The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. from The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States “Prayer Tip" for Sunday, 25 September 2016Prayer Tip:
Daily Scripture:
Deuteronomy 6:(A:vi, S: v) 4 “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra’el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; 5 and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. 6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; 7 and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
20 “Some day your child will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of the instructions, laws and rulings which Adonai our God has laid down for you?’ 21 Then you will tell your child, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Adonai brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand.
8:12 Otherwise, after you have eaten and are satisfied, built fine houses and lived in them, 13 and increased your herds, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own, 14 you will become proud-hearted. Forgetting Adonai your God — who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves;
17 you will think to yourself, ‘My own power and the strength of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 No, you are to remember Adonai your God, because it is he who is giving you the power to get wealth, in order to confirm his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as is happening even today.
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Prayer Tip:
What if I told you that you could have the cell phone number of the President of the United States? Or, that you could see the Queen of England any time you wanted to. Wouldn’t you feel honored to have direct access to such an important person? Wouldn’t you feel safe knowing that you had the ear of someone so powerful? The truth is we have direct access to someone more powerful than anyone on this Earth.
Sometimes it is easy to take the gift of prayer for granted. God welcomes us to come to him anytime with our concerns and problems. He doesn’t have office hours and days off. You don’t have to download an app for access. You simply need to bow your head and you are able to speak to the creator of the universe. What a blessing it is to know we can call on his name!
Heavenly father, you are a good and loving father. Thank you for the gift of prayer and the gift of your presence. Please help us to remember to turn to you first so you can hear our prayers and guide our hearts and minds. In Jesus’ name, Amen.[Ashly Cooley, Counseling & Support Ministries]
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Sunday, September 25, 2016 – “Don’t Forget… Pass It On”
Scripture:
Deuteronomy 6:(A:vi, S: v) 4 “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra’el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; 5 and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. 6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; 7 and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
20 “Some day your child will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of the instructions, laws and rulings which Adonai our God has laid down for you?’ 21 Then you will tell your child, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Adonai brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand.
8:12 Otherwise, after you have eaten and are satisfied, built fine houses and lived in them, 13 and increased your herds, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own, 14 you will become proud-hearted. Forgetting Adonai your God — who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves;
17 you will think to yourself, ‘My own power and the strength of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 No, you are to remember Adonai your God, because it is he who is giving you the power to get wealth, in order to confirm his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as is happening even today.
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"Repeating the commandments, renewing the covenant"
Monday, 26 September 2016
Deuteronomy 1:1 These are the words Moshe spoke to all Isra’el on the far side of the Yarden River, in the desert, in the ‘Aravah, across from Suf, between Pa’ran and Tofel, Lavan, Hatzerot and Di-Zahav.
5 There, beyond the Yarden, in the land of Mo’av, Moshe took it upon himself to expound this Torah and said:
5:1 (A: iv, S: iii) Then Moshe called to all Isra’el and said to them, “Listen, Isra’el, to the laws and rulings which I am announcing in your hearing today, so that you will learn them and take care to obey them. 2 Adonai our God made a covenant with us at Horev. 3 Adonai did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us — with us, who are all of us here alive today. 4 Adonai spoke with you face to face from the fire on the mountain. 5 At that time I stood between Adonai and you in order to tell you what Adonai was saying; because, on account of the fire, you were afraid and wouldn’t go up onto the mountain. He said,
א 6 “‘I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves.
ב 7 “‘You are to have no other gods before me. 8 You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline — 9 you are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents, also the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot.
ג 11 “‘You are not to misuse the name of Adonai your God, because Adonai will not leave unpunished someone who misuses his name.
ד 12 “‘Observe the day of Shabbat, to set it apart as holy, as Adonai your God ordered you to do. 13 You have six days to labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your God. On it you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your ox, your donkey or any of your other livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property — so that your male and female servants can rest just as you do. 15 You are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore Adonai your God has ordered you to keep the day of Shabbat.
ה 16 “‘Honor your father and mother, as Adonai your God ordered you to do, so that you will live long and have things go well with you in the land Adonai your God is giving you.
ו 17 “‘Do not murder.
ז (18) “‘Do not commit adultery.
ח (19) “‘Do not steal.
ט (20) “‘Do not give false evidence against your neighbor.
י 18 (21) “‘Do not covet your neighbor’s wife; do not covet your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female slave, his ox, his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’
(A: v, S: iv) 19 (22) “These words Adonai spoke to your entire gathering at the mountain from fire, cloud and thick mist, in a loud voice; then it ceased. But he wrote them on two stone tablets, which he gave to me. 20 (23) When you heard the voice coming out of the darkness, as the mountain blazed with fire, you came to me, all the heads of your tribes and your leaders, 21 (24) and said, ‘Here, Adonai our God has shown us his glory and his greatness! We have heard his voice coming from the fire, and we have seen today that God does speak with human beings, and they stay alive. 22 (25) But why should we keep risking death? This great fire will consume us! If we hear the voice of Adonai our God any more, we will die!
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“Deuteronomy” comes from Greek words that meant “second law,” first used to identify the book in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Many mainline and Hebrew scholars
believe the book may have been put in the form in which we now have it around the time of Judah’s righteous King Josiah (cf. 2 Kings 22:8-13). It preserved the essence of Moses’ final words to Israel. Early on, it stressed God’s covenant love for Israel, and recited (with some slightly modified words) the Ten Commandments.
• Deuteronomy was set at the end of Israel’s wilderness wandering. They prepared to enter the Promised Land now that the fearful generation we learned about last week died
(cf. Numbers 14:21-23). What made it important for Moses to emphasize that “the LORD didn’t make this covenant with our ancestors but with us—all of us who are here and alive right now”? We humans are time-bounded, but God is eternal. What helps you trust that as a believer today you are also included in God’s unending covenant love?
• If God wrote the Ten Commandments on stone tablets, how could the wording in Deuteronomy 5 differ, even slightly, from that in Exodus 20? Remember, Israel stored the stone tablets in the Most Holy Place of the Temple, where only the high priest could go, and only on the yearly Day of Atonement. The writer, in one or both books, couldn’t just call up the exact wording on his smart phone! Did the eternal value of the Commandments rest in the exact words, or in the timeless life principles they expressed?
Prayer: Holy God, thank you for being a God of your word, whose love and commitment to us
don’t change even when we struggle. Inscribe the principles of your law on my heart. Amen.
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"Teach your children"
Tuesday, 27 September 2016
Deuteronomy 6:5 and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. 6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; 7 and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, 9 and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates.
20 “Some day your child will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of the instructions, laws and rulings which Adonai our God has laid down for you?’ 21 Then you will tell your child, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Adonai brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. 22 Adonai worked great and terrible signs and wonders against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household, before our very eyes. 23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us to the land he had sworn to our ancestors that he would give us. 24 Adonai ordered us to observe all these laws, to fear Adonai our God, always for our own good, so that he might keep us alive, as we are today. 25 It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to obey all these mitzvot before Adonai our God, just as he ordered us to do.’”
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It appears that the Israelites alive at the time of Moses’ message had learned from the mistake their parents made. They were not afraid to follow God’s leading into the Promised Land. But it was not enough for God’s mission in the world that just they be faithful. It was vital that they not let their faith die with them, but that they teach it to their children and future generations.
• Who (if anyone) were the people in your childhood and youth who taught you about God’s covenant, about the principles by which God calls you to live? Did they do it in effective ways that won your respect and affection, or did you reach a point at which you rebelled against the way of life they tried to teach you? What good things do you carry with you from that background?
• In what ways today are you actively seeking to transmit your faith to people who are
younger than you are? If you have children or grandchildren, how have you learned to
make the faith appealing to them, and not just a tiresome set of rules that make no sense to them? If you do not have children of your own, how can you be an effective communicator and example of faith to younger people?
Prayer: Living LORD, make of my life a beacon of faith and hope, an example and inspiration to younger people to follow you. Remind me every day that you call me to be one of your human partners and instruments in your saving mission in this world. Amen.
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"Warning against self-sufficiency"
Wednesday, 28 September 2016
Deuteronomy 7:7 Adonai didn’t set his heart on you or choose you because you numbered more than any other people — on the contrary, you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 Rather, it was because Adonai loved you, and because he wanted to keep the oath which he had sworn to your ancestors, that Adonai brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from a life of slavery under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Maftir) 9 From this you can know that Adonai your God is indeed God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe his mitzvot, to a thousand generations.
(ii) 11 “Be careful not to forget Adonai your God by not obeying his mitzvot, rulings and regulations that I am giving you today. 12 Otherwise, after you have eaten and are satisfied, built fine houses and lived in them, 13 and increased your herds, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own, 14 you will become proud-hearted. Forgetting Adonai your God — who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves; 15 who led you through the vast and fearsome desert, with its poisonous snakes, scorpions and waterless, thirsty ground; who brought water out of flint rock for you; 16 who fed you in the desert with man, unknown to your ancestors; all the while humbling and testing you in order to do you good in the end — 17 you will think to yourself, ‘My own power and the strength of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 No, you are to remember Adonai your God, because it is he who is giving you the power to get wealth, in order to confirm his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as is happening even today.
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Sometimes when a nation or a company faces a big challenge, their leaders seek to energize
them by telling them what special, exceptional people they are. But Moses had led this group for 40 years—he couldn’t honestly give them a pep talk about how awesome they were. Instead, he reminded them that it was important for them to live out God’s values. Only when they did that could they depend on God’s blessings.
• The next time you hear an ad telling you that you “deserve” some luxury as a reward for all your hard work and success, keep Deuteronomy 8:17 in mind: “Don’t think to yourself, My own strength and abilities have produced all this prosperity for me.” Do you agree with the outlook that says it is God “who gives you the strength to be prosperous”? How can you believe that without devaluing your own effort and dedication?
• Events like the recent Olympics put our focus on national identities. It’s logical to cheer when “our” athletes win. It’s fun and harmless—unless we forget what Moses said to Israel: “It was not because you were greater than all other people that the LORD loved you and chose you.” Under our surface differences, we are, in Archibald Macleish’s phrase, “riders on the earth together.” How central has feeling greater than other people been to your identity? How can you rejoice in being a child of God, like all other human beings?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you said “people who are humble” will inherit the earth. So much in this world pushes back against that. Help me to understand true humility, not as feeling worthless, but as rooting my worth in you, not in myself. Amen.
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"The crucial decision: 'Choose life'”
Thursday, 29 September 2016
Deuteronomy 30:(RY: iv, LY: vii) 15 “Look! I am presenting you today with, on the one hand, life and good; and on the other, death and evil — 16 in that I am ordering you today to love Adonai your God, to follow his ways, and to obey his mitzvot, regulations and rulings ; for if you do, you will live and increase your numbers; and Adonai your God will bless you in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you are drawn away to prostrate yourselves before other gods and serve them; (LY: Maftir) 18 I am announcing to you today that you will certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Yarden to enter and possess.
19 “I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, 20 loving Adonai your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him — for that is the purpose of your life! On this depends the length of time you will live in the land Adonai swore he would give to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov.”
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There was profound urgency in the simple, stark way Moses set the ultimate spiritual choice before the Israelites: life or death? And how much resonance it would have had if it was the scroll found in King Josiah’s time (cf. 2 Kings 22 ff), as that righteous king tried to eliminate shrines to pagan gods while restoring the badly neglected Temple. Bluntly put, God is the ultimate source of all true life. To choose to live apart from God is, then, to refuse life.
• Methodist teacher Leslie Newbigin wrote, “God did not want us to know evil; he wanted us to know only good. But there creeps in that little snake of suspicion: ‘Should we not find out for ourselves the other side of the picture?.... Let us find out for ourselves what is good and what is evil. Surely we can’t simply trust God for that!’ And so… the bond of trust is broken, and we are lost…. We hide ourselves from God; we compete with each other…. Right through the Bible runs the anguish of God as he seeks his foolish people…. God will not leave us until he has won us back to be his children.”1 Picture yourself hearing the aged Moses plead, “Choose life.” What’s your choice—how does your heart respond?
Prayer: LORD God, I like choosing from many different brands when I shop, or having many
options when I go to the movies. Help me to choose life in you, not just for an evening but for all my life. Amen.
1 Lesslie Newbigin, A Walk Through the Bible. Kansas City: Barefoot Ministries, 1999, pp. 16-18.
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"Clear support for new leadership"
Friday, 30 September 2016
Deuteronomy 31:1 Moshe went and spoke the following words to all Isra’el: 2 “I am 120 years old today. I can’t get around any longer; moreover, Adonai has said to me, ‘You will not cross this Yarden.’ 3 Adonai your God — he will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess them. Y’hoshua — he will cross over ahead of you, as Adonai has said. (LY: ii) 4 Adonai will do to them what he did to Sichon and ‘Og, the kings of the Emori, and to their land — he destroyed them. 5 Adonai will defeat them ahead of you, and you are to do to them just as I have ordered you to do. 6 Be strong, be bold, don’t be afraid or frightened of them, for Adonai your God is going with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
(RY: v, LY: iii) 7 Next Moshe summoned Y’hoshua and, in the sight of all Isra’el, said to him, “Be strong, be bold, for you are going with this people into the land Adonai swore to their ancestors he would give them. You will be the one causing them to inherit it. 8 But Adonai — it is he who will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you, so don’t be afraid or downhearted.”
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Numbers 27 told about Moses following God’s directions and authorizing Joshua to succeed
him in leading the Israelites. As Moses neared the end of his life, he made it plain to Israel that he was not irreplaceable: “The LORD told me ‘You won’t cross the Jordan River.’ But the LORD your God, he’s the one who will cross over before you!” Moses knew he’d led in God’s power, not his own. He blessed Joshua, and urged him and the people to fearlessly trust God.
• Have you ever seen a case in which a corporate leader, a government official, a church pastor or even a family patriarch clung to power too long, harming both himself/herself and the people they had served? What kind of attitude and inner spirit does it take to recognize, like Moses, that while we have gifts to offer, only our God is irreplaceable?
• Numbers 12:3 said, “Now the man Moses was humble, more so than anyone on earth.”
(Pastor Hamilton has observed that if Moses wrote that about himself, it wasn’t true!) If the first generation of Israelites had been willing to trust God and enter the Promised Land, surely Moses would have led them. Yet in his parting words, forty years later, we hear no trace of bitterness or blame. What lessons can you learn from Moses about dealing with disappointments, especially if other people have played a major role in them?
Prayer: O God, help me meet all of life’s ups and downs with grace, not necessarily because I am graceful but because you are gracious. I’m not Moses—but help me to learn from him. Amen.
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"The visionary end of Moses’ Earthly Life"
Saturday, 1 October 2016
Deuteronomy 32:(Maftir) 48 That same day Adonai said to Moshe, 49 “Go up into the ‘Avarim Range, to Mount N’vo, in the land of Mo’av across from Yericho; and look out over the land of Kena‘an, which I am giving the people of Isra’el as a possession. 50 On the mountain you are ascending you will die and be gathered to your people, just as Aharon your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
34:1 (vii) Moshe ascended from the plains of Mo’av to Mount N’vo, to the summit of Pisgah, across from Yericho. There Adonai showed him all the land — Gil‘ad as far as Dan, 2 all Naftali, the land of Efrayim and M’nasheh, the land of Y’hudah all the way to the sea beyond, 3 the Negev, and the ‘Aravah, including the valley where Yericho, the City of Date-Palms, as far away as Tzo‘ar. 4 Adonai said to him, “This is the land concerning which I swore to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over there.”
5 So Moshe, the servant of Adonai, died there in the land of Mo’av, as Adonai had said. 6 He was buried in the valley across from Beit-P‘or in the land of Mo’av, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.
7 Moshe was 120 years old when he died, with eyes undimmed and vigor undiminished. 8 The people of Isra’el mourned Moshe on the plains of Mo’av for thirty days; after this, the days of crying and mourning for Moshe ended.
9 Y’hoshua the son of Nun was full of the Spirit of wisdom, for Moshe had laid his hands on him, and the people of Isra’el heeded him and did what Adonai had ordered Moshe.
10 Since that time there has not arisen in Isra’el a prophet like Moshe, whom Adonai knew face to face. 11 What signs and wonders Adonai sent him to perform in the land of Egypt upon Pharaoh, all his servants and all his land! 12 What might was in his hand! What great terror he evoked before the eyes of all Isra’el!
Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened!
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At least from the time of the burning bush (cf. Exodus 3), and probably even earlier, Moses had a God-given vision: living in the Promised Land. Before his earthly life ended, God gave him a mountaintop view of the place he’d hoped and dreamed of. It seems likely that as Moses died he held in his mind that vision of the Promised Land’s beauty. Israel mourned, and remembered their great leader. But Moses’ story wasn’t over. He reappeared centuries later in the Bible’s story. If anything, now he had a greater honor—he was encouraging Jesus, the LORD he’d served all his life, as Jesus prepared to face the cross on which he would save the whole world (cf. Matthew 17:3).
• Moses was not alone in dying before his grand, God-given vision was fully realized. When Abraham died, the “great nation” God promised he would become was just one person—
his son Isaac. King David dreamed of building God a beautiful Temple, but his son, King
Solomon, got to build it. After listing many heroes of faith, the letter to the Hebrews said, “All these people didn’t receive what was promised, though they were given approval for their faith” (Hebrews 11:39). The true Promised Land, toward which all God’s people
journey, is not in this dark, broken world—it is God’s eternal realm of light and unending
life, seen in vision in Revelation 21-22. What are your biggest God-given dreams? How can you pursue them fearlessly, knowing that beyond the limits of this world they will all come fully true in God’s eternal kingdom?
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for Moses (and your faithful servants who wrote and transmitted his story). Let me live my life energetically for you, with my ultimate hopes fixed on that wonderful day when both Moses and I can praise you in your eternal kingdom. Amen.
Family Activity: One way we experience a relationship with God is through Scripture. Create a box filled with Bible verses. Using colored paper, markers, ribbon, magazine cut-outs, family photos and other fun materials, decorate a shoebox or photo box to represent your family and your faith journey. Write some favorite Bible verses on colorful strips of paper and place them in the box. (Psalms is a great place to find many verses of praise and thanksgiving, as well as promises from God.) Once a day, maybe at mealtime, pull a strip from the box and share the
passage aloud. Ask older children and youth to join you in adding Bible texts to the box. Thank God for the gift of being in relationship with God and God’s Word.
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Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer
Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
• Shane Presley and family on the death of his grandmother Betty Curtis, 9/20
• Beth Hartwell and family on the death of her sister Jenny Wallace, 9/17
• Jeff and Jan Marrs and family on the death of their daughter Lane Marrs, 9/16
• Nancy Spoolstra and family on the death of her sister Carol Walker, 9/15
• Randall Rock and family on the death of his mother Emma Rock, 9/15
• Keith Erich and family on the death of his uncle Eldon Erich, 9/11
• Jeff Locklear and family on the death of his mother Mary Ann Locklear, 9/10
• Richard Messerschmidt and family on the death of his father Eldon Messerschmidt, 9/9
• Mike Patton and family on the death of his mother Betty June Patton, 9/8
• Debbie Noblitt and family on the death of her mother Eileen Smith, 9/7
Scripture:
Deuteronomy 6:(A:vi, S: v) 4 “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra’el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; 5 and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. 6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; 7 and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
20 “Some day your child will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of the instructions, laws and rulings which Adonai our God has laid down for you?’ 21 Then you will tell your child, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Adonai brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand.
8:12 Otherwise, after you have eaten and are satisfied, built fine houses and lived in them, 13 and increased your herds, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own, 14 you will become proud-hearted. Forgetting Adonai your God — who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves;
17 you will think to yourself, ‘My own power and the strength of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 No, you are to remember Adonai your God, because it is he who is giving you the power to get wealth, in order to confirm his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as is happening even today.
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"Repeating the commandments, renewing the covenant"
Monday, 26 September 2016
Deuteronomy 1:1 These are the words Moshe spoke to all Isra’el on the far side of the Yarden River, in the desert, in the ‘Aravah, across from Suf, between Pa’ran and Tofel, Lavan, Hatzerot and Di-Zahav.
5 There, beyond the Yarden, in the land of Mo’av, Moshe took it upon himself to expound this Torah and said:
5:1 (A: iv, S: iii) Then Moshe called to all Isra’el and said to them, “Listen, Isra’el, to the laws and rulings which I am announcing in your hearing today, so that you will learn them and take care to obey them. 2 Adonai our God made a covenant with us at Horev. 3 Adonai did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us — with us, who are all of us here alive today. 4 Adonai spoke with you face to face from the fire on the mountain. 5 At that time I stood between Adonai and you in order to tell you what Adonai was saying; because, on account of the fire, you were afraid and wouldn’t go up onto the mountain. He said,
א 6 “‘I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves.
ב 7 “‘You are to have no other gods before me. 8 You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline — 9 you are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents, also the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot.
ג 11 “‘You are not to misuse the name of Adonai your God, because Adonai will not leave unpunished someone who misuses his name.
ד 12 “‘Observe the day of Shabbat, to set it apart as holy, as Adonai your God ordered you to do. 13 You have six days to labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your God. On it you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your ox, your donkey or any of your other livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property — so that your male and female servants can rest just as you do. 15 You are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore Adonai your God has ordered you to keep the day of Shabbat.
ה 16 “‘Honor your father and mother, as Adonai your God ordered you to do, so that you will live long and have things go well with you in the land Adonai your God is giving you.
ו 17 “‘Do not murder.
ז (18) “‘Do not commit adultery.
ח (19) “‘Do not steal.
ט (20) “‘Do not give false evidence against your neighbor.
י 18 (21) “‘Do not covet your neighbor’s wife; do not covet your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female slave, his ox, his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’
(A: v, S: iv) 19 (22) “These words Adonai spoke to your entire gathering at the mountain from fire, cloud and thick mist, in a loud voice; then it ceased. But he wrote them on two stone tablets, which he gave to me. 20 (23) When you heard the voice coming out of the darkness, as the mountain blazed with fire, you came to me, all the heads of your tribes and your leaders, 21 (24) and said, ‘Here, Adonai our God has shown us his glory and his greatness! We have heard his voice coming from the fire, and we have seen today that God does speak with human beings, and they stay alive. 22 (25) But why should we keep risking death? This great fire will consume us! If we hear the voice of Adonai our God any more, we will die!
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“Deuteronomy” comes from Greek words that meant “second law,” first used to identify the book in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Many mainline and Hebrew scholars
believe the book may have been put in the form in which we now have it around the time of Judah’s righteous King Josiah (cf. 2 Kings 22:8-13). It preserved the essence of Moses’ final words to Israel. Early on, it stressed God’s covenant love for Israel, and recited (with some slightly modified words) the Ten Commandments.
• Deuteronomy was set at the end of Israel’s wilderness wandering. They prepared to enter the Promised Land now that the fearful generation we learned about last week died
(cf. Numbers 14:21-23). What made it important for Moses to emphasize that “the LORD didn’t make this covenant with our ancestors but with us—all of us who are here and alive right now”? We humans are time-bounded, but God is eternal. What helps you trust that as a believer today you are also included in God’s unending covenant love?
• If God wrote the Ten Commandments on stone tablets, how could the wording in Deuteronomy 5 differ, even slightly, from that in Exodus 20? Remember, Israel stored the stone tablets in the Most Holy Place of the Temple, where only the high priest could go, and only on the yearly Day of Atonement. The writer, in one or both books, couldn’t just call up the exact wording on his smart phone! Did the eternal value of the Commandments rest in the exact words, or in the timeless life principles they expressed?
Prayer: Holy God, thank you for being a God of your word, whose love and commitment to us
don’t change even when we struggle. Inscribe the principles of your law on my heart. Amen.
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"Teach your children"
Tuesday, 27 September 2016
Deuteronomy 6:5 and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. 6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; 7 and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, 9 and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates.
20 “Some day your child will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of the instructions, laws and rulings which Adonai our God has laid down for you?’ 21 Then you will tell your child, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Adonai brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. 22 Adonai worked great and terrible signs and wonders against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household, before our very eyes. 23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us to the land he had sworn to our ancestors that he would give us. 24 Adonai ordered us to observe all these laws, to fear Adonai our God, always for our own good, so that he might keep us alive, as we are today. 25 It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to obey all these mitzvot before Adonai our God, just as he ordered us to do.’”
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It appears that the Israelites alive at the time of Moses’ message had learned from the mistake their parents made. They were not afraid to follow God’s leading into the Promised Land. But it was not enough for God’s mission in the world that just they be faithful. It was vital that they not let their faith die with them, but that they teach it to their children and future generations.
• Who (if anyone) were the people in your childhood and youth who taught you about God’s covenant, about the principles by which God calls you to live? Did they do it in effective ways that won your respect and affection, or did you reach a point at which you rebelled against the way of life they tried to teach you? What good things do you carry with you from that background?
• In what ways today are you actively seeking to transmit your faith to people who are
younger than you are? If you have children or grandchildren, how have you learned to
make the faith appealing to them, and not just a tiresome set of rules that make no sense to them? If you do not have children of your own, how can you be an effective communicator and example of faith to younger people?
Prayer: Living LORD, make of my life a beacon of faith and hope, an example and inspiration to younger people to follow you. Remind me every day that you call me to be one of your human partners and instruments in your saving mission in this world. Amen.
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"Warning against self-sufficiency"
Wednesday, 28 September 2016
Deuteronomy 7:7 Adonai didn’t set his heart on you or choose you because you numbered more than any other people — on the contrary, you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 Rather, it was because Adonai loved you, and because he wanted to keep the oath which he had sworn to your ancestors, that Adonai brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from a life of slavery under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Maftir) 9 From this you can know that Adonai your God is indeed God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe his mitzvot, to a thousand generations.
(ii) 11 “Be careful not to forget Adonai your God by not obeying his mitzvot, rulings and regulations that I am giving you today. 12 Otherwise, after you have eaten and are satisfied, built fine houses and lived in them, 13 and increased your herds, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own, 14 you will become proud-hearted. Forgetting Adonai your God — who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves; 15 who led you through the vast and fearsome desert, with its poisonous snakes, scorpions and waterless, thirsty ground; who brought water out of flint rock for you; 16 who fed you in the desert with man, unknown to your ancestors; all the while humbling and testing you in order to do you good in the end — 17 you will think to yourself, ‘My own power and the strength of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 No, you are to remember Adonai your God, because it is he who is giving you the power to get wealth, in order to confirm his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as is happening even today.
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Sometimes when a nation or a company faces a big challenge, their leaders seek to energize
them by telling them what special, exceptional people they are. But Moses had led this group for 40 years—he couldn’t honestly give them a pep talk about how awesome they were. Instead, he reminded them that it was important for them to live out God’s values. Only when they did that could they depend on God’s blessings.
• The next time you hear an ad telling you that you “deserve” some luxury as a reward for all your hard work and success, keep Deuteronomy 8:17 in mind: “Don’t think to yourself, My own strength and abilities have produced all this prosperity for me.” Do you agree with the outlook that says it is God “who gives you the strength to be prosperous”? How can you believe that without devaluing your own effort and dedication?
• Events like the recent Olympics put our focus on national identities. It’s logical to cheer when “our” athletes win. It’s fun and harmless—unless we forget what Moses said to Israel: “It was not because you were greater than all other people that the LORD loved you and chose you.” Under our surface differences, we are, in Archibald Macleish’s phrase, “riders on the earth together.” How central has feeling greater than other people been to your identity? How can you rejoice in being a child of God, like all other human beings?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you said “people who are humble” will inherit the earth. So much in this world pushes back against that. Help me to understand true humility, not as feeling worthless, but as rooting my worth in you, not in myself. Amen.
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"The crucial decision: 'Choose life'”
Thursday, 29 September 2016
Deuteronomy 30:(RY: iv, LY: vii) 15 “Look! I am presenting you today with, on the one hand, life and good; and on the other, death and evil — 16 in that I am ordering you today to love Adonai your God, to follow his ways, and to obey his mitzvot, regulations and rulings ; for if you do, you will live and increase your numbers; and Adonai your God will bless you in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you are drawn away to prostrate yourselves before other gods and serve them; (LY: Maftir) 18 I am announcing to you today that you will certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Yarden to enter and possess.
19 “I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, 20 loving Adonai your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him — for that is the purpose of your life! On this depends the length of time you will live in the land Adonai swore he would give to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov.”
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There was profound urgency in the simple, stark way Moses set the ultimate spiritual choice before the Israelites: life or death? And how much resonance it would have had if it was the scroll found in King Josiah’s time (cf. 2 Kings 22 ff), as that righteous king tried to eliminate shrines to pagan gods while restoring the badly neglected Temple. Bluntly put, God is the ultimate source of all true life. To choose to live apart from God is, then, to refuse life.
• Methodist teacher Leslie Newbigin wrote, “God did not want us to know evil; he wanted us to know only good. But there creeps in that little snake of suspicion: ‘Should we not find out for ourselves the other side of the picture?.... Let us find out for ourselves what is good and what is evil. Surely we can’t simply trust God for that!’ And so… the bond of trust is broken, and we are lost…. We hide ourselves from God; we compete with each other…. Right through the Bible runs the anguish of God as he seeks his foolish people…. God will not leave us until he has won us back to be his children.”1 Picture yourself hearing the aged Moses plead, “Choose life.” What’s your choice—how does your heart respond?
Prayer: LORD God, I like choosing from many different brands when I shop, or having many
options when I go to the movies. Help me to choose life in you, not just for an evening but for all my life. Amen.
1 Lesslie Newbigin, A Walk Through the Bible. Kansas City: Barefoot Ministries, 1999, pp. 16-18.
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"Clear support for new leadership"
Friday, 30 September 2016
Deuteronomy 31:1 Moshe went and spoke the following words to all Isra’el: 2 “I am 120 years old today. I can’t get around any longer; moreover, Adonai has said to me, ‘You will not cross this Yarden.’ 3 Adonai your God — he will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess them. Y’hoshua — he will cross over ahead of you, as Adonai has said. (LY: ii) 4 Adonai will do to them what he did to Sichon and ‘Og, the kings of the Emori, and to their land — he destroyed them. 5 Adonai will defeat them ahead of you, and you are to do to them just as I have ordered you to do. 6 Be strong, be bold, don’t be afraid or frightened of them, for Adonai your God is going with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
(RY: v, LY: iii) 7 Next Moshe summoned Y’hoshua and, in the sight of all Isra’el, said to him, “Be strong, be bold, for you are going with this people into the land Adonai swore to their ancestors he would give them. You will be the one causing them to inherit it. 8 But Adonai — it is he who will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you, so don’t be afraid or downhearted.”
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Numbers 27 told about Moses following God’s directions and authorizing Joshua to succeed
him in leading the Israelites. As Moses neared the end of his life, he made it plain to Israel that he was not irreplaceable: “The LORD told me ‘You won’t cross the Jordan River.’ But the LORD your God, he’s the one who will cross over before you!” Moses knew he’d led in God’s power, not his own. He blessed Joshua, and urged him and the people to fearlessly trust God.
• Have you ever seen a case in which a corporate leader, a government official, a church pastor or even a family patriarch clung to power too long, harming both himself/herself and the people they had served? What kind of attitude and inner spirit does it take to recognize, like Moses, that while we have gifts to offer, only our God is irreplaceable?
• Numbers 12:3 said, “Now the man Moses was humble, more so than anyone on earth.”
(Pastor Hamilton has observed that if Moses wrote that about himself, it wasn’t true!) If the first generation of Israelites had been willing to trust God and enter the Promised Land, surely Moses would have led them. Yet in his parting words, forty years later, we hear no trace of bitterness or blame. What lessons can you learn from Moses about dealing with disappointments, especially if other people have played a major role in them?
Prayer: O God, help me meet all of life’s ups and downs with grace, not necessarily because I am graceful but because you are gracious. I’m not Moses—but help me to learn from him. Amen.
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"The visionary end of Moses’ Earthly Life"
Saturday, 1 October 2016
Deuteronomy 32:(Maftir) 48 That same day Adonai said to Moshe, 49 “Go up into the ‘Avarim Range, to Mount N’vo, in the land of Mo’av across from Yericho; and look out over the land of Kena‘an, which I am giving the people of Isra’el as a possession. 50 On the mountain you are ascending you will die and be gathered to your people, just as Aharon your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
34:1 (vii) Moshe ascended from the plains of Mo’av to Mount N’vo, to the summit of Pisgah, across from Yericho. There Adonai showed him all the land — Gil‘ad as far as Dan, 2 all Naftali, the land of Efrayim and M’nasheh, the land of Y’hudah all the way to the sea beyond, 3 the Negev, and the ‘Aravah, including the valley where Yericho, the City of Date-Palms, as far away as Tzo‘ar. 4 Adonai said to him, “This is the land concerning which I swore to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over there.”
5 So Moshe, the servant of Adonai, died there in the land of Mo’av, as Adonai had said. 6 He was buried in the valley across from Beit-P‘or in the land of Mo’av, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.
7 Moshe was 120 years old when he died, with eyes undimmed and vigor undiminished. 8 The people of Isra’el mourned Moshe on the plains of Mo’av for thirty days; after this, the days of crying and mourning for Moshe ended.
9 Y’hoshua the son of Nun was full of the Spirit of wisdom, for Moshe had laid his hands on him, and the people of Isra’el heeded him and did what Adonai had ordered Moshe.
10 Since that time there has not arisen in Isra’el a prophet like Moshe, whom Adonai knew face to face. 11 What signs and wonders Adonai sent him to perform in the land of Egypt upon Pharaoh, all his servants and all his land! 12 What might was in his hand! What great terror he evoked before the eyes of all Isra’el!
Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened!
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At least from the time of the burning bush (cf. Exodus 3), and probably even earlier, Moses had a God-given vision: living in the Promised Land. Before his earthly life ended, God gave him a mountaintop view of the place he’d hoped and dreamed of. It seems likely that as Moses died he held in his mind that vision of the Promised Land’s beauty. Israel mourned, and remembered their great leader. But Moses’ story wasn’t over. He reappeared centuries later in the Bible’s story. If anything, now he had a greater honor—he was encouraging Jesus, the LORD he’d served all his life, as Jesus prepared to face the cross on which he would save the whole world (cf. Matthew 17:3).
• Moses was not alone in dying before his grand, God-given vision was fully realized. When Abraham died, the “great nation” God promised he would become was just one person—
his son Isaac. King David dreamed of building God a beautiful Temple, but his son, King
Solomon, got to build it. After listing many heroes of faith, the letter to the Hebrews said, “All these people didn’t receive what was promised, though they were given approval for their faith” (Hebrews 11:39). The true Promised Land, toward which all God’s people
journey, is not in this dark, broken world—it is God’s eternal realm of light and unending
life, seen in vision in Revelation 21-22. What are your biggest God-given dreams? How can you pursue them fearlessly, knowing that beyond the limits of this world they will all come fully true in God’s eternal kingdom?
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for Moses (and your faithful servants who wrote and transmitted his story). Let me live my life energetically for you, with my ultimate hopes fixed on that wonderful day when both Moses and I can praise you in your eternal kingdom. Amen.
Family Activity: One way we experience a relationship with God is through Scripture. Create a box filled with Bible verses. Using colored paper, markers, ribbon, magazine cut-outs, family photos and other fun materials, decorate a shoebox or photo box to represent your family and your faith journey. Write some favorite Bible verses on colorful strips of paper and place them in the box. (Psalms is a great place to find many verses of praise and thanksgiving, as well as promises from God.) Once a day, maybe at mealtime, pull a strip from the box and share the
passage aloud. Ask older children and youth to join you in adding Bible texts to the box. Thank God for the gift of being in relationship with God and God’s Word.
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Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer
Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
• Shane Presley and family on the death of his grandmother Betty Curtis, 9/20
• Beth Hartwell and family on the death of her sister Jenny Wallace, 9/17
• Jeff and Jan Marrs and family on the death of their daughter Lane Marrs, 9/16
• Nancy Spoolstra and family on the death of her sister Carol Walker, 9/15
• Randall Rock and family on the death of his mother Emma Rock, 9/15
• Keith Erich and family on the death of his uncle Eldon Erich, 9/11
• Jeff Locklear and family on the death of his mother Mary Ann Locklear, 9/10
• Richard Messerschmidt and family on the death of his father Eldon Messerschmidt, 9/9
• Mike Patton and family on the death of his mother Betty June Patton, 9/8
• Debbie Noblitt and family on the death of her mother Eileen Smith, 9/7
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13720 Roe Avenue
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