January 31, 2025
Deuteronomy 4:1, 6-7
4 Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?
God is calling us to join him where he is already at work. Being co-labors with God is acknowledging that God is in constant pursuit of humankind. That God, the creator, wants a deep and loving connection with the people he has made. The Bible in many places reminds us that God is Near, and not aloof from his creation. Psalm 139, for example instructs that there is nowhere we can go that God won’t be.
In the book of Deuteronomy there is a long, long speech that Moses is making to the people of Israel, not long before his death. These are his last words; they are the things he desperately wants Israel to remember. And one of those things is summed up beautifully in verse 7: "For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon Him?
In these verses, Moses is describing something the Israelites had that nobody else had, a God who was near to them, who cared about them, who took an active and ongoing part in their daily lives. Now, that wasn't the sort of thing Baal did, or Asherah, or any of the other so-called gods the Israelites had heard of! It isn't the sort of thing the Greek or Roman gods did either.
Moses reminds the Israelites of what the real God is like, someone who is holy, wise, just, and rational. Someone who actually cares for human beings, someone who doesn't have to be bribed to help, because He already loves us and wants the best for us. Moses wanted the people that he has led to remember, and by extention you and me to understand, that the Lord our God, is always near to us, and pays attention to our prayers and what is going on in our lives.
The Old Testament people of God knew this God, because He had already come near to them to save them. He rescued them from slavery in Egypt, and split the Red Sea so they could walk to safety. He gave them His commandments on Mt. Sinai, and gave them food and water all the years they wandered in the desert. This God was near to them, and they knew His character, His personality. They knew they could trust Him.
And what about us? If God was near to the believers of Moses' day, how much more can we say that now that God has come in the flesh, "the word made flesh", incarnate in Jesus? The great, holy, all-wise God came down from heaven to become one of us, a true and authentic member of the human family.
4 Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?
God is calling us to join him where he is already at work. Being co-labors with God is acknowledging that God is in constant pursuit of humankind. That God, the creator, wants a deep and loving connection with the people he has made. The Bible in many places reminds us that God is Near, and not aloof from his creation. Psalm 139, for example instructs that there is nowhere we can go that God won’t be.
In the book of Deuteronomy there is a long, long speech that Moses is making to the people of Israel, not long before his death. These are his last words; they are the things he desperately wants Israel to remember. And one of those things is summed up beautifully in verse 7: "For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon Him?
In these verses, Moses is describing something the Israelites had that nobody else had, a God who was near to them, who cared about them, who took an active and ongoing part in their daily lives. Now, that wasn't the sort of thing Baal did, or Asherah, or any of the other so-called gods the Israelites had heard of! It isn't the sort of thing the Greek or Roman gods did either.
Moses reminds the Israelites of what the real God is like, someone who is holy, wise, just, and rational. Someone who actually cares for human beings, someone who doesn't have to be bribed to help, because He already loves us and wants the best for us. Moses wanted the people that he has led to remember, and by extention you and me to understand, that the Lord our God, is always near to us, and pays attention to our prayers and what is going on in our lives.
The Old Testament people of God knew this God, because He had already come near to them to save them. He rescued them from slavery in Egypt, and split the Red Sea so they could walk to safety. He gave them His commandments on Mt. Sinai, and gave them food and water all the years they wandered in the desert. This God was near to them, and they knew His character, His personality. They knew they could trust Him.
And what about us? If God was near to the believers of Moses' day, how much more can we say that now that God has come in the flesh, "the word made flesh", incarnate in Jesus? The great, holy, all-wise God came down from heaven to become one of us, a true and authentic member of the human family.
As one of us, He lived and served and healed and taught; and when the time came, He suffered and was nailed to a cross, all to redeem us, to save us, to bring us lost people to Himself. God came near to us and is with us forever, because Jesus is our Immanuel, "God with us."
You see, God doesn’t just meet us when we read Scripture or spend time with him in prayer or worship him in song, He is always with us. He is always available to us in our daily rhythms of life.
I pray that we will meet God today where he is already at work and may we know the comfort of his presence, and may we share something of his heart with the people around us who desperately need to know a God who passionately loves them and wants the best for them.
I pray that we will meet God today where he is already at work and may we know the comfort of his presence, and may we share something of his heart with the people around us who desperately need to know a God who passionately loves them and wants the best for them.
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