S5: Day 60: Deuteronomy 29–31

hey it is shelby and paul here we are just about to wrap up the book of deuteronomy today we're talking through chapters 29 through 31 paul what's happening in these chapters yeah so we're getting kind of the current circumstance of israel finally um you know not so much talking about laws anymore but talking specifically about how the people respond to these laws, which they formally commit themselves, recommit themselves to the covenant. And we also get Moses kind of passing the torch to Joshua, so to speak, in terms of leadership of Israel. Yeah, big moment. Okay, what do you think is important for us to know or understand about these chapters? Yeah, so I want to highlight kind of here chapter 30. and we get, you know, in verses 1 through 10, this kind of description about this idea of return. So we see this word return or turn come up lots in these verses. And essentially, it's this idea that, hey, you know, in these blessings and curses that you will receive for your obedience and disobedience it always this call to return to the Lord your God right And I think it important to note that it this call to return in both blessing and in curse right So even when they disobey, yes, they're supposed to return to God, but even in the blessings that they receive, they're meant to give gratitude, to return to God to say, hey, you're the one that gave this to us, right? And I think this word return is really important in the Old Testament. We'll see it a lot in the prophets, where the prophets will basically tell Israel, hey, return to God, you're sinning, return to God. But I think really for us, this shows us God's compassion, that yes, there's blessings and curses, there's consequences for the way you live, but there's always the invitation to return. There's always the opportunity to turn back from our sin or to turn from our blessings and give gratitude, right? And that's why the results of our behavior can often take our focus, but remembering that God is the one that commands us to do these things in the first place, whether we obey or disobey, is super, super good and again, shows his compassion. Yeah, absolutely. So what do these chapters mean for us today? How can we kind of take those truths and apply them to our everyday lives Yeah So when I think about that idea of return and this invitation that being given it makes me think of the prodigal son the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 And there we basically get this story of this son who takes his dad's inheritance before his dad has died. So it's basically saying, hey, you're dead to me. Give me what I'm owed. Runs away to this far country, lives an indulgent lifestyle. But then eventually kind of comes to the end of himself where he just has nothing left. And he says to himself, okay, I'm going to rise and return. I'm going to go back to my father, right? He's resolving to go back to his father. And he tells him, he plans to say, hey, I'm not worthy to be called your son. So treat me as one of your hired servants so that I can be provided for. And so when he goes back, we might expect the father to basically say, you're dead to me. You're not my son anymore. You treated me like I was dead, so now you're dead to me. But that's not what we see. We see the father literally running like a fool out to go meet his son. And before his son can even get his whole confession out, he's already saying, hey, let's throw a party, right? My son who was dead is now alive And so it is just this idea that for us there always the invitation to return always the invitation to come home No matter how far gone we are no matter how much sin we think we committed that we not worthy of God's love anymore, there's always the opportunity to come back to his love and his grace is always there through Christ. Yeah. I love tying in the story of the prodigal son there. And I think my takeaway today is just how God is long-suffering. And I don't know about you, but sometimes I project on God, like his patience. When I'm the most patient I've ever been, I think, oh, this must be what God's patience is like. Yet that's a drop in the bucket compared to his long-suffering. And I know I've referred to this in past episodes and other books. But when we see, as we're reading through the Bible in a year, God's long suffering and patience with his people over generations, I mean, that's incredible. That's the kind of patience that I can't even fathom or grasp, but I'm so thankful we have the narrative of scripture that reveals that to us. And so that's something I'm going to be thinking on and meditating after these chapters today. All right. One more day in the book of Deuteronomy. We'll close it out tomorrow. Thank you.