Deuteronomy 5-7

Day 61

Have you seen the forecast for this week?! Get out the sun hat and sunscreen!!!! And yard toys and GET OUTSIDE!!!!!!  I feel spring fever comin' on this week!  Temps in the 70's and even 80's!! WOW!!   And we already "spring forward" next Sunday!!!  Sheesh!  Winter just might be over. UH-OH.....that only means one thing to me...better get ready for tornado season now! 

Chapter 5  Okay...this may just look like another summary of the Ten Commandments but it is done together with an affirmation of the covenant.  God's laws are inseperable from His covenant!  There is no faith without the laws AND the covenant. And there is no freedom without the laws AND the covenant.  They are a free people because of God's laws and covenant but there is no freedom without the law! They must follow God's laws in order to be free people.....otherwise they would worship gods and idols and would not be God's people!!!  THIS IS THEIR FREEDOM!!!!  They are to teach these to their children's children and live long and prosper!  

Chapter 6  Love the Lord your God !  These words are the cornerstone of Deuteronomy and are a call to be diligent in obeying the Lord.  These words found here in verse 5 are the words of Jesus in Matthew 22: 37-38.  Moses tells the people very specific instructions:  to write this commandment )"love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength") on their hands and foreheads, to post it on their front door and all the interior doors, to talk about it at breakfast, to talk about it at work, at school, at Walmart, at United, at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day!! :)  This is soooo important for it is the primary requirement for really living!!  REALLY living....loving God...not getting sidetracked into loving something or someone!    There is a picture below of the "mezuzah" that Jewish people use to post this very commandment on their doorframe!    Obeying God takes great intentionality, care, and diligence!  Verse 2 says to "be careful that you don't forget the Lord!"  Be careful to obey the Lord! Be careful to remember Him in your busy day!  Be careful to  work on your relationship with Him!  Be careful, be careful, be careful!!!!  Their ancestors were careless with Him and spent 40 years in the wilderness.....they could have been there in 11 days had they obeyed!!!  A life of love of God is marked by obedience!  

 

Chapter 7   This is how to live in the promised land....they are looking ahead to a future life in the land they have been hoping and waiting and working for.  No matter what they have been through with the Lord....His love for them is unending.  Moses encourages these wanderers that there is One who longs for them and loves them.  His commands are not out of meanness (for them or us!) but it is out of love....to protect them and their relationship with the Lord!  This story is a foreshadowing of how God chose us, sent His Son to die for us, lives to love and sustain us and is preparing a place just for us....our own promised land!  Amen?!  Amen!!!!!!

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and strength today! Be careful!

Tomorrow:  chapter 8-10