Moses exhorted the people to remember what God had done in the past. God had done great, miraculous, monumental things for them over the last 40 years, and now they have to trust that God would continue to do great things for them as they enter the PL and start the conquest. Read More ...
Although this passage focuses on Israel’s sin and lack of merit, it also reveals God’s grace. In spite of their sin, God did not destroy Israel. God extended mercy and grace to these ill-deserving, self-righteous, rebellious, stubborn, idolatrous people. That’s how God relates to us—through grace and mercy. Instead of being self-righteous, we ought to be thankful and humble. We should be glad that we have an intercessor before God—we have a better mediator than Moses, Jesus. Read More ...
Whatever our lot in life, whether poverty or prosperity, we must retain our dependence on God. We must rely on God for every word that comes forth from his mouth. And we must rely on God to provide everything we need. We must rely on God to give us the ability to gain wealth and prosperity. And if we gain some measure of prosperity, we are obligated to be thankful and humble, not to be proud and self-satisfied. We don’t glory in what we’ve achieved; we glory in what the Lord has provided. Read More ...
We can trust in God. In light of what God has done for us previously, we can trust God to take care of us in the future. And, of course, the ultimate blessing is heaven itself. Our lives will come to an end at some point, but even then, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Read More ...
Like the ancient Israelites, success for us requires faithful obedience and avoiding compromise with the ungodly people of our world. We must not learn the ways of the heathen. Like the ancient Israelites, Christians are a special treasure to God. We must be wholly dedicated to God and avoid compromising with the world. Read More ...
There is no excuse for spiritual compromise. We don’t enter into dialogue with the idolaters. We must have no fellowship with false religion. Our goal and task is to lead people to denounce idolatry and false religion and to believe in the true and living God—to turn to God from idols. An in order to do that, we must not compromise spiritually. We must maintain our commitment to truth and our opposition to error. The key to avoiding compromise is to love what God loves and hate what God hates. Read More ...
The danger is that succeeding generations lose the history and meaning of the faith. They don’t see how it matters to them; they don’t understand it, and they don’t adopt it. That would be a very great shame. We want to do everything we can to avoid that outcome. Read More ...
If you want to prevent a decline in faith in your family, you must love God with your heart, soul, and strength, and keep God’s word before you, as if it were written on your hands, head, home, and hometown. If we fail to do that, we should not be surprised when members of our family no longer have any interest in the things of God. Succeeding generations will become dull instead of being sharp. Because the word of God is not in their hearts, they’ll not have a love for God. That would be a great tragedy. Read More ...
To the Jewish mind, the Shema was a summary of the 10 Commandments, and the 10 Commandments were a summary of the entire OT law. Jesus said that the whole law and prophets “hang” on these two profound ideas—love God and love your neighbor (Mt 22:40). Read More ...
The 10 Commandments are a summary of the entire OT law. When Jesus summarized God’s law, he said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mt 22:37–38; cf. Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18; Rom 13:9). In other words, the Ten Commandments can be summarized by two commandments: love God and love your neighbor. We obey these commands because we love God and neighbor. Read More ...