September 5, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let\u2019s seek this ancient way together as a church!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This chapter once again addresses a wide range of topics including justice, violence, and familial obligations. The customs concerning a man marrying his deceased brother\u2019s wife may seem strange to us, but they were woven into the fabric of Israel\u2019s society in order to ensure that the family name would continue. It was considered shameful for a man to refuse to do this for his deceased brother (as is evident from the public shaming he would receive if he refused!) because it was his duty towards his brother!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As believers who are each members of the body of Christ and of one another, we too have obligations and duties towards each other! Just as these laws helped Israelite society to survive and to function, the duties and obligations we have towards each other in the church help the church as a whole to thrive, to glorify God and succeed in its mission!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We exist in a society that generally has a very negative, even hostile, view towards obligation. We don\u2019t want to be obligated to anybody in anything, and we think that we don\u2019t owe anything to anyone! In contrast to this, the biblical picture we see of the church is one where individual members commit themselves to one another and then perform their duties and obligations towards one another with joy and sacrificial love!<\/p>\n\n\n\n