Deuteronomy 30-31

Day 69

Rain?!  Was that the sound of soft pitter-patter rain I heard this morning?!  Yes!!!!  As light as it may have been.....it was rain!!! It  counts!!!!  Thank you, Lord!! Send more!!!!

Chapter 30 Okay.....so this "turning  to the Lord" means that they better get ready to repent.  Actually, the writer is assuming that they are going to exile anyway....because they are "wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations."  So.....there is an assumption that they aren't going to obey and aren't going to be able to keep the laws and commandments.  So, when they end up in exile, they are to turn to the Lord!  They are given two choices:  life or death.  It is all laid out before them....all they have to do is choose.  Life here is not merely the extension of their days, it is also the love and obedience of following the Lord.  They are to love and to love abundantly.  They have been continually reminded to make good choices.....they must choose life so their children can life.  "Circumcising their hearts" means to set their very being and will toward the Lord!

Chapter 31   Well....ol' Moses is going down!  He's about to die........surely from old age....I mean....I think 120 is old enough to have lived! :)  Moses acknowledges that he is old and will soon die and he commissions Joshua to be his successor.   I am almost sad the poor Moses never saw the very promised land he had led these people to!  He had been the most faithful of them all! I think.....I think he even changed God's mind when God was ready to blot them away because of their disobedience....but Moses convinced God otherwise!!!!  Poor Moses....but he faithfully continues to tell them, several times, to be strong and courageous!  Be strong and courageous!

Moses writes down the law and has it placed in the custody of the Levi priests.  They are to get it out, dust it off, and read it every 7 years.  The Lord commissions Joshua to take over and God even predicts Israel's disobedience!  Then we have an introduction to the Song of Moses. Very few Israelites could read or write, so passing down the hope of deliverance had to be done in song!   It is a song that is about the sovereign greatness of Israel's God, the national disobedience of Israel, and their eventual vindication (rescue/deliverance) by God.  Joshua will lead.  The law will be preserved.  But life after Moses will never be the same again! If only Moses could have lived forever!  OOPS!! I got ahead of myself with the song!!! Its in tomorrow's reading! I got so excited and sad about Moses dying and carried away!!  Sorry!!

Go read chapter 32 & 33 for tomorrow!!   

Be strong and courageous!