Who's the Boss?
Deut. 30:1-10
Do you promise to be good?
Photo by mehrab zahedbeigi on Unsplash
When all these things have happened to you, the blessings and the curses that I have set before you, if you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, and you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I am commanding you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the Lord your God has scattered you. Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live. The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on the adversaries who took advantage of you. Then you shall again obey the Lord, observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. - Deut. 30:1-10
No wonder we have such a hard time dealing with leaders demanding loyalty. It reminds us of God.
Yes, back in the days of Moses and the wanderers, God was demanding and forceful. He was breaking in a new people, people who had not known God but instead worshipped things.
God tells them their children and grandchildren will grow up knowing God and they will naturally be more likely to be obedient.
Reminds me of my childhood, and that is exactly the point here.
Deuteronomy is our primer, the first school book we had to learn as children. Over time, we would grow in the knowledge of God and be able to see the full nature of this loving, forgiving Father, but not after a lot of trials and tribulations.
We were not ready to see God as our Father until centuries later, and it took Jesus to show us God up close and personal.
For the years of our childhood and our teen years, we needed to know a strong, commanding God. He was the boss. We couldn't be trusted to make our own decisions.
But then we rebelled as teenagers and tried to find our own way, as teenagers often do, before coming home through Christ.
We had to become lost to be found.
It all makes sense if you look at the entire history of the Bible as a learning experience.
So, when people focus on the God of the Old Testament and say that God is harsh and jealous, we can look back at how we saw our parents when we were reprimanded and punished for doing something wrong.
Of course, today, parents don't like to reprimand their children, so what will they learn?
Maybe they will grow up afraid of everything, unable to draw on their own inner strength to plow ahead and succeed.
God is trying to show us we need to be the boos of our own lives.
We can do it, with God's help.
More to come...