Tag: deuteronomy

Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or by filling out the linked form.

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 6  Read: 1 Kings 9 Listen: (4:16) Read: Psalms 28-29 Listen: (2:41)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Russ, CA

Susan, TX — Come into my walled city and occupy me newly. All these furnishings, gifts, talents were provided by you. Take over and use them to draw others into your love.

This post was originally published on June 2, 2025, based on readings from Deuteronomy 6.3-9 and Matthew 6.9-13.

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 6.3-9

3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Matthew 6.9-13

Reflection: The Shema and The Lord’s Prayer — Readers’ Choice

By John Tillman

Many people today pray daily using The Lord’s Prayer which Jesus taught his disciples in the New Testament. Jesus and his disciples however, already grew up saying a daily prayer. It was a prayer taken from Moses’ speech to the people about to enter the land and was, in Jesus’ day, said twice daily. Jesus answered using this prayer when he was asked what the greatest commandment in the law was. (Mark 12:28-34; Matthew 22.36-40)

This prayer is called, “the Shema.” The Shema takes its name from the first word of the prayer. The Hebrew word shema is sometimes translated to listen or hear. In this prayer, and elsewhere in scripture, hearing and obeying are intrinsically linked in the Hebrew language. Shema implies not just hearing words but carrying them out.

In The Lord’s Prayer, action is also implied. Praying “your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven,” is not intended to be a passive wish with no participation on our part. In both the Shema and The Lord’s Prayer, we are expected to engage in concrete actions once we stop praying.

We will pray today, combining these two prayers from scripture. Before you rise from prayer, ask God to guide your feet and hands to enact his word.

Hear, Listen, Obey

We ask you to hear us, God, but we need to hear you.|

You alone are God, our only Father in Heaven

Your name is holy as we are to be holy.
Father, Son, and Spirit are one, as we are to be one.

You alone are the provider of our bread.
You alone are the forgiver of our debts.

In return, Lord, we love you with all our heart, showing your love to others in forgiveness
In return, Lord, we love you with all our soul, opening our inner being to your indwelling
In return, Lord, we love you with all our strength. The strength of our body and mind, we give to you for your service and will.

Tie your Word to us that…
In your strength, may we resist temptation.
In your love, may we rescue the falling.
In your Spirit, may we speak the gospel with our words, carry the gospel with our feet, and enact the gospel with our hands.

Video: (Shema — The Bible Project)

The Lord’s Prayer:

We will take a break from The Divine Hours prayers for the month of October and instead pray Dallas Willard’s paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer:

Dear Father, always near us, may your name be treasured and loved, may your rule be completed in us—may your will be done here on earth in just the way it is done in heaven.

Give us today the things we need today, and forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.

Please don’t put us through trials, but deliver us from everything bad. Because you are the one in charge, and you have all the power, and the glory too is all yours-forever-which is just the way we want it!

Readers’ Choice is here!

#ReadersChoice is time for you to share favorite Park Forum posts from the year.

What post helped you pray more frequently?

https://forms.gle/aSD7X5psHqjSMtBFA

Read more: Public, Prayerful, Persistent Protest

Daniel prayed in defiance of an unjust law. He was guilty before the law of the land, but blameless before God.

Public, Prayerful, Persistent Protest

Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or by filling out the linked form.

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 3  Read: 1 Kings 6 Listen: (5:10) Read: Psalms 23-24 Listen: (2:03)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Oct 4  Read: 1 Kings 7 Listen: (7:47) Read: Psalms 25 Listen: (2:18)
Oct 5  Read: 1 Kings 8 Listen: (10:23) Read: Psalms 26-27 Listen: (3:13)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Barbara, TN — Thank you, Erin! Wow, what a synopsis! Thank you!
Jason, TX — Erin knocked this one out of the park! So clear and so powerful to see how the whole book is about choosing the way of life.

This post was originally published on June 25, 2025, based on readings from Deuteronomy 30.19.

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 — Readers’ Choice

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.

The Lord’s Prayer:

We will take a break from The Divine Hours prayers for the month of October and instead pray Dallas Willard’s paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer:

Dear Father, always near us, may your name be treasured and loved, may your rule be completed in us—may your will be done here on earth in just the way it is done in heaven.

Give us today the things we need today, and forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.

Please don’t put us through trials, but deliver us from everything bad. Because you are the one in charge, and you have all the power, and the glory too is all yours-forever-which is just the way we want it!

Readers’ Choice is here!

#ReadersChoice is time for you to share favorite Park Forum posts from the year.

What post helped you better understand scripture?

https://forms.gle/aSD7X5psHqjSMtBFA

Read more: The Stretching Arm of Salvation

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

The Stretching Arm of Salvation — A Guided Prayer

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 32 Listen: (7:10) Read: Romans 12 Listen: (2:58)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 33-34 Listen: (4:43) Read: Romans 13 Listen: (2:35)
Read: Joshua 1 Listen: (3:11) Read: Romans 14 Listen: (3:28)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 32.44-50

44 Moses came with Joshua  son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Moses to Die on Mount Nebo 48 On that same day the Lord told Moses, 49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people

Reflection: Sing Your Song

By John Tillman

“What would you do if you knew today was your last day to live?” This question is popular with motivational speakers, counselors, and others who want to draw their listeners’ attention to what is truly important in life.

Most of us would probably say that on our last day we’d talk with people we love, do good things for others, and, if we are Christians, tell people about Jesus.

We don’t know our last day but Moses did. So, what did Moses do when he knew it was his last day to live? He spoke to those he loved, did good things for others, and told people how to faithfully follow God. Moses spent his last day speaking words of life to set up the next generation for success.

On Moses’ final day of life, he sang an epic song of testimony, warning, and hope. As Moses sang, he stood beside Joshua, passing the torch to the next generation’s leader. Moses’ song reminded the people how the grace of God had saved them in the past. He warned them that in the future their sins would grieve God, bringing punishment and exile. He encouraged them that, despite their sins, God would still have mercy on them and restore them. He proclaimed that the restoration and healing of Israel would be a testimony to the nations and a reason for all peoples to rejoice in the goodness and justice of God.

What might your song of testimony be? Sing of moments of salvation, healing, release, and escape from danger. Do you have warnings? Sing of moments of failure, struggle, oppression, and hardships. Can you speak of hope? Sing of moments of mercy, promises fulfilled, dreams of the future, and assurances from Holy Spirit.

Don’t wait until your last day to share your song. Invest in the next generation. They need to hear from elders who’ve felt the lashes of oppression, crossed the sea of deliverance, endured the suffering of the desert, learned lessons from the law, experienced victory over enemies, and been sustained by miraculous provision.

Not only should you sing, you should listen to the song of scripture. The words of scripture “are not just idle words for you—they are your life.” Learn the tune, the rhythm, the message of the music of God’s word. Then sing your song of testimony following its pattern.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.
With his right hand and his holy arm has he won for himself the victory. — Psalm 98.1-2

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

Read more: Honey and Grace

Moses uses the image of honey from the rock to describe God’s provision for Israel in their desert journey which has come to an end.

Honey and Grace

Read more: Glimpsing the Promise

Yet, all is not lost…God will be faithful to his purposes for the next generation. God’s grace to us is being able to glimpse it.

Glimpsing the Promise

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 31 Listen: (4:57) Read: Romans 11 Listen: (5:23)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 31.9-13

9 So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Then Moses commanded them: “At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Festival of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. 12 Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. 13 Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Reflection: Reading As Resistance

By John Tillman

If you know something will fail eventually, is there any point trying to delay or prevent that failure?

God revealed to Moses that Israel would fail to fulfill the covenant. Eventually, Israel’s sins would lead to exile and suffering, however, even after banishment, when their hearts turned back to God, God would restore them. However, Moses wasn’t a fatalist. He didn’t shrug his shoulders and say, “It can’t be helped.” Moses had a plan of resistance.

Was it a military campaign? High walls to keep out undesirables? More restrictive laws and more severe penalties? Forsaking all aesthetic pleasures, in case they might lead to sin? No. It was reading scripture.

Moses charged the community to regularly gather and hear the scripture read publicly. The Levites were to keep the writings Moses had collected and created. They would read and explain them to the people every seven years, at the time of canceling debts. It is no accident that reading God’s word is connected to freedom from debts and slavery. Reminding themselves of the debt they owed to God could fuel dutiful obedience and forgiveness among the community.

Israel read scripture to resist the idolatries and ideologies of the land. So must we. Reading scripture is not a task on a spiritual checklist. Reading scripture is an act of resistance. God’s word is an inoculation against the poisoned wisdom of the world that enslaves us to sin. The wisdom of scripture is the truth that sets us free. (John 8.31-34)

Israel, like other cultures of the time, was an oral culture. Few people could read. Even fewer would ever see or hold what Moses wrote and the Levites kept. Israel didn’t have the privileges we do. Those who waited to attend synagogue to hear sections of scripture read or waited seven years to hear the entirety of God’s word read would be shocked that we own personal copies of God’s word. They’d be even more shocked to learn how little we actually read them.

Like Israel, you will fall into sin. But that doesn’t mean you give up and give in. Resist by reading scripture and living out its wisdom. (Matthew 7.24) Don’t neglect the incredible gift of God’s word. Give time and attention to reading God’s word individually and with others. Read your Bible like it makes a difference and it will.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

You are my hiding place; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. — Psalm 32.8

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

Read more: Ways of Canaan, Ways of Christ

Seek God’s face and ask him to reveal and remove “ways of Canaan” within you.

Ways of Canaan, Ways of Christ

Read more: Between Gerizim and Ebal

Standing in between Gerizim and Ebal, there is more at stake than personal holiness or individual choices.

Between Gerizim and Ebal