Deuteronomy chapter 10

vs 12

You started out by making it sound like it wasn't going to be much! In fact, it is a huge ask. But then, you have to weigh up the request with the reward. Ok, so you basically have to swear a loving fealty and constant obedience to someone. Sounds like less than the ideal deal. But that someone is God. Surely that is the key to the whole bargain.

I think it's important that we realise that God does ask a lot from us. He asks everything, in fact. But as has already been said (and not by me), when you are in this situation where you face God, where else can you go, and what else can you do?

vs 13

Oh, wait, there are some more things to do. Still, as I said, there is nothing that you can put on the scales that's going to make a relationship with God be outweighed.

vs 14

In other words, don't mess with him. But also, don't undervalue him.

vs 15

God's awesomeness is to be compared to the ordinariness of Israel. And yet they were chosen, and loved. And that love remains, hundreds of years later.

vs 16

The circumcision of the heart is not a new thing that Jesus invented. It is an old thing that God describes, or at the very least Moses. Circumcision is the mark of the covenant with God, and so the circumcision of the heart means committing your heart to God. God wants from them a change of attitude. Their present attitude is not good enough - they are stiff necked.

I am always wary about saying things like this in church, because if a church is more or less on the right track and people are doing well, then there's no reason to call them a stiff-necked people. Yes, we've always got to be aware of our sinfulness, but this message is for a people who were publicly disobeying and turning from God.

vs 17

I'm not quite sure why the bit about bribes is in there. Perhaps it is to highlight how above petty human judgments he is.

vs 18

Not only is God just, but he is also loving, merciful, and inclusive! He isn't just fair - he goes out of his way to help the widow and the foreigner. He deliberately helps them. Is this going so far as to be positive discrimination? I don't know. Possibly. It's not really clear, but the fact that God is for the weak is certainly clear.

vs 19

As God does, so are his people to do. This command should have run loud and clear in Israel. But instead, so often foreigners were hated and despised.

vs 20

This has been said before, I think. But here it is made clear again. God demands worship in all areas of life, in areas of truth especially. He demands that your actions be for him first, and only, really.

vs 21

And this is the payoff. In return for total subservience, Israel receives God as their God. They can claim him as their own. They are his special possession. To modern liberalism, this is blasphemy - the idea that the best place to be is in bondage to another, and beholden to their will. The idea that another person knows what is good for you better than you do. But there it is.

vs 22

This is just one of the things God has done to show his faithfulness to Israel - made them a nation, as he promised he would to Abraham. Even just by looking at the number of people who are around them now, they can see God's faithfulness.