Links for today’s readings:
Read: Deuteronomy 29 Listen: (4:14) Read: Romans 9 Listen: (5:15)
Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 29.18-21
18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. 19 When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. 20 The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven. 21 The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
Reflection: Poisoned Roots? Poisoned Fruits
By John Tillman
Metaphors of trees and vineyards echo through scripture.
Isaiah sang a mournful song about God’s vineyard that produced bloodshed rather than righteousness. John the Baptizer shouted about God setting his axe at the root of wicked trees. Jesus taught that bad trees could not produce good fruit and about an unfruitful tree given one final chance to produce fruit. Jesus also condemned and cursed an unfruitful fig tree. Arguably, all these examples are calling back to the “root” metaphor Moses introduced in Deuteronomy.
Moses warned strongly about a “root…that produces…bitter poison.” In Moses’ prophetic parable, the root was a person or group living among Israel with duplicitous hearts. Moses imagined them hearing the covenant’s words, yet thinking in their hearts that they could persist in going their own way without harm. They would turn away from God to idols, yet claim safety under God’s covenant. Moses foresaw this root would lead to judgment and exile.
We see in Israel’s future from this point that Moses was right. The poison root of idolatry spread, sickening the tree. The sickened tree produced sickened fruit. Israel said, “peace,” when there was rebellion in their hearts. They spread out hands in prayer to God that had shed innocent blood, sacrificed to an idol, and taken advantage of the weak, poor, and marginalized. Ultimately, without good fruit, the tree was good only for the fire. Through Assyrian and Babylonian exile, God uprooted his tree, Israel, cut it up, and burned it.
We may think personal sins or idolatry harm no one else. “I can go my own way. I’m not hurting anyone.” God’s word shows us that poisonous roots lead to poisonous fruits and the contents of our hearts corrupt from inside out. Just as good fruit blesses others, bad fruit curses them. There is no such thing as sin that only affects the sinner. The consequences of sin always go beyond the individual.
We must treat sin as the bitter poison it is. We cannot explain it away or take it in moderation. We cannot hide or limit its outcomes. Sin’s effects always spread beyond our attempts at containment.
Take sin seriously. Do not call safe what God calls poison. What is at stake goes beyond your own life. Do not be the poisonous root that harms others’ futures. Root yourself in Christ’s righteousness and produce good fruit that heals rather than poisons.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
I hate those who have a divided heart, but your law do I love. — Psalm 119.113
– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle
Read more: The Ever-Patient Agriculturalist
Throughout the Bible, God is often pictured as an ever-patient agriculturalist. God wants to give us every opportunity to flourish.
Read more: Family Tree
Our family tree is sick at heart and only sickened fruit can come from us without Christ’s intervention.