November 18 | Deuteronomy 30:1-10

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DAILY READING

Deuteronomy 30:1-10

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REFLECTION

How Is This Possible?

By Pr. Dave Mann

God has chosen his people – the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all people whom the Holy Spirit has awakened with the desire to trust in Jesus.  The purpose of this choosing is to prepare a holy people with whom God will dwell forever.  Sounds good to me.  Count me in!

However, according to the Old Covenant received through Moses, there are conditions to being the people of God.  Deuteronomy 30 lists those conditions.

v. 1 -- take to heart the blessings and curses of God

v. 2 -- you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today

v. 6 -- love him with all your heart and with all your soul 

v. 7 -- obey the Lord and follow all his commands

v. 10 -- if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees

v. 10 -- turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul

Obey all his commands?  With all my heart?  With all my soul?  Is this even possible?  I know myself all too well.  I don’t measure up.  I need help ... I want help ... Where can I get help?

Augustine, who lived in North Africa in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, also knew he needed help.  He wrote, “Give what you command [O Lord], and then command whatever you will.”  Augustine recognized that his heart required God’s help to obey. 

Here are other Scriptures that give us hope of arriving at the conditions of the Old Covenant through the provisions of the New Covenant, with God’s help.

• Jeremiah 31:31-34 -- In the New Covenant, God will give us a new heart.

• Philippians 1:6 -- being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

• Philippians 2:13 -- It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

• 1 John 3:2 -- Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Aren’t you glad that God provides what he commands? 

PRAYER

Holy and righteous God, your laws are good.  Your statutes are true.  Your commandments bring life.  However, I do not meet the standards you have set.  By the grace of your Holy Spirit, I desire to be shaped in the way that pleases you.  Make me, Lord, become the person you have created me to be.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DAVE MANN

I am a Pastor for Internationals (retired) in the UALC community. I am married to Pam, father of four, and grandfather of six. Pam and I have lived twenty of our years in other countries including France, Cameroon, Haiti, and Morocco. In retirement, we continue to enjoy writing devotionals, learning languages, and teaching English to internationals.

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