The next two days are ones of reflection. 

Its not a ritualistic thing-

I do not set aside a specific time or revisit a particular piece of scripture or anything, but this time of year while others are reflecting over last year I find myself just sitting in a heavy space of gratitude that I was here for another one, especially over the next three days.

The word Deuteronomy means second law. Deuteronomy is a retailing by Moses of the teachings and events of exodus, along with the chapters to follow. There’s also an extensive review of the 10 Commandments.

Israel spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Their delay in obedience cost them another 38 years in the wilderness. In this additional 38 years, there was a period of waiting on a generation of unbelief to die, so that a generation of faith could receive the promised land. 

I’m curious as to how the day to day walk with God was for Moses in these 38 years. He had already been told that he would not enter the promised land, yet we still see him leading. We do know that he asked again if he may enter the land, but God told him not to bring it up again; that if he wanted to see the promised land, he could climb a rock and look upon it from there, but to instead prepare Joshua, for he would be the one to leave the people into the promise.

Chapter 6 marks the chapter that follows the retelling of the 10 Commandments. 

There are so many things within this chapter that I would like to close my fist around, truths each of us should consider and cling to. 

How we are expected to love the Lord with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, and with all of our might 

How we should keep these words on our hearts

How we should diligently teach them to our children, and how we should consider them when we’re sitting at the house when we’re walking around, when we’re lying down, and the very moment we rise.

How we need to write it on the foundations of our homes and also on their entry so that it is clear on arrival who’s we are and what we stand for.

How the Lord has blessed us with all of these things that we didn’t build ourselves- homes full of good things that we didn’t fill up, wells that provide water that we didn’t dig, and fruit from trees that we did not plant 

but there’s one other retailing here that brings tears to my eyes as I circled the nouns in the adjectives in my bible- even as I type them before you now.

“When your sons ask you in time to come, ‘what is the meaning of these testimonies and the statutes in the rules of the Lord, our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son we were pharaoh slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand in the Lord, showed us signs and wonders great and grievous against Egypt, and against Pharaoh and all of his household before our eyes, and he brought us from there that he might bring us in and give us a land that he swore to give our fathers in the Lord, commanded us to do all of these statutes to fear the Lord, our God, for our good always that he might preserve us alive as we are to this day, and it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do his commandments before the Lord, our God, as he commanded us.”

Consider for a moment, if Moses were you or I, today- if he were given the same instruction on the risen side of the resurrection, I would imagine it would sound something like this:

“Mama, why do you think God let all of that bad stuff happen?”

I don’t know what your story is, but if mine ask, I’m so thankful I’m still here to tell them this:

Babies,

Once upon a time, your mom was a slave to the enemy; he disguised her as a slave to herself. She was her own protector, her own rule maker, and her own savior. One January night, the Lord spoke loudly to her and saved her soul and her life. That night she listened, but there were many nights that she didn’t. Looking back, she can see so much of God’s hand in all of the hard times of her life, but all those years before, she only believed the enemy’s lies, and all those brought were captivity, grief, and shame. In the belief of those acts that brought about her disobedience, in spaces of hardheartedness, your mom, at the mighty hand of the Lord, suffered much grief, some of which she has even consequently had to share with you. But for our good always, the Lord’s sovereign plan is not crippled by our weaknesses because our Lord is not the creator of sad stories. You see, Babies, he is their redeemer. He brought your mom out from the end of herself, alive, as she is today and will remain forever, and one day in the middle of your own messes, He has died to re-write your story too. For what the law could not do, love did perfectly. 

Love, 

Your Mom-