6 March 2024
So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
From Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9, NRSV
The book of Deuteronomy is mainly a law book containing many detailed rules. In today’s passage, Moses is not speaking of these individual rules but of the importance of the whole of the Jewish Law to the future life of the people of Israel. Their covenant with God obliged them to show obedience for the Law in return for the gift of the “Promised Land”. Moses wanted the people to know that the many laws and customs that he had taught them were intended to be life giving rather than constraining. These laws were given in love by God so that the people of Israel would know God’s ways and stay close to God.
- Why did Moses emphasise the reason for the Law?
- Which laws apply to the lives of Christians today?
Pray for today’s law makers that they will make good laws.
