entering. It ends with a reminder not to desire or keep any of these nations' objects of value. In the middle of the chapter, God tells them why. In the second verse: Deuteronomy 7:2 (ESV)   and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. And the end: Deuteronomy 7:25–26 (ESV) The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction. Why are they to totally destroy these ...