I have come to love the book of Deuteronomy.
Yes, Deuteronomy.
No, Deuteronomy isn’t just a list of laws. Or a repeat of Exodus and Numbers. (Although sometimes it feels that way when you read them one after another.) Deuteronomy is Moses’ last words to the people he led out of Egypt and through the wilderness, the ones that will now go without him into the land God promised them. So Moses wants them to remember who God is and who they are. And in doing so, Moses gives us glimpses into the heart of God.
Nothing encapsulates that for me like Deuteronomy 5:29. In this verse, Moses is recounting a conversation between himself and God earlier in their journey. As Moses quotes God, the words feel spontaneous, full of emotion and passion.
The words feel like the way I talk about what I want for my own children. And I know my desires for them come from deep in my heart. Why would I expect any less of God?
I love this verse for its foreshadowing, too. Obviously in our sinful nature we can’t keep “all His commandments always.” At least not without the Holy Spirit living inside of us. I think in these words, God reveals all the longing of looking ahead to the time when He would make it possible through Jesus for things to “be well with us and our sons forever.”
To me, this verse sums up God’s immeasurable love for His creation, His great longing for our hearts to choose Him.
I love how much God knew…even then. Like you mentioned–the foreshadowing…powerful.
~ Wendy
Gives you more confidence to trust He holds your future, doesn’t it, Wendy? He sees the end from the beginning, and He desires it to be well with us forever. I love that!
A beautiful verse, Anne! Thank you so much for sharing…
And also for encouraging me to stick with the OT. Haha…I started reading the OT again in January, but I’m often tempted to jump back to the NT. Sometimes it’s just feels easier to find the life application there. But there’s a reason for all the stories we’re told in the OT…and your verse today reminded me to stick with it. 🙂
I think of it like this, Melissa: I could pick up my favorite novel and read the part toward the end, just before the climax and through the denouement over and over and find some satisfaction in it. But if I read the whole story from the beginning, the way the author intended, that moment of resolution the end is so much sweeter for having understood all that went before. For of course man didn’t create story. Story is yet another facet of our amazing God. When you read the OT looking at it as a part of the whole, it opens a whole new meaning to so very many things in it! (I learned this long ago from Kay Arthur Bible studies–and I’m so grateful!) Keep reading, my friend!