Deuteronomy

7:34 am. Deuteronomy was interesting to read immediately after Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, because it is simply a repeat of the events and laws of those books. Moses summarizes a lot of things from before, and draws special attention to them.

As indicated in my notes about Joshua, I’m actually writing these reflections after I’ve written about Joshua, so my thoughts are not as fresh. It’s been a wacky few days. Nonetheless, there were a couple things that stand out in my mind.

The promise God made in Leviticus 26 is essentially repeated here: Deuteronomy 4:29-32 (CEV) – “In all of your troubles, you may finally decide that you want to worship only the Lord. And if you turn back to him and obey him completely, he will again be your God. The Lord your God will have mercy – he won’t destroy you or desert you. The Lord will remember his promise, and he will keep the agreement he made with your ancestors.”

I have to say, God, being all-knowing and not constrained by time, knew that his people would turn from him, and knowing that, made up his mind that if they turned back to him, he’d take them. Jesus shared the same sentiment in the story of the Prodigal Son. Turn our backs, sin, but come back and he will accept us with arms wide open.

Then, reading the laws, which indicate the kinds of sin Israel was capable of, and reading about the actual sins, makes me appreciate even more the depth of this promise. It’s not like we are fooling around and flirting with some sin – this stuff was blatant, and God was willing to take them back.

A couple other specific sentences stand out:

10:12-13 (CEV) – “People of Israel, what does the Lord your God want from you? The Lord wants you to follow him, to love and serve him with all your heart and soul, and to obey his laws and teachings that I am giving to you today. Do this, and all will go well for you.”

10:16 (CEV) – “Remember your agreement with the Lord and stop being so stubborn.”

That one’s a mouthful. Stubborn.

Perhaps the one section the stands out the most, though, is 15:4-11. It starts with “No one in Israel should ever be poor” and ends with “There will always be some Israelites who are poor and needy.” Later, in 27:14-26, Moses declares some curses, one of which was “We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who keeps the poor from getting justice, whether those poor are foreigners, widows, or orphans.” So, the poor are important.

This hit me for a couple reasons:

1. I know a bunch of Christians that say Christians shouldn’t be poor, which agrees with the first statement, but they say it in such a way that we’re sinning if we’re poor. Yet, later it says there will be poor, and that the ones who are well off should be happy to give to them, that it will make them successful.

2. My work is essentially with poor people. It encourages me to think that this might apply to me, that by being happy giving to the poor, the Lord might make me successful in everything I do.

Now, I’m not doing it to be successful. It’s not what I aspire to, it’s simply a matter or fact or progression. As well, I don’t define “successful” as money. I’m really not sure how I define “successful.” I’m sure God has a different definition than the rest of the world, but I know it’s good. If God says I’ll be successful, then whatever that looks like will be a good thing, and I like that.