Chip Shots

"What stands out to you as you read the book of Deuteronomy?"  I asked this question of our small group several years ago. One person was quick to respond: “Why does it keep saying, ‘The Lord your God’?” She was right to notice this. A variation of "The  Lord  your God" occurs 254 times in Deuteronomy. That’s TEN times more than almost any other book in the Bible. Clearly, Moses had an important point to make. He wanted his hearers (and readers) to never forget that the God who had rescued and brought them to the Promised Land was in fact, “the Lord your God.” This may not seem like a big deal to you, but it should be. After all, it was a revolutionary idea among ancient peoples.  In every other culture, gods were distant deities, unpredictable, and capricious. Appeasing them was a guessing game at best. There certainly was no idea of a personal relationship with the gods, no sense of a God who cared about them, a God who was personally committed to them. Until t...

A recurrent theme in Numbers is this question: “Who’s in charge here?”  It begins on a high note. The tabernacle and its furnishings are completed as per God’s instructions. Aaron and the priests are consecrated accordingly.  The glory of God, before seen only on the mountain amid thunder and lightning, comes to rest in the tabernacle. They observe their second Passover with the memory of their deliverance from Pharaoh still fresh in their minds.  The motley crew who straggled out of Egypt a year earlier is now a mighty army, marching together under the standard of God’s glory. The Ark of the Covenant, symbol of God’s presence, leads the way.  It is an impressive sight. They are assembled in camps by tribe, three abreast, surrounding the portable tent of meeting. This always makes me think of the "canvas cathedral" where we worshiped for several years, as you old-timers will recall, and pictured above. “The Lord bless you and keep you,” Aaron says, a beautiful benedi...