Focus
Stop and thank God for being present with you today. Ask for God’s guidance as you hear God’s voice through scripture and the writer.
Read
Deuteronomy 27:1-10 (NRSV)
Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged all the people as follows: Keep the entire commandment that I am commanding you today. On the day that you cross over the Jordan into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and cover them with plaster. You shall write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over, to enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you. So when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, about which I am commanding you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall cover them with plaster. And you shall build an altar there to the LORD your God, an altar of stones on which you have not used an iron tool. You must build the altar of the LORD your God of unhewn stones. Then offer up burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God, make sacrifices of well-being, and eat them there, rejoicing before the LORD your God. You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very clearly.
Then Moses and the levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying: Keep silence and hear, O Israel! This very day you have become the people of the LORD your God. Therefore obey the LORD your God, observing his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today.
Reflect
“Careful. Careful. Careful.” Every step I climbed, my worried and watchful mother said, “careful.” It was a prayer, a command, a heartfelt plea. “I know you are eager to go up, dear daughter, but be careful.”
Maybe she overdid it: when I learned to talk, I called stairs “carefuls.”
Moses has led this difficult bunch of people out of Egypt and through a dangerous wilderness. There have been plenty missteps along the way. There have been whiny moments and rebellious ones; they have doubted both God and Moses; they have received and then summarily broken the Commandments and lots of other laws. It hasn’t been an easy journey for anyone.
In the span of just six verses, God commands the people to build an altar, write the laws on it, and make a sacrifice—and then repeats all of it, just in case people weren’t listening carefully.
Poised to finally cross the Jordan into the Promised Land, God wants the Israelites to be careful. Be careful to remember who you are—and whose you are. Be careful about your priorities. Don’t go rushing headlong into that land of milk and honey: be careful to tend to your relationship with God!
Pray
Lord, quiet our hearts.
Teach us to slow down,
to pay attention to your commands,
to honor you as we move through this day, and
to carefully tend our relationship with you,
no matter what else is on our plate.
Amen.
Go with God!
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