And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you? (Deuteronomy 10:12) One thing I like about Deuteronomy is how it encapsulates the entire forty-year wilderness experience into 34 readable chapters. When reading Exodus through Numbers (espeically Leviticus), it's easy to think God is all about rules and regulations, but Deuteronomy boils it down to what's really important: What does the Lord ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heartand with all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good (Deuteronomy 10:12,13)?
And did you catch that last part? ...for your own good? It's important to remember that God's laws are good for us. God created us to live in loving relationship with him and with people. When left to our own devices, we often abuse our freedom and end up hurting other people, sometimes to the point of damaging those relationships - even unintentionally. But obeying God's laws preserves and can even restore them.
Have you ever damaged a relationship by neglecting God's laws? Was it worth it?
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