DEUTERONOMY 14
I love jewelry. I like things that glitter and sparkle. I love to walk into a jewelry store and look at the beautiful diamonds and rubies and emeralds which have been so carefully placed in their gold settings. Lights in jewelry stores are positioned just right to make those precious stones sparkle and shine. Oh yes, I love jewelry.
The much-invisible and
quickly-forgotten
Lord of heaven and earth
is often like a Mama
Bear who
saw her cubs being
mistreated and went
to war. The fierceness
of the pain
that pierced God's heart
when he saw his
precious
Leah discarded, unwanted,
was surpassed only by
his resolve to
not let abandonment be
her habitat, to prove
that there was Someone
who
loved her more than life itself.
DEUTERONOMY 13
I found a mantra in this chapter of Deuteronomy: "If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, 'Let us follow other gods' (gods you have not known) 'and let us worship them,' you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer." (vs 1-3)
DEUTERONOMY 12
Emmanuel. God with us. This is the name of the God we know, love, and serve. A God who is not distant, far-off, aloof. A God who pursues us relentlessly — as Michael Card once put it, the Hound of Heaven. He doesn’t stop to test the temperature of the water before He jumps right in. He is a hands-on kinda guy.
DEUTERONOMY 11
What a great verse from today’s chapter: "See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse — the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known." (vs 26-28)
DEUTERONOMY 10
As I read this chapter, I couldn’t help but think about God’s government versus man-made governments. Specifically, three things were mentioned that brought this comparison to mind: citizen burden, corruption and greed, and treatment of the weakest in society. First, citizen burden: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?" (vs 12-13)
DEUTERONOMY 9
As Moses continues to recount the failures of faith in the wilderness, he reminds the people where they’re going. "Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are strong and tall — Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: 'Who can stand up against the Anakites?'" (vs 1-2)
Photo © Unsplash/Yoann Boyer
God said
I am your God, and I am with you.
Jacob replied
If God will be with me, then he will be my God.
This, this!
is the human problem—
Always adding doubt to God's steadfast recipes.
Always placing conditions on God's unconditional offers.
Always suggesting a coalitional approach to God's unilateral operations.
DEUTERONOMY 8
I was intrigued by this verse today: "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands." (vs 2) As I read, I thought, didn’t God already know what was in the hearts of the Israelites? Of course He did. God knows us intimately and reads our hearts.
DEUTERONOMY 7
Wow, this is a pretty heavy chapter. God lays out for the Israelites the plan to take over Canaan. There is talk of both destruction and driving nations out ahead of the Israelites with "the hornet." (vs 20) God does say that, when the Israelites have defeated a nation, they are to destroy everything associated with that nation's gods. "This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire." (vs 5)
DEUTERONOMY 6
One of my favorite Bible texts is in this chapter, but it might not be the one you think. Yes, there is the famous "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." (vs 4) And there’s also the one Jesus quoted: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (vs 5) And both of those are nice, but neither is the one I’m thinking of.
DEUTERONOMY 5
Before the Israelites went in to take possession of the Promised Land, Moses was determined to reiterate the law the Lord had given them. In fact, the very name of this book means a "second" (deutero) giving of the "law" (nomy). Remember, this was 40 years after God had originally given the law to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, and those who were now in Moses’s audience were either babies at that time or not yet born.
DEUTERONOMY 4
I totally loved this part: "Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other." (vs 32-35)
Esau walked into
Jacob's restaurant
and ordered the special—
rustic lentil stew and bread.
The bill came before the meal:
Esau's birthright
guaranteed with an oath.
Esau was pleased, or so it seemed.
He slurped up every morsel without complaint—
no fly in the stew,
no hair on the plate,
no "this is too cold"
or "that needs more salt."
Some time later,
the hunger pangs he foolishly assuaged
became pangs of remorse he couldn't stomach.
He regretted the cost
of that hasty meal
and published a nasty (and untrue) review:
"The chef in that joint stole my dough with his bread!"
DEUTERONOMY 2
In this chapter of Deuteronomy, the Lord said to the Israelites, "This very day, I will begin to put the terror and fear of you on all the nations under heaven. They will hear reports of you and will tremble and be in anguish because of you." (vs 25) This immediately made me think of the Israelites themselves when they were camped around the base of Mount Sinai. There was thunder and lightning and smoke, and the Israelites were trembling and afraid.
DEUTERONOMY 1
Sometimes, with God, we are tempted to think it’s all about "arriving." You know, getting to the destination, reaching the goal. But, as I read this chapter, I saw something different. Check out this verse: "It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road." (vs 2) I love the fact that, in the Bible, this verse is actually in parentheses, more like an aside. It’s as if Moses was saying, "Uh, we’ve spent forty years in this desert. Just so you know, this journey should have taken eleven days."
NUMBERS 36
After God instituted the inheritance rules for women (in response to the request of Zelophehad’s daughters), the family heads of their tribe came to Moses with a concern over the "unintended consequences" of such a rule. They were concerned that if the women married men from another tribe, the land would become the property of their husbands, thereby passing the land from one tribe to another. Theoretically, over time, one or two tribes could potentially amass a good deal of land through marriage.
NUMBERS 35
There is a beautiful analogy about God in this chapter of Numbers. If a person had unintentionally killed another person, the cities of refuge provided a place for them to flee when they were being pursued by the "avenger." If the "avenger" found them outside the city, they could be killed, thus "avenging" the death. But if the person made it to the city of refuge, they could request a trial. If found innocent, they would be allowed to stay in the city. If they were found guilty, however, they would be turned away from the city.
The sins of the fathers
are visited upon the children
unto the third and fourth generations.
/raise a child
and learn firsthand
the awful truth/
The Sins of the Fathers
silently transmitted (like DNA)
proudly passed down (like family heirlooms)
meticulously cultivated (like cherished hobbies)
systematically served up (like three meals a day)
Words /like birds/ fly
up down and around
in out
alighting departing
flitting
fluttering
fleeting
Actions
settle in
take root
cement
That Isaac weaved
his father's tangled web
is no surprise.
The miracle would have been
a son of Abraham
who didn't practice the deceit
that had permeated the air
from the first moment
he drew breath.
