Today’s Reading:
Deuteronomy 10:12-22
“And now, Israel, What does the Lord Your God require of you? He requires you to tear Him, to live according to His will, to love and worship Him with all your heart and soul and to obey the Lord’s Commands and Laws that I am giving you today for your own good” (vv. 12-13)
Requirements are a part of life – schools have requirements, jobs have requirements, being a citizen has requirements; we should not be surprised that God has requirements. God’s people are reminded that they are to be obedient people, revering God who is sovereign over heaven and earth and loving the One who first loved them. The basis of ethical responsibility for Jews and Christians is not dutiful obedience to laws, but an inward personal response to God’s love and kindness. Our response leads us to love and care for others as God does.
1. God’s requirements are for our own good (verses 12- 13). Sometimes when people think about the Ten Commandments or other requirements God establishes, they think, “God doesn’t want me to have any fun.” On the contrary, God wants us to have a wonderful life, so God tells us there are some things it is wise to do and other things it is best to avoid. Parents have rules for children for their own good. Requirements that healthy, moderately well-adjusted parents or grandparents have for children are for their own good. In the same way, the requirements that God has for us are for our benefit, they are for our own good and that begins with the fear of God, living according to God’s will and loving and worshipping the Lord.
2. Everything belongs to God – the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it (verse 14). The Canaanites had a nature cult; the people around them had a variety of practices. While some groups worship nature itself, we worship God the artistic creator who stands behind all nature and we believe that everything in it belongs to God. I think because when we drive a car that belongs to someone else and not to us, we are especially concerned and careful to take good care of it so that nothing goes wrong. Well in a similar way, the Bible teaches us that everything belongs to God and so we don’t truly own anything that we happen to have in our possession. We are managing it for God. The earth was here long before we were, and it will be hereafter we are gone. While we are here, we are to remember that we are to take good care of God’s earth and God’s possessions while we happen to be using them.
3. God chooses to love us before we choose to love the Lord (verse 15). One person defined love as, “An irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” It is a wonderful feeling to experience someone loving you passionately, strongly, and faithfully. That is why it is so devastating when someone we love dies. The people we love – our family, our wife or husband, our children, our friends – we love them because of who they are and what they mean to us. While we may pursue someone because we think she or he is attractive or desirable, the Bible makes the case that God chooses to love us even though we are not that attractive or desirable. In the New Testament, we read in Romans 5:8 that “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” Even though we are sinful and stubborn, God still pursues us in love.
4. God is great, mighty, awesome, and just (verse 17). “The Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and takes no bribes.” One of the interesting things about reading the Old Testament is the fact that there are a number of verses that imply that there are other lesser gods or false gods. Part of what sets apart the God of gods and Lord of Lords is that God is just. People in or with power are so often corrupt and willing to take money that influences their judgment or decisions. God exercised justice on behalf of oppressed slaves. Every member of the community high or low, rich or poor, slave or free is to be given equality before the law.
5. God cares for the helpless (verses 18-19) God is the champion of those who are legally weak or helpless: the orphan, the widow, the resident alien, and that means God’s people are to imitate this way of dealing with people.
6. God is worthy of praise, the worker of miracles, and the fulfiller of promises (verses 20-22). God always prove His power when we praise Him with all our hearts. Paul and Silas in Acts 16:25. The God we worship has our own good at heart and that is important to remember.
Brethren, let us live in obedience to God’s requirements that are given for our good; to remember that everything belongs to God and that God loves us before we ever love God. We are to live in a way that reflects our belief that God is just and cares for the helpless. And we hold onto hope that God is worthy of praise, the worker of miracles, and the fulfiller of promises.
OLAJIDE OGUNFUWA
Prayers:
Father, help me to understand and fulfil your requirement for my life by the leading of the Holy Spirit in Jesus name.
Father, you created the heavens, the earth and everything in it, help me to live in the consciousness that everything belong to God including my life in Jesus name.
Lord Jesus, you loved and died for me while I was still a sinner, give me the grace to love others the way you love me.
Father, Nigeria is in your hand deliver us from hands of the oppressors and exercise justice over them in Jesus name.
Father, open the eyes all Christian leaders to understand your will and plan for mankind in Jesus name Amen.
Commentaires