Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 16
16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17You must diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his decrees, and his statutes that he has commanded you. 18Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you, 19thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.
20 When your children ask you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21then you shall say to your children, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household.
Sunday I’m preaching from the book of Deuteronomy and I’m thinking about how few people ever read it. The word “Deuteronomy” literally means “Second Law”; as it is the second book recording the laws given to the Israelites during their wilderness wandering. The phrase “book of laws” pretty much explains why so few are familiar with what is in Deuteronomy. A book of ancient laws doesn’t exactly sound like exciting stuff.
But truly it is. What we have in Deuteronomy is a vision for who the people are to be, and how it is that they are to live together. They are not to live as the other nations around them. They are to be a different kind of nation, a nation of laws, given to protect the vulnerable and defend the rights of the oppressed and make a community just and decent for all.
In this morning’s Lesson the children of Israel ask, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?” In other words, they’re asking something akin to “Why do we have to eat our vegetables?” — something like, “Why do we have to read and study this long, difficult book of Deuteronomy?”
The answer: “Because we were slaves once under Pharaoh. We were slaves and we know what it’s like to live in bondage where there is no law to protect us from a madman and his taskmasters.”
The Book of Laws was given for the sake of community. It was given to protect and uphold and defend the rights of the people. And it was given in order that this nation escaping Pharaoh and his household might be something other than, something better than, the Egypt they just came out of.
That’s the import of the book of laws; and why we still do well to read it even today.
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