Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Deuteronomy 17 - 26.
We have been traveling and have gone a few days without an Internet connection. Therefore, having gotten behind, I am going to catch back up over a two day period.
Today I have finished Moses' second sermon. As I was listening to Moses describe God's laws, I kept hearing a common theme: "so you shall purge the evil from your midst".
We must remember the holy God is in their midst, and he refuses to be in the presence of evil. In fact, when God encounters evil, his inclination is to destroy it.
Therefore, God is instructing them how to lead holy lives, and to live in such a way as to keep their inherited Promised Land holy.
Unfortunately, these Israelites, just like you and me, are completely unable to keep these commandments as we dwell in a fallen world, and live with a fallen nature.
Therefore, most thankfully, God provided Israel with the sacrifice to cover their sins, and for us, two thousand years past the death of Messiah, God has provided the ultimate, once and for all sacrifice for us in Jesus Christ.
Our challenge, just like Israel's, is not to make light of the sacrifice by our continual disobedience, but to seek a continual forward movement in our journey to be like Christ.
It's hard work, isn't it?
