For a full description of the (Y3) reading plan, see the “About” page.
- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Deut. 4
The Jewish religious leaders over the years must have missed Deuteronomy 4:2. “You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, so that you may keep the commands of the LROD your God I am giving you.” I believe by Jesus’ time they had added some 600 plus rules to God’s law. Jesus mentioned more than once that their man-made rules actually impeded people from keeping God’s commands. At the heart of that is our tendency to go our own way.
It’s the same situation when God told His people not to ascribe a form or image to Him. God is so much more than anything we see or know. To ascribe a form or image to Him is to limit Him to an immeasurably small fraction of all that He is. This is the most obvious form of putting God into a box of our own understanding. As with adding to His commands, this actually impedes our ability to worship and honor Him as God.
Because of the Bible we know our tendency is to try to bring God down to our level or to elevate ourselves up to His level. Neither is possible, of course, but still we try. That’s why we must do as Moses implored of the Israelites. “Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves” (Deut. 4:9a). We don’t want to forget that God alone is God; there is no one like Him. And we don’t want to fall into our tendency to go our own way. We want to keep God God so that we may live.
Deut. 5
God repeatedly told His people to remember because He knows how quickly we humans forget. I had to laugh when the people told Moses that they would die if they heard God’ voice any longer. “For who out of all humanity has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the fire, as we have, and lived?” (Deut. 5:26). Their next words to Moses were, “Go near and listen to everything the LORD our God says.” (Deut. 5:27a). Right…send Moses in to die. Only he didn’t. They would have done well to remember that when they later challenged Moses’ authority.
Deut. 6
“These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.” (Deut. 6:6). How grateful I am that God made a way to permanently put His living Word in our hearts. His law is no longer an external thing that we strive in our own power to obey. It is now an internal thing that changes us by the power of His Holy Spirit. So now we can do as Jesus taught, obeying more than the letter of the law and developing the character of God within us so that we can bear His fruit.