Confessional Lutheran Ministerium

Deuteronomy 12:15-32 NKJV

¹⁵ “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. ¹⁶ Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. ¹⁸ But you must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your hands. ¹⁹ Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ “When the Lord your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. ²¹ If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. ²² Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. ²³ Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. ²⁵ You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶ Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. ²⁷ And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat. ²⁸ Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

²⁹ “When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, ³⁰ take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ ³¹ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

³² “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

In today’s reading, Moses prepares the Israelites for the time when they’re settled in the Promised Land. He assures them that they will be able to eat all the (clean) foods they like. There were only two exceptions: First, any animals they raised or food they grew that was dedicated to God, whether sacrifices or offerings or tithes, had to be taken to the one designated place of worship, where it was to be eaten either by them or by the Levites. Second, they were never, under any circumstances, to eat blood.

“The blood is the life.” And the life of all creatures belongs only to God. If the Israelites took an animal’s life in order to eat its flesh, they were to pour the blood on the ground; they were allowed to eat its flesh, but they weren’t allowed to partake in its blood, in its life. It didn’t belong to them. But if they took the animal’s life in order to present it to God as an offering—as a substitute for their lives—then they were to offer the blood to God on the altar together with the flesh, as a recognition that the animal’s life, and their lives, belonged to God. It took the flesh and blood—the whole life—of an animal to make atonement for their sins.

These regulations concerning blood all pointed ahead to the coming Christ, who would give both His body and His blood as the redemption price of mankind. But because of these very regulations, Jesus’ words to the Jews were all the more striking: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me (John 6:56-57). Yes, we are both to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood, in order to receive life from Him. “The blood is the life.”

We do this in two ways. The first way is spiritual. We eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood by believing in Him who came to give His flesh and blood into death for our sins. The second way is sacramental, in the Sacrament of the Altar, where Jesus takes the flesh and blood once given and shed on the altar of the cross and gives them now to us under bread and wine, so that we actually eat His flesh and drink His blood, and in this way we receive eternal life from Him who is the life. Let us pray: Lord Jesus, we thank You for giving Your flesh and blood for us on the cross, and to us in Your Means of Grace. Grant us life everlasting through this gracious gift! Amen.

Deuteronomy 12:1-14 NKJV

12 “These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. ² You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. ⁴ You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.

⁵ “But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. ⁶ There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes— ⁹ for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, ¹¹ then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. ¹² And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. ¹³ Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; ¹⁴ but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

In his first sermon as pope, Leo XIV said that the mission of the Church is to achieve the kind of unity that values “the social and religious culture of every people.” Is that what we learn from today’s reading? Far from it! As the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, they were instructed to (1) destroy all the places of false worship, and to (2) seek the one place of true worship.

The pagan peoples who lived in Canaan worshiped many false gods. Their worship included altars, sacred pillars, and carved images, which they often set up on mountains and hills, and under prominent trees. God’s people were to have nothing to do with such practices. On the contrary, they were to seek out and destroy every object of false worship, because such things are detestable to God.

Meanwhile, they were to eagerly look forward to God’s choice of a single place for them to worship Him, the place where He would eventually “put His name for His dwelling place,” so that they might seek Him there and worship Him there by offering all their sacrifices and eating all their sacred meals in that place. There, in that one place on earth, God commanded the families of Israel to come and worship Him, and to do it with joy in their hearts. Jerusalem was eventually chosen as that one place of worship. Of course it was! Because that’s where the Christ would eventually offer Himself as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Moses’ commands in this chapter point to Christ, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The one place of worship for Israel pointed to Jesus Christ as the only One through whom sinners may approach God the Father, as the only One who makes us able to know and worship God rightly. Every attempt to worship God apart from Christ is as detestable to God as were the pagan altars of the Canaanites.

So, once again, the pope is lying. Christians are not called upon to value false religions, but to expose, avoid, and shun them and to seek God only through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, Your judgment against idolatry is severe. We thank You for rescuing us from it, and for teaching us to seek You only through Your beloved Son. Amen.

Psalm 119:145-152 NKJV

פ PE

¹²⁹ Your testimonies are wonderful;
Therefore my soul keeps them.
¹³⁰ The entrance of Your words gives light;
It gives understanding to the simple.
¹³¹ I opened my mouth and panted,
For I longed for Your commandments.
¹³² Look upon me and be merciful to me,
As Your custom is toward those who love Your name.
¹³³ Direct my steps by Your word,
And let no iniquity have dominion over me.
¹³⁴ Redeem me from the oppression of man,
That I may keep Your precepts.
¹³⁵ Make Your face shine upon Your servant,
And teach me Your statutes.
¹³⁶ Rivers of water run down from my eyes,
Because men do not keep Your law.

The acrostic poetry of Psalm 119 continues in today’s reading, where every verse begins with the Hebrew letter “Qoph,” which we will reflect in bold type below. (Today’s devotion is an extended prayer, based on the reading.)

I cry out (x2) to You, O LORD, and I do it, not half-heartedly, but whole-heartedly, seeking Your help and salvation, while also promising to live in obedience to Your commandments and to walk according to the things You have revealed in Your holy Word. I know that You do not save me so that I can continue to wallow in the filthiness of sin, but so that I may have the freedom to serve You in righteousness.

I rise before the sun comes up, and my eyes are awake before the night watches come to an end, not so that I can get ready for work, or catch up on the latest news or gossip, but in order to pray and to meditate on Your Word before I get on with the rest of the day. Because Your words are spirit and life. I draw my strength from them, and I am determined to live the rest of the day in accord with what You teach in Holy Scripture.

I ask You, LORD, to hear my voice, and not to hear in anger, or to grant my requests because of any goodness or worthiness in me, but to hear and to answer according to Your own goodness, faithfulness, and love toward those who take refuge in You. Meanwhile, I ask You to spare my life according to Your justice when I am persecuted unjustly by the wicked.

Because the wicked draw near, pursuing more and more wickedness, with which they would draw me away from You. And the nearer they draw to wickedness the farther they depart from Your law, O God, which teaches men to love You and their neighbor and to shun all evil. Meanwhile, although the wicked draw near for evil, You, LORD, are already near, teaching men what is right and true and preserving Your people from being overwhelmed by the wickedness that would destroy them.Of old have I known concerning Your testimonies (NKJV), or long have I known from Your testimonies, O LORD (ESV), that You have established them forever. Your Word and Your promises do not change. Your principles of right and wrong do not change. Because You do not change. And because of that, I know that I can depend on You no matter what happens. Amen.

Psalm 119:129-136 NKJV

פ PE

¹²⁹ Your testimonies are wonderful;
Therefore my soul keeps them.
¹³⁰ The entrance of Your words gives light;
It gives understanding to the simple.
¹³¹ I opened my mouth and panted,
For I longed for Your commandments.
¹³² Look upon me and be merciful to me,
As Your custom is toward those who love Your name.
¹³³ Direct my steps by Your word,
And let no iniquity have dominion over me.
¹³⁴ Redeem me from the oppression of man,
That I may keep Your precepts.
¹³⁵ Make Your face shine upon Your servant,
And teach me Your statutes.
¹³⁶ Rivers of water run down from my eyes,
Because men do not keep Your law.

In today’s portion of Psalm 119 the psalmist praises God for His wonderful testimonies (His ordinances, His witnesses), longs for God’s commandments, asks God to direct His steps by His Word, and asks that God’s face would shine upon him.

You, dear saint, are to pray these words and make these same requests and petitions from God as well. Why? Well, because you are a sinner; your own fleshly will is naturally against the things of God. In your day-to-day life you regularly turn away from God’s Word. Your sinful nature always leans away from everything godly and spiritually good for you. Your steps are naturally guided away from God and toward sin and rebellion.

 Repent. Repent and turn, in faith, to God in Christ. Repent of all your sins and sinful ways and in faith return to Your Maker and Redeemer who will never lead you astray or leave you without help and strength for whatever it is that you face.

Turn in faith to Christ Who gives you His forgiveness through His suffering and death which has paid for all your sins. Turn in faith to Christ Who unites you with His death and resurrection in Holy Baptism. Turn in faith to Christ who absolves you through His servant, your faithful pastor, through Holy Absolution. Turn in faith to Christ who gives you His true body and blood, under bread and wine, in Holy Communion.

God’s face indeed shines on you – He is graciously disposed toward you – through His Son’s work on the cross for you. And in faith, never forget these things so that your life and work abound to God’s glory and the good of your neighbor.

Let us pray: Praise and honor belong to You, O God, because You have given us Your Word, by which You clothe our poor and naked souls in the garments of salvation and bring us heavenly and abiding treasures. Fashion our hearts by Your Holy Spirit that we may crave not the things of this earth, but desire heavenly things; through Jesus Christ Your Son, our Lord. Amen.

Deuteronomy 11:16-32 NKJV

¹⁶ Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷ lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ²⁰ And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

²² “For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— ²³ then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. ²⁴ Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory. ²⁵ No man shall be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

²⁶ “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷ the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; ²⁸ and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. ²⁹ Now it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh? ³¹ For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. ³² And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.

This week’s readings from Deuteronomy have repeatedly recounted words from God to His people both warning them not to be unfaithful and promising unfathomable blessings if they obey. They were promised amazing victories over nations stronger, bigger, and mightier than they, good crops and land that would produce abundantly for them, timely rains, healthy livestock and more. It would all be theirs for as long as they kept the First Commandment, trusted God, and focused on Him… but it would all go away if they didn’t.

In vv. 18-20 God’s people were instructed almost literally to make God’s Word part of their very cell structure by constantly meditating on and talking about it. And they were to teach – catechize – their children daily and even throughout each day, “so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them…”

Here you are reminded of other portions of Holy Scripture that say similar things – verses and words that give hope, strength, and comfort – all based on God’s promises to His people. Ps 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Mt 28:20 – …teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Heb 13:5 – “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Dear saint, your good and gracious God always keeps His Word and promises. He never fails. He knows what is best for you even as He knew what was best for the Israelites through their existence and patiently taught them and welcomed them back into the fold whenever they strayed. That strength and comfort are also yours, and you can be certain of it because God the Father gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into death to pay for all your sins and give you the certainty of everlasting life with Him through God-given faith. Receive His Word and sacramental gifts regularly which keep you in the one true faith.

Let us pray: Thank You, Jesus, for everything. Amen.

Deuteronomy 11:1-15 NKJV

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. ² Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— ³ His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day; ⁵ what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— ⁷ but your eyes have seen every great act of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, ⁹ and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ ¹⁰ For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; ¹¹ but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

¹³ ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴ then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ¹⁵ And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’

Someone once said that if God had given only the First Commandment, it would still be more than enough. Someone else posited that commandments 2-10 are simply commentaries on the First. These statements are true, for everything in the life of the Christian is ultimately a matter of the First Commandment: “You shall have no other Gods before Me.” Keeping God’s name holy and keeping the Sabbath rightly are extensions of the First Commandment. Honoring those in authority over you, respecting all life, understanding that your body is the Spirit’s temple, not stealing, not speaking ill of others, and not coveting – all these are extensions of the First Commandment. They reflect how a person understands the fact that there is only one true God.

Luther’s meaning to the First Commandment says, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” And in the first verse of today’s reading, God, through Moses, tells the people, “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.” If the First Commandment is kept, respected, and reverenced, then all other things will be taken care of. That’s what God was reminding the Israelites of constantly as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. Basically, God said, “I promise to take care of you, lead you, guide you, protect you, and prosper you, as long as you obey Me and keep My Word. I know what is best for you, and if you know what is best for you, you will take Me seriously, and it will redound for your good and My glory. Always.”

The God of Holy Scripture is the only true God; all others are false and will lead you astray. Believe by God-given faith in Him. He has given His Son into death to pay for all your sins and give you the promise of everlasting life with Him in heaven. Repent of any unbelief, and run to Christ for His forgiveness, strength, and the peace which passes all understanding.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, thank You for dying and rising for me and giving me faith to trust and believe in You alone. Amen.

Deuteronomy 10:1-22 NKJV

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ark of wood. ² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.’

³ “So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶ (Now the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died, and where he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his stead. ⁷ From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of rivers of water. ⁸ At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this day. ⁹ Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised him.)

¹⁰ “As at the first time, I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights; the Lord also heard me at that time, and the Lord chose not to destroy you. ¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

¹² “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? ¹⁴ Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶ Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. ¹⁸ He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. ²¹ He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

Today’s reading is a continuation of Moses’ instructions to the Children of Israel just before they were to enter the Promised Land. Here Moses reiterates how God told him to make two stone tablets and go back up the mountain so that He would re-write the Ten Commandments on those tablets. And with the words, “which you broke,” God reminded Moses that he had destroyed the first two tablets in his rage at seeing the Israelites worshiping a golden calf.

In verses 12-22 there is a beautiful exhortation to the Israelites to walk in God’s ways, to love and serve Him, and to keep His commandments “for your good.” God had made it clear that He would indeed bless and protect the Israelites as long as they obeyed Him. They had nothing to fear – no enemies, no misfortune – as long as they remained faithful to God, His ways, and His Word.

God also exhorted them to repent of their being stiff-necked, for He had kept them in safety and promised them wonderful things for which they were to give Him thanks and praise, and by which they would continue to see God’s blessings.

Because of these things – God’s protection and promises – the Israelites were to love the stranger precisely because they themselves had been strangers in Egypt. They were to thank and praise God by being kind to others. In essence, they were to love God by loving their neighbor.

That’s your task as well, dear saint. You get to review your life in light of all of God’s blessings to you, the most important of which is His inestimable love demonstrated toward you by giving up His Son on the cross to pay for all your sins. In faith continue to believe in Christ’s love and forgiveness, thank God constantly for all His blessings toward you, and regularly receive His forgiveness and strength in His Word and Sacramental gifts, for “He is your praise, and He is your God who has done for you these great and awesome things.”

Let us pray: Thank You, Lord God, heavenly Father, for all Your benefits; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.

Deuteronomy 9:1-29 NKJV

9 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ ³ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.

⁴ “Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. ⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

⁷ “Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Also in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. ⁹ When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. ¹¹ And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

¹² “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.’

¹³ “Furthermore the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁴ Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

¹⁵ “So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁹ For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me at that time also. ²⁰ And the Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.

²² “Also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ Likewise, when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and you did not believe Him nor obey His voice. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

²⁵ “Thus I prostrated myself before the Lord; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ²⁶ Therefore I prayed to the Lord, and said: ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’

This section of Deuteronomy recalls some of the instruction that God gave to Moses to give to the children of Israel on the very day they were to cross the Jordan River and enter the new territory to take it as their possession. First, God reminded them that He is the One who would go before them “as a consuming fire” and destroy the descendants of Anak who were a very strong and foreboding nation, thus making it easy for the Israelites to take the land. God also clearly warned the people not to think that this gift of land was any of their own doing, or that it was because of their own righteousness. On the contrary, God was giving them this new land in spite of their disobedience and wickedness that they had displayed throughout their time in the wilderness wanderings. V. 6: “Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.” It was purely by God’s grace that they were to possess the land along with the fact that He always keeps His promises.

You, dear saint, deserve nothing but God’s wrath and displeasure because of your sins and sinful nature. You cannot take any credit for anything you have or have done of yourself. It is as we confess in the meaning to the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed: “He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.” You, too, are to remember that everything God does for you and gives you is from His pure grace and mercy, for you have no righteousness of your own, but only that which God graciously gives to you as you, by faith, trust and believe in God’s Son, Jesus, who has paid for all your sins. Remember that always and give thanks to God for all His benefits toward you.

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for everything I have, and help me always to give You the glory; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.

 Deuteronomy 8:1-20 NKJV

8 “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. ² And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ⁵ You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

⁶ “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰ When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ¹² lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ¹⁴ when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

“You shall surely perish!” That was God’s extremely blunt and fair warning – no, promise – to the children of Israel of what would happen to them if they forgot about Him and did not keep His commandment to walk before Him.

It seemed quite simple and easy; how hard could it be? All they had to do to receive innumerable blessings and protection from God was to observe – keep – His commandments and live the way He wanted them to live. God knew what was best for them, and He knew how everything was going to work out; He had it all planned. God warned them not to forget all His blessings, not to forget how He had brought them through the wilderness for forty years, how their garments never wore out, and how He had promised to bless them beyond measure in the new land they were about to enter. It all seemed so easy…

And yet, as biblical history demonstrated, they failed. And each and every time they failed, God not only rebuked them but tried to bring them back to His ways. They were to live not on bread alone but on every Word from God.  That was the only sure thing God’s people had back then.

And God’s Word alone is the only sure thing that His people still have today. You, dear saint, have only God’s Word to depend on and from which to draw your strength. You have His Word that proclaims to you that Christ paid for all your sins, all your disobedience, all your failings. You have His promise of life everlasting.  You have His forgiveness given to you through Word and Sacrament each and every week in the Divine service, forgiveness which is received through God-given faith and trust in Christ – a forgiveness that strengthens and keeps you in the one true faith. Keep receiving Christ in all the ways He wants you to have Him, for that is the only way you are certain of “keeping the commandments of the Lord your God.”  And then you are blessed.

Let us pray: Lord, keep me steadfast in Your Word as You continue to feed me by and through it; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.

Psalm 119:113-128 NKJV

ס SAMEK

¹¹³ I hate the double-minded,
But I love Your law.
¹¹⁴ You are my hiding place and my shield;
I hope in Your word.
¹¹⁵ Depart from me, you evildoers,
For I will keep the commandments of my God!
¹¹⁶ Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live;
And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.
¹¹⁷ Hold me up, and I shall be safe,
And I shall observe Your statutes continually.
¹¹⁸ You reject all those who stray from Your statutes,
For their deceit is falsehood.
¹¹⁹ You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross;
Therefore I love Your testimonies.
¹²⁰ My flesh trembles for fear of You,
And I am afraid of Your judgments.

ע AYIN

¹²¹ I have done justice and righteousness;
Do not leave me to my oppressors.
¹²² Be surety for Your servant for good;
Do not let the proud oppress me.
¹²³ My eyes fail from seeking Your salvation
And Your righteous word.
¹²⁴ Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy,
And teach me Your statutes.
¹²⁵ I am Your servant;
Give me understanding,
That I may know Your testimonies.
¹²⁶ It is time for You to act, O Lord,
For they have regarded Your law as void.
¹²⁷ Therefore I love Your commandments
More than gold, yes, than fine gold!
¹²⁸ Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things
I consider to be right;
I hate every false way.

Psalm 119 is clearly the longest of all the psalms. It contains prayers, comforts, instructions, and much thanks to God for His great works and mercy. Therefore, you, dear saint, can read and meditate upon these words for encouragement and strength.

Verse 113 mentions the “double-minded” which the author says he “hates.” Hate is a strong word, but in these words given and inspired by the Holy Spirit, you are encouraged to hate the things that God Himself hates. The phrase “double-minded” in the Hebrew means people who are skeptics, wavering. This word is used to describe individuals who are not fully committed or are wavering in their faith. The imagery of division suggests a lack of unity or coherence in one’s convictions, leading to skepticism or indecision.

In the context of biblical teachings, a divided mind is often seen as a hindrance to faithfulness and spiritual growth. The Bible encourages believers to have a steadfast and unwavering faith, contrasting the divided mind with the ideal of wholehearted devotion. How about “wishy-washy” or “wobbly.” These adjectives describe those who are both easily lead astray and those who easily lead others astray. Both are dangerous and injurious to the one true faith. One who is not certain and tries to teach others will, of necessity, be unable to speak and teach rightly about God’s will and work and will lead others away from Divine Truth.

Your prayer, dear saint, is a culmination of several of these verses: “Uphold me according to Your Word, that I may live;” “Hold me up, and I shall be safe;” Give me understanding that I may know Your testimonies;” Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy.” And God does all those things through His preached Gospel and rightly delivered Sacraments. By faith, receive these things regularly, and you will be kept from being double-minded. Instead, you will be kept in the one right Way, the way of forgiveness and salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ for you.

Let us pray: Lord, keep me in Your way, for You are my hiding place. Amen.