Day 58: Deuteronomy 22, 23 and 24

If you see your brother's ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to him. (Deuteronomy 22:1)

There is a popular philosophy that can be summed up like this: Look out for #1. This sounds more like an advertisement for natural selection than it does the basis for an ethical system. The biblical writers take a different tack.

The writer of Deuteronomy records God's admonition that rather than selfishly looking after our own interests, we are to care for our brothers and sisters. Our brother's sheep that runs away is our responsibility to return, even if no one's looking. We are not to hide behind plausible deniability, but to do the right thing.

It goes on to say if we find an ox running loose and don't know who owns it, we are to take it home, feed and care for it until we find out who it belongs to, and then return it. Although it might be easier to ignore the animal, or more advantageous to keep it as our own, that's not the way for one who claims a relationship with God.

I can't remember the last time I came upon a wandering sheep or ox. So how does this apply to a 21st century inhabitant of a major metropolitan area? Jesus put it this way: Do to others what you would have them do to you (Matthew 7:12).

Seen any wandering oxen lately?

Day 57: Deuteronomy 19, 20 and 21

Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his brothers will not become disheartened too. (Deuteronomy 20:8)

In Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first inaugural address, as the nation was sinking into the Great Depression, he uttered these words: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Those words have been repeated over and over because of their profundity and for the comfort and assurance we are afforded by them.

Fear is contagious. Israel's leadership didn't want fear infecting the ranks of its volunteer army, so anxiety was a legitimate reason for being sent home. Better to lose one fearful soul than have panic spread to everyone else.

Fear can derail not only a nation's (or an army's) forward momentum; it can do the same to a church. So can negativity - one of fear's byproducts. That's why it's so important to speak positively. A careless word can do a lot of damage.

For he has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). That means fear doesn't get to tell us what to do. May our words, and the attitudes from which they are spawned, always move us forward and never hold us back.

Are your words an encouragement to those around you?

Day 56: Deuteronomy 16, 17 and 18

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. (Deuteronomy 18:15)

The words spoken by the prophets were not necessarily predictive in nature. Most of the prophets' message was forthtelling rather than foretelling. In other words, most of what a prophet spoke was God's message for those to whom he was speaking. This is not to say there is no benefit for the 21st century reader of such prophecies, but that the message made sense to the people who were physically hearing it. It would be arrogant as well as naive to believe biblical prophetic messages were aimed specifically at us and not applicable to our grandparents or our grandchildren. To understand God's message for us, we have to understand the message as it was intended for its original audience.

In the first century, people read that God would raise up a prophet like Moses from Israel. The writer of Matthew went to great lengths to identify Jesus with Moses and reveal that Moses-like prophet as none other than Jesus Christ himself.

What characteristics did Jesus share with Moses?

Day 55: Deuteronomy 13, 14 and 15

There should be no poor among you. (Deuteronomy 15:4)

We lived for a time in suburban Washington D.C. on the Maryland side. Our nation's capital is full of homeless people. They make their beds at Union Station and near the White House (both obviously major tourist destinations), among other places. Every once in awhile, especially before a significant event, the Capital Police will push the poor out of these more visible locations, and relocate them elsewhere. After all, it doesn't look good for the most prosperous nation in the world to have all these street people huddled beneath dirty blankets in front of tourists and TV cameras.

Chapter 15 talks about the Sabbath year for cancelling debts. There should be no poor among you. It's not the poor this passage is aimed at, but those with plenty. Deuteronomy does not blame the have-nots for their lot in life. It charges those with much to care for those with little. Do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs (Deuteronomy 15:7,8).

This section reminds me of Proverbs 19:17 - If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord - and he will repay you!

When's the last time you looked the other way rather than connected with the poor?

Day 54: Deuteronomy 10, 11 and 12

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?

Day 53: Deuteronomy 7, 8 and 9

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. (Deuteronomy 8:10)

The Israelites would soon be inhabiting a land to which they were connected only by DNA. Although they had never set foot in Canaan, their ancestors were buried there, and Abraham had legally purchased property therein ensuring an inheritance for his children and his children's children in perpetuity.

The houses in which they would live and the vineyards from which they would harvest were not of their own making. Others had labored to build the cities and plant the gardens. Moses didn't want his followers to take these things for granted. He wanted them to give credit where credit was due, and to express their thankfulness to God.

During this economic downturn ending the first decade of the the 21st century, those of us with jobs are perhaps more aware of how much we have to be thankful for than any time in recent history. But things are bound to improve - they always do. And when we are all breathing a little easier, and not constantly wondering if ours will be the next job lost, let's think back on this difficult time, be thankful for what we have, and remember to thank God for all the good things in our lives.

In fact, let's pause to say, Thank You, right now.

For what or for whom do you need to give thanks today?

Day 52: Deuteronomy 4, 5 and 6

If from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him. (Deuteronomy 4:29)

Our premise when we began reading at the beginning of the year was that these writings came to their complete and final form sometime during the Babylonian exile. I asked you to put yourself in the place of a Jewish expatriate. Things haven't been particularly rough in Babylon; you've settled down, raised a family, and even been relatively prosperous, but something inside you is longing to go home. When your parents told you about Jerusalem they got a far away look in their eyes that made you vow to return there one day if you ever got the chance.

Now there have been rumors that your fantasy may soon become reality. A new king has decreed that whoever wants may return to Judah and settle once again in the homeland. To prepare, the priests have been reading stories from Israel's beginnings, stories of enslavement and escape, stories of a people returning to the Promised Land - the very land of your childhood bedtime tales.

The stories even explain why Judah was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar and exiled to Babylon seventy years ago. It was Judah's unwillingness to obey the first commandment: You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3). But in these more recent stories, there is a promise made: Even if you've been scattered among the nations, If from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him.

It was a reminder that Yahweh would not be trifled with, and a promise that Israel would not be forgotten. Many years ago your ancestors left Egypt and journeyed to Canaan, but because of their disobedience the Jewish people were driven out of their Promised Land. You vow that if you ever see Jerusalem you will not make the same mistakes made by your parents and grandparents.

What lessons have you learned from family mistakes?