October 22nd, 2011
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Law and Grace

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Opening Prayer

In these few moments, Gracious Lord, I praise Your name and long to be touched by Your Spirit.

Read DEUTERONOMY 8:1-20

[1] Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. [2] Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. [3] He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. [4] Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. [5] Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. [6] Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. [7] For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land-a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; [8] a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; [9] a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. [10] When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. [11] Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. [12] Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, [13] and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, [14] then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. [15] He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. [16] He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. [17] You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” [18] But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. [19] If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. [20] Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

“The way to prove our love for Christ is by obeying his commandments (John 14:21). The test of love is obedience and the reward of love is a self-revelation of Christ” (John Stott).

Think Further

Moses insists on the importance of obedience to the Lord (1,6,11,19,20). The difference between this and the kind of obedience that Jesus denounces so passionately in Mark lies in the heart. The scribes and Pharisees developed a system of rules which would protect people even from coming near the possibility of disobedience to God: a whole series of extra laws like a hedge, fencing God’s commandments around. That’s great, but what had gone wrong?

In a nutshell, they fell into the trap outlined in vs. 17 and 18. In love and patience, God led his people through the wilderness, disciplining them and showering his goodness on them, bringing them into a wonderful new land, so that they might want to live in gratitude and covenant dependence on their gracious God. His whole action toward them was directed toward their heart (see vs. 2,5,14,17). The word “heart” occurs in all these verses, though obscured in some translations (e.g., v. 17: “Do not say in your heart …”). Will their heart be true to him in faith, love and gratitude for all that he has done for them? The evidence of a grateful heart will be loving obedience, and a desire to live as true children of the God who has carefully led them (5).

So God’s grace precedes the loving, obedient response of God’s people. The Pharisees would certainly have agreed with this but legalism is a subtle enemy, soaking into us before we’ve noticed. It’s the heart that says, “I’m doing pretty well at this Christian life thing! I think I’ve basically got it down. Praise God!” It sounds like gratitude, but basically the relationship has faded, and “doing” has replaced it.

Apply

Where is your heart, in the light of the challenge in Deuteronomy 8? Has legalism infected it? Turn your reflections into prayer now.

Closing prayer

Forgive me, Father, when I lose sight of the truth that my salvation has been accomplished in Christ and in him alone. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

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