Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 5-6

Key Verse: Deuteronomy 6:24

And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day.

Let us keep in mind the reason for God’s laws, “For our good always.” There are 15 repetitions of words that “command” us to obey. That’s not too popular in today’s, I-did-it-my-way culture. The challenge for Moses, and for us, is in the first verse of today’s reading, “Learn them and be careful to observe them.” As I’ve mentioned before, when God desires to emphasize something, He inspires the writer to repetition. For example, in Deuteronomy the word “hear” is repeated 30 times, the word, “learn” 7 times, the word “keep” 30 times, and here’s one I like, “do” 100 times. Chapters 5 & 6 summarize the Ten Commandments given in Exodus 20. Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus quoted Moses from Deut. 6:5 as His answer, and then added an additional quote from God’s laws of social order, “And the second is like it; you shall love your neighbor as yourself” from Leviticus 19:18. Again, the reason for God’s laws? “For our good always.”

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, I thank You that You have written Your laws on my heart, and not just on tablets of stone. I ask for insight into keeping Your commandments in the light of the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. In the Name of the one “Who kept all the law,” the Name of Jesus, Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

Frankly, I feel that I don’t deserve the joy that fills my heart. Every Christmas, I watch the movie “A Christmas Carol.” I identify with Scrooge who knows he is not deserving of such happiness. But Scrooge exclaims, “I can’t help it” as he dances for joy. I may do the same after I watch it. These daily readings were originally posted as a blog on the world-wide web. Modern technology—to think God built all this into the building blocks of the universe, and every day mankind discovers more of His physical laws. As are the moral and spiritual laws, God intends them all to be “For our good always!” God forgive us for twisting these natural laws for our own purposes that are not for “our good always.”