Does anyone else feel a little like Moses may have had ADD? He jumps all over the place in these chapters and I find it a bit distracting...
He spends one verse telling the Israelites not to sacrifice any ox or sheep that has any defect or flaw. Then quickly moves into how to deal with a man who is doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, how to deal with cases that are too difficult to handle, then who they should select as king. Next onto what are acceptable offerings for Priests and Levites and then straight into telling them not to sacrifice their kids...WHAT??? THIS WAS A PROBLEM???...and then tells them how to recognize a true prophet...well you get the point...he's all over the map with his topics in this section.
Anyway...I just found that a little interesting as I was reading it...on to what I took away today...
There are so many different rules and instructions that the Israelites had to follow and I'm glad I live under the New Covenant and don't have to keep all that in mind. However, I like how Chapter 19:9 sums up what the Lord is asking of them.
"because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to walk always in obedience to him"
When Micah was little, he once expressed his frustration with all the "rules" he felt he had to remember and Cam told him that there really wasn't much he had to remember. That if we followed only two commands the rest would be covered...
Matthew 22:34-40
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your hear and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hand on these two commandments".
I remember Micah pondering this and it was like a weight was lifted. He didn't have to remember a whole pile of rules, he just had to remember two.
I hope that the Israelites felt some of this same kind of relief.
2 comments:
"You must purge the evil from among you. "
This phrase was mentioned a few times in today's reading. The same goes for us; we must purge all evil from within us. We need to decide every morning to life out our day so that it pleases God.
That verse about loving and obeying God jumped out at me too, and also reminded me of the command to love God and each other.
I also noted the warnings to kings - which they would fail to heed. Particularly the reminder to keep the Word of God close to them and familiar to them. It is so easy for the world to drown out the voice of truth - we need to be purposeful about not allowing that to happen.
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