May the mumbling commence!
Is it hard to be humble? It won’t be hard if we listen carefully what God is saying to us. God’s mercy is on display in Deuteronomy chapter nine. The first message from the Lord in chapter nine is don’t be afraid of the seemingly insurmountable odds of taking the Promised Land, because the Lord will go before you and destroy, subdue, drive out, and annihilate the strong and tall people in the midst of their fortified cities.
The second message from the Lord is: Don’t get a big head. Yes, the Lord chose Israel; and the Lord will drive out the inhabitants of the Promised Land. Though the Lord loves Israel and all His chosen people, he does not love them because they are worthy or righteous or full of integrity. It is a mercy. And the reason the peoples of the Promised Land were to be driven out was because of their wickedness. This message is repeated in verses four to six.
And, as if that wasn’t humbling enough, the Lord reminded Israel of their failures in the desert. In verses seven to twenty-one, there is a detailed accounting of the rebellion of Israel with the golden calf – an account that included the intercession that Moses provided for Israel and for his brother Aaron. In verses 23 and 24, the Lord also reminded them of their failure to follow the first time they were on the doorstep to the Promised Land. Then, from verse 25 of chapter nine to verse eleven of chapter ten, Moses interceding between Israel and the Lord is given even greater detail.
To punctuate this remembrance and humbling, the Lord speaks clearly what the Lord requires (And we might have thought that we would need to go to the prophet Micah in chapter six to figure that out!). Here are verses 12 and 13:
“And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, 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?
Revere the Lord. Be attentive and walk in His ways. Love Him, and serve Him with all your being. And the Lord’s commands and decrees give us the structure to do these very requirements. It sounds easy, but it is impossible to do without the Lord’s Holy Spirit indwelling in you.
This relationship with the Lord is grounded in the Lord’s relationship with us, which is described in verses 17 and 18 and in verses 21 and 22. He is God of gods and Lord of lords, mighty and awesome. He shows no partiality. He defends and protects the vulnerable and needy, providing for them. He alone is worthy of our praise for the great acts of salvation He performed for us from the Exodus from Egypt to the exodus from the due payment of our sins on the cross of Jesus.
And we are to go and do likewise. We are to love the alien in our land, because we are aliens in this land as well – looking forward to the fullness of the reign of God. Let us show God’s love to the vulnerable in our lives – the “illegal” immigrant, the orphaned, the single parents, and the working poor. These actions are the movements required to walk attentively with our God, love Him, and serve Him with all our being.
The same tools for remembering the Lord given after the SHEMA are given again in chapter eleven verses 18-21. They are important tools for us. Tell the story at every possible opportunity. Tell it to our children and grandchildren. Wear reminders on your person. Post reminders on your doorframes. Saturate your life with the love and commands of the Lord. They are the pathway to circumcising our hearts (as is called for in Deuteronomy 10:16).
And the call to be careful is repeated in chapter 11:16. With success comes great temptation to forget the Lord – to assign more reason for prosperity to our own efforts. We may become accustomed to our leisure and feel entitled to it. With God, there is no entitlement. We will reap what we sow – blessings when we obey and curses when we disobey.
I thank God for His patient, enduring love. I thank God for His mercy. Without it, we are all lost. Let’s seek to be what God has created us to be. Let’s seek to fulfill the Lord’s requirements, even as Jesus did. When we fall short, we have the sacrifice of Christ as a safety net. Let’s not be immobilized with fear; let’s charge forward with attentiveness toward God. Remember God is at work ahead of us, and God is our rearguard.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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