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DEUTERONOMY 9–11

Week 10, Day 2

A poet speaks of “the prophet’s righteous scorn.” This is the quality we feel in these chapters. One senses Moses’ wrath even over the stretch of the centuries and through the printed page. He remembers how he pleaded with God for this people, and he is determined that his efforts shall not have been in vain. He understands our human capacity for self-adulation. These people who “have been rebellious against the LORD from the day [they] came out of the land of Egypt” (9:7) are likely someday to think, “It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to occupy this land” (9:4). We human beings have an astonishing ability to rationalize our past wanderings once we are on track for a brief time.

When the spies researched the land a generation before, they warned that it was a land that would eat its inhabitants. A greater hazard now faces the people, that they will be devoured by unbelief, compromise, and idolatry. Moses gives instructions that are almost fierce in their intensity, to be sure they will keep their purity. It’s all up to them: a blessing and a curse have been set before them, depending on whether or not they obey the commandments of the Lord.

You and I live in a pagan world, too. But for us, the enemy is more subtle and not so obviously threatening. Like the Israelites, we’re constantly in danger of compromising our souls.

PRAYER: Make me sensitive, O Lord, to the subtle matters that would destroy me, and draw me close to your purposes; in Christ my Lord. Amen.

There is a remarkable coming-together of personal religion, grace, and social religion in Deuteronomy 10:12-22. List the elements of faith you find in these moving verses.