The Lord has set out to call a people to himself. From the beginning, God has been seeking relationship with a people that would want relationship with him. Ultimately this invitation comes to us, to embrace this relationship, this privilege of becoming the people of God.
Through Moses, the Lord gives instructions for how his people will be distinguished from the nations.
Read More relationship, prophet, fulfilmentLife is sacred. The Lord sets up an expectation that innocent blood should not be shed in the land that he was giving his people. Life is to be respected and provision made to protect the innocent. In this case that meant cities of refuge should be established where people could flee if they accidentally did something that caused the death of someone else. In this city they would find safety and refuge.
Read More justice, refuge, killing, murderThe Lord is the one and only God, and tolerates no rivals. He longs for his people to know life, and so he reveals the secret of life. If you want life, you will find it in God. If you choose to depart from God and your relationship to God, you will find yourselves and your land destroyed.
This passage re-affirms the covenant between God and his chosen people.
Read More love, jealousy, provision, warning, life, deathThis is the human story. God offers life and we choose death. But God still holds out life and invites us to embrace a relationship with him as our Creator.
The Lord, in these blessings and cursings, establishes the two ways life will play out: with obedience will come blessing and with disobedience will come consequences.
Read More restoration, grace, blessing, loveMoses wraps up his speech and his ministry with a passionate call to the people of God to choose life. The answer to life is not removed from us or hidden away. The Word has been given to us and we hold it. God has made clear “life and good, death and evil.” What remains is for us to choose between the options.
If we walk with the Lord we will be nourished and find life.
Read More life, death, choiceThis passage is filled with attention to transition. This is the moment where Moses passes the mantle of leadership to Joshua. This is the moment that Israel finally enters the promised land. This is the beginning of the work to clear the land, and they will need strength and courage for that task.
This is the beginning of a new kind of rest as they begin to enjoy the provisions of the promised land.
Read More responsibility, teaching, transition, childrenIt’s hard to imagine how it would feel to be told that your children will not follow the Lord. Moses has invested his whole life into the “saving” of God’s people. They have been rescued from Egypt, they have been taught in the wilderness, and now they are about to be given the Promised Land. But even still, they will not choose the Lord with their whole heart.
God sees this future and he instructs Moses to write a song.
Read More testimony, song, drifting, vigilanceOne last time, Moses urges the people to follow God, and then it is finished. After 40 years of pleading with and for these people, Moses is now finished. The conclusion is bittersweet.
Moses has seen God do remarkable things, he has walked with remarkable patience and humility, and yet he too fell short of the mark and lost his patience. Moses broke faith with God and God’s righteousness would need to prevail. With God, there are not favourites, not even Moses. We all must bear the consequence of sin.
Read More choice, consequences, scarsAfter 400 years of waiting, after 40 years of wandering, teaching, and preparing, the day has arrived. The promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is kept. The promise to Moses, that God would use him to lead the people out of Egypt to a promised land, is now kept.
God keeps his word. God’s promises come true. These verses tie up the story and declare again that God is great and good.
Read More promise, witnessJoshua has watched Moses lead for 40 years. He has been an eyewitness to how Moses would meet with God. He has been an eyewitness to how Moses would seek God and trust in God. He has seen how the Lord provides. Now it is his turn to lead the people.
These short instructions say so much.
Read More word, confidence, courage