Deuteronomy 27 – 29
Sometimes you just want to get it done and can’t, as in the case with today’s reading. Originally I discovered a problem with the study where it left out the final few chapters of Deuteronomy. Well the plan was finish them off in one reading, which could have worked until I realized the chapters were each very long and I missed a 3 additional chapters in the book. Also, didn’t help that drama was infused before bed time which distracted me from the reading.
Verse 27:8 has the Law written plain and simple on stone:
And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”
Notice how the Lords instructions were to write them “very plainly” unlike the law today that was written in “legalese.” God’s plan is very simple and mankind tends to add the complexity. Even in the first writings of Moses, God wanted everything “very plainly”. The “legalists” of the religion made the Law so complex and impossible to understand much less follow. The Law was there not to give us guidelines, but rather to show us that no one can follow God’s standards and how we need Jesus.
Verse 28:12 is part of an “if then … else statement”:
The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
If Israel is good and follows God, then the blessings are described in verses 1 through 14 in this chapter. This one is typical of a blessing and a rule at the same time. Notice how God wants to bless others and not hoard the “blessings”. This is the same as today, notice the Law no longer applies in our lives, but Jesus made love the rule. So where God said be generous, Jesus says love and give generously out of that love.
Verse 28:42 is the other part of that programming statement:
The cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.
If your good, then the first 14 verse, else you get the curses through verse 68. It’s painfully obvious you do things right and things are ok, but you mess up and thing will go really bad. God has the ability to do most of this and interestingly he rarely will take it this far. But honestly, why test Him? The key is not to please God for stuff, but rather to please Him like you would your earthly father.
The thing we need to take from the Law is there is no way we can do it, but at the same time we should want to do it and more out of love for our heavenly father. It’s not legalism, but loveeism. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us on things, listen closely and learn.