Author: Erin Newton

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 30 Listen: (3:12) Read: Romans 10 Listen: (3:21)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 30:19

19 … I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life…”

Reflection: Choosing Life—A Recap of Deuteronomy

By Erin Newton

Choosing life means choosing God. It is both a singular choice to change one’s identity forever and a perpetual choice to choose godliness every day.

God set before his people (within arm’s reach, he adds in vv. 11-14) the guidelines to follow. How does a person choose life? Let’s recap what Deuteronomy has said.

Choosing life means…

• Following him, even in the land of “giants” (1.22-33).
• Being kind to your brothers and sisters, even if they are (by definition), a different people (2.2-6).
• Knowing when God has told you no (3.26-29).
• Obeying the commands from God without adding your own ideas or ignoring the ones you dislike (4.2).
• Memorizing the core summary of godliness in ten commandments (chapter 5).
• Loving God with the entirety of our being—all strength and soul (6.4).
• Remembering that God’s grace is given to those he loves, not those who deem themselves worthy (7.7-8).
• Not forgetting God—who he is and what he has done (chapter 8).
• Remembering the lure of temptation and your weaknesses (9.7-21).
• Circumcising your heart by adopting the identity of God’s people, becoming like him in the process (10.16)
• Seeing the creation become fruitful and plentiful, and working with creation in an interdependent relationship: God, humanity, and creation (11.13-15).
• Worshipping God (chapter 12).
• Being aware of false prophets and the temptation to worship someone (or something) else (13.1-8).
• Providing for God’s people and his church financially (14.22-29).
• Being purposefully and committedly gracious—granting freedom physically and financially to those around you (15.1-18).
• Remembering the holy days with feasts and festivals and worship (16.1-17).
• Enacting justice in the community (17.1-13).
• Testing prophets and those who speak in the name of God (18.14-22).
• Providing spaces for grace and mercy (19.1-10).
• Choosing peace before conflict (20.10).
• Seeking justice and closure when answers are elusive (21.1-9).
• Being wise in your judgment of others, especially when one party is likely abused (22.26-27).
• Welcoming the foreigner who chooses to live among God’s people (23.15-16).
• Not exploiting your neighbors (24.14-18).
• Finding wisdom in cross-cultural spaces and gleaning its truth for today (25.4).
• Living sacrificially (26.1-15).
• Remembering what God has prohibited (27.15-26).
• Remembering the blessings God has in store (28.1-14).
• Remaining content in what God has revealed to us and the knowledge he withholds for himself (29.29).

Each chapter has highlighted one or more ways of choosing God—choosing life. Let us also choose life each day, fulfilling the calls from Deuteronomy.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Your way, O God, is holy; who is as great as our God? — Psalm 77,13

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: The Stretching Arm of Salvation

We pray for those in need of salvation…a prayer for those suffering oppression, injustice, and persecution.

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 23 Listen: (3:10) Read: Romans 3 Listen: (4:30)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 23:15-16

15 If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.

Reflection: Blurred Borders

By Erin Newton

In most cases, borders are invisible lines. The border between my house and my neighbor’s exists on some land survey stored at the courthouse. For us, it tends to be where someone stops mowing. To get from my state to the next, we cross a river, but I’m not entirely sure which part of the river belongs to which state. If I drive east or west, the border is somewhere lost in the pine trees or in the sand.

Our world is made up of lines. Some lines have been given walls or are naturally bound by water. Borders serve the purpose of separating us from them.

We read about God’s people needing to separate themselves in the foods they eat or the way they worship, conduct business, and relate in marriage and family. Such a separation allowed them to establish their new identity as God’s people.

Some of their laws, however, were similar to the laws of other nations. The “eye for an eye” rule is one that echoes the laws of Hammurabi, an eighteenth-century BCE ruler. This shared principle highlights how sometimes borders were blurred. Such is the case in Deuteronomy 23.

Edward Woods points out in his commentary on Deuteronomy, “While international treaties often required the return of fugitive slaves, Israel was not to follow this practice.” The refusal to return the refugee slave meant allowing the us/them divide to dissipate. The fleeing person could abide with the Israelites, under the protection of God. This call to acceptance showed that the people had utmost allegiance to God.

Despite this call for acceptance, biases and prejudices were likely to happen. So another important piece of instruction was given: “Such a slave was not to be oppressed” (Woods). Oppression was part of Israel’s past. Oppression was the reason for the exodus. The oppressed should not become the oppressor.

Even if the Israelites remembered their years of slavery in Egypt, God instills this direct command for compassion. Let them stay. Leave them alone.

As Christians, we remember that we are not to be conformed to this world. Such separation establishes the basis for our ethical and moral behavior. There are many behaviors and beliefs in the world that we cannot align with. But that does not mean we create walls of hostility.

Living among God’s people should be a place of refuge and welcome, not oppression.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. — Psalm 31.1

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Jesus on the Border

Whether Jew or Samaritan, Red or Blue, or any other worldy division, Jesus stands calling everyone to acknowledge him.

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 16 Listen: (3:25) Read: 2 Corinthians 9 Listen: (2:26)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 16:20

20 Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Reflection: Sola iustitia – Justice Alone

By Erin Newton

What is justice? Is it simply enforcing what is legal? Or, as Christians, do we believe in a view of justice that exists beyond the bounds of the Constitution or any such government document?

Our contemporary culture has spoken at length about justice and across various topics from race to gender to politics to immigration. Justice is wrongfully withheld. Justice is woefully overused. Add the word “systemic” to justice and many heated debates ensue.

In his book, Ministers of Propaganda, Scott Coley examines various views taught from the pulpit that are founded on misleading rhetoric. In the final chapter, he states, “The persisting myth that we should regard those who demand systemic justice as false teachers or theological liberals is more than mere error: it presents a false image of who God is and what God requires of us.” Deuteronomy 16 supports such a claim.

In a series of instructions about festivals, including the Passover, God speaks of the importance of justice. He warns against accepting bribes because it “blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent” (v. 19). Justice is to be protected from corruption and people are to be treated fairly—equally, without discrimination.

It is fascinating that instructions about how to govern the community are sandwiched between instructions on worship, as if God is showing the people that one must have the other. There is no proper worship of God if justice is corrupted. There is no justice for the people if idols are the center of attention.

What does it mean to follow justice and to follow justice alone?

When we define justice with our government’s version of legality, we make the justice that God commands relative. It only means something if our government has decreed it so.

When we pursue justice and our own comfort, convenience, or financial gain, we are not following God’s command to keep justice pure from corruption. That sort of justice preserves the status quo.

Following justice alone is in no way a self-seeking, self-benefiting action. Coley drives home the reality of what justice looks like: “Scripture provides not a single example of a false prophet demanding justice for the oppressed. By contrast, Scripture provides many examples of God’s prophets decrying the political or religious establishment for perpetuating systemic injustice.”

To follow justice is to be a prophetic voice, and that is always a voice for the oppressed.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus said: “As long as the day lasts we must carry out the work of the one who sent me; the night will soon be here when no one can work. As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.” — John 9.4-5

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
 by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: What You Are Doing Is Not Good

An “outsider” came in and criticized Moses’ system of justice! “What you are doing is not good!”

Read more: Are There Ashtrays in Your Elevators?

Like ashtrays in elevators, there are always systemic, tangible, widespread, societal enablements of sins.

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 8 Listen: (2:58)  Read: 2 Corinthians 2 Listen: (2:13)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 8:17-18

17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

Reflection: Count Your Hardships

By Erin Newton

Count your blessings. Typically people are meant to reflect on all the good things that have happened in their life. This usually produces gratitude. It’s not bad advice either. Reframing our experiences enables us to heal from past events.

It may even seem like Deuteronomy is offering the same advice. God calls his people to remember. Remember the manna. Remember the non-achy feet despite years of wandering. Remember the clothes that never needed mending. Lots of blessings to be counted.

He also tells them to remember the reason they left Egypt—their hardships and trials. Remember the venomous snakes and the waterless land. These don’t sound like blessings to be counted. But remembering redirects their hearts to God.

When they only look at their successes, or all the places where “things just worked out,” the temptation is to take credit. Moses could have flexed his muscles and relished in the glory of being the leader. Each family could sit down to another full table of quail and bread, considering themselves awfully proud to be such hard workers deserving of such a feast.

Success and fortune whisper self-congratulatory tales to our itching ears.

Even looking back on history, we conjure the idea that everything then was better. We are tempted to pat ourselves on the back. Look how far we’ve come! And with such ideas, we credit success to our own power and strength. We either whitewash the hardships or delve into pride.

But God asked them to remember the hard times. Remember the times they were hungry or thirsty. Remember the time they all nearly died. Why? It’s not to cultivate a spirit of depression or fear. Balanced with the various ways God provided, the anxiety-inducing “what-if” turns into the hope-filled “even-if.” Even if the land is waterless, God provides. Even if we are attacked by venomous snakes, God provides.

The stories do not end with, “We will pull ourselves up and make ourselves stronger!” There is no pep-talk to motivate the people into working more for their success.

Remembering the good and the hard allows us to see God at the center of our lives. Go ahead and count your blessings. Praise God for the modern manna. But take time to remember the hard times you’ve already endured. Remember these times by saying, “Even when…” and knowing God was working, is working, and always shall be working—for your good.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Be still, then, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth. — Psalm 46.11

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer

 by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Count Your Blessings – Hymns for Giving Thanks

Oatman’s famous hymn is a reminder to us all that God has blessed us immeasurably and it is up to us to be attentive to the gifts God has given us.

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