S - Deuteronomy 10:12-13, (NRSV): "So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. … For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen."
O - The Lord's requirements: fear, walk, love, serve and keep. These are the verbs used to describe Israel's ongoing response to the Lord who brought them out of bondage to be their God. In this passage, fear is the gateway to all the others and the only one mentioned twice. The wholesome dread of displeasing the One you love (my working definition of the Fear of the Lord) is essential to all the others. It is the beginning of wisdom and when this fear is active all the other requirements find their way out in our lives. When this one is absent, the others will fade and warp. The lack of this essential relational foundation with the Lord is evident in the Pharisees (those who think they're "in") who set his ways aside for their own, honored him with their lips but their hearts were far from him, and served their own desires while claiming such to be his. The result was partiality, bribes, the perversion of justice, the oppression of orphan and widow and the complete disregard for the stranger. With out this fear, we use his words (written voice) to fashion 'a god' in our own image, understanding and likeness … claiming it to be the real God. Without the fear of the Lord, we keep and use the words but lose and refuse their meaning. We end up praising the work of our own hands rather than partnering with him in his awesome work and becoming witnesses to what he has done and is doing.
A - Clearly, the idea of a relationship with God is NOT a concept reserved for the NT or something Jesus and his followers "adapted" from the OT. Amidst all the regulations and prescriptions, the OT consistently calls people to an ongoing heart response to the living God. Interestingly enough, the key for the human being is found in the fear of the Lord. Without this, even the awesome and amazing grace of Jesus is rendered ineffective. The wholesome dread of displeasing the One I love will inspire, convict, provoke, call, command and otherwise make plain my course on a day to day basis. It will cause me to turn in rather than out. It will keep me acclimated to the real truth rather than religious preference. It will cause me to keep the words and their meaning.
Facing the facts,
Expecting His help,
Adopting His priorities and
Refusing to exempt myself from his word (written voice),
this how I may consistently engage the fear of the Lord which is pure, life giving, life sustaining and the beginning of everything wise. As Jesus points out in Luke 12, when I/we fear the Lord, we never have to be afraid. This is my assignment today and everyday while it is called today.
P - Awesome and Everlasting God,
Thank you for wanting the whole world, every human being to come near and stay near in ongoing relationship with you. Thank you for making us in your image and for setting your affection on us - no matter what. Thank you for making the way for us to follow, for dignifying our lives with the grace to choose and with the power of your grace which enables our choice to become a living reality in us and through us. Everything in your kingdom lives, water, stones, sacrifices and words. You alone are life and show us the way of life. I really do want to love you back, to live in the wholesome dread of displeasing you, to fear you so I never have to be afraid. I welcome you and your will on earth like they do in heaven. I admit and rejoice in you and your purposeful intersections and allowances. I admit my need to experience you and to learn your ways, which are not like me or this earth. I admit that I can fear others … but you call me to fear you alone. Again, dear Lord, this is how I want to live this day and everyday unto the walk, love, serve and keep which you both desire and deserve. My answer to you today and everyday is yes. None like you, none like you.
Steve
Expecting His help,
Adopting His priorities and
Refusing to exempt myself from his word (written voice),
this how I may consistently engage the fear of the Lord which is pure, life giving, life sustaining and the beginning of everything wise. As Jesus points out in Luke 12, when I/we fear the Lord, we never have to be afraid. This is my assignment today and everyday while it is called today.
P - Awesome and Everlasting God,
Thank you for wanting the whole world, every human being to come near and stay near in ongoing relationship with you. Thank you for making us in your image and for setting your affection on us - no matter what. Thank you for making the way for us to follow, for dignifying our lives with the grace to choose and with the power of your grace which enables our choice to become a living reality in us and through us. Everything in your kingdom lives, water, stones, sacrifices and words. You alone are life and show us the way of life. I really do want to love you back, to live in the wholesome dread of displeasing you, to fear you so I never have to be afraid. I welcome you and your will on earth like they do in heaven. I admit and rejoice in you and your purposeful intersections and allowances. I admit my need to experience you and to learn your ways, which are not like me or this earth. I admit that I can fear others … but you call me to fear you alone. Again, dear Lord, this is how I want to live this day and everyday unto the walk, love, serve and keep which you both desire and deserve. My answer to you today and everyday is yes. None like you, none like you.
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment