Daily Lesson for March 13, 2020

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 10 verses 12 through 22:

12 So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. 14 Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it, 15 yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. 16 Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, 18 who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. 19 You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. 21 He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. 22 Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.

The New Revised Version translation of the Bible calls this section of Scripture “the essence of the Covenant”.

The essence of the covenant, the heart of these vows of the people before God and God’s vows before them is a command of humility before the LORD and kindness and even love towards the stranger.

“You were strangers in the land of Egypt . . .”

We were all strangers once. We were immigrants, and refugees, and slaves, and “huddled masses yearning to breath free”. We were fleeing persecution, and pestilence, and famine, and capture, and war, and who knows what all else. We came here on ships, and by horse, and by buggies, and in the arms of older sisters, and on the bread and kind direction of strangers. We did not make where we are alone. The LORD provided. We are not self-made men and women. We are here by the grace of God and good neighbors.

And so to whom much is given, much is required. This is the essence of the Covenant: to fear and follow in the ways of the LORD, to watch after orphans and widows and give a hand to those who need it, and to never ever forget that we too were strangers and someone was kind to us.

So let’s look after each other now friends; it’s in the hard times that it really matters . . .

NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible through this year. Monday’s Lesson will be from Deuteronomy chapters 11 through 20.