August 27, 2020
The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!
In this chapter Moses explains the three main festivals that the people of Israel are to observe each year: the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. Each of these feasts serves as a reminder of the way that God had delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, and during these feasts the entire land was to rejoice before the Lord!
Why was it so important that the people of Israel have these feasts to remind them of God’s saving work in their lives? They needed these reminders because, as Moses has already asserted multiple times throughout the book of Deuteronomy, they were prone to forget God, to forget all He had done for them, and to go after other gods because of it. This is demonstrated in the ending of the chapter: Moses launches immediately from talking about these festivals of remembrance to warning them against injustice and, once more, against idolatry!
If you think about it, the church calendar functions in a similar way: we have the season of Lent leading up to our celebration of Easter, and the season of Advent leading up to our celebration of Christmas. We observe these things as a means of being reminded of the way that God has moved and worked in history to accomplish our salvation through Jesus Christ!
Because we are fallen, sinful creatures, we are all still so prone to forget God and all He has done. When we forget, we try to find our identity, our security, our joy, and our peace in lesser things that can never, ever give them to us! We need to be reminded daily of Who we serve and Whose we are, daily reminder of the truths of the gospel that we proclaim!
Choose to remember and to be reminded today!
Deuteronomy 16
Passover
16 “Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there. 3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. 4 No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. 5 You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, 6 but at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt. 7 And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. 8 For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.
The Feast of Weeks
9 “You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. 10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you.11 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. 12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
The Feast of Booths
13 “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. 15 For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
16 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.
Justice
18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Forbidden Forms of Worship
21 “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lordyour God that you shall make. 22 And you shall not set up a pillar, which the Lord your God hates.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Family Discussion Question:
- What are some ways that you can daily be reminded of who God is and all He has done for us in Christ? How can you set up reminders for yourself of these truths?
I will rejoice before the Lord my God.
Setting up a prayer journal, a gratitude list to show us daily what God is doing in our lives.
I so enjoy my daily quiet time, devotionals, and scriptures. A great start to each day. So much to be thankful for even during these strange and challenging times. God is with us every moment. Seek Him.
AMEN and HALLELUJAh!!! I start off reading my women’s devotional and then the devotional that our church sends every day. I pray before each meal thanking God for my blessings and to keep my family safe from harm. I will never sway from my Lord and Savior. I remind myself every day how much I am loved and also blessed by Lord and Savior. In Jesus name Amen
Dear Heavenly Father,
I am a planner, a list maker and an organizer. When I count my blessings, like the song says, and name them one by one, I can surely see what You, Lord , have done. And when I look in my prayer journal and see how You have answered prayers or changed the outcome of someone’s life, I am reminded of Your great power and might. I watch to see how You turn a bad situation or a sad event into one of reflection, restoration, praise or dependence upon You. In the end, lives are forever changed for the better. Thank You for loving us so much that You are constantly redirecting, teaching and influencing us for Your glory. I will forever, stand amazed! In Jesus name. Amen.
Amen! Let us put our lists and plans at your feet – you dear Lord number our days and direct our paths. Thank you for directing us. Thank you for hearing our pleas. Thank you for showing us mercy!
I recognize that with out you Lord, I am and have nothing. Thank you Lord for my life. You created me and sustain me. Forgive me for being preoccupied and not acknowledging your faithfulness to me.
Lent and advent are Roman Catholic events, also observed by Orthodox, Lutheran and Methodists. Why do we Baptists find it necessary to go back to what protestants left centuries ago? This in a way falls under God’s warnings about Israel adopting pagan worship. We should resist being participants in such things, should we not?
This is certainly one way to view the festivals. I have celebrated lent and events from the Old Testament only because they remind me and my family of our rich Christian heritage. The old Testament foreshadows the New Testament – and our salvation from Jesus Christs birth and resurrection. This completes the Old Testament and gives a reason why we celebrate in the festivals. I’m thankful the Roman Catholic’s kept our Christian heritage alive during the middle ages. I’m also thankful that during the Renaissance (rebirth) that our Christian heritage was born and flourish’s today – the good fight where Jesus is the victor.
Thank you to the writer of these devotionals. Very good insights that I’ve not thought of.
The Lord Jesus Himself celebrated those three festivals. He also added the Lord’s Supper which is the culmination and victory of those other three festivals. When we remember Jesus birth at Christmas we celebrate as the angels did while shepherds watched their sheep. When we celebrate Easter we recognize our Lord’s sacrifice of himself on the cross. His victory our salvation and joy. May God be praised in all of our celebrations God sees the heart and to whom the glory belongs. Let us not be entangled too much in arguments for we are not unaware of the devil’s ploys to divide us. Let each one of us examine our motives and make sure that to our One True God belong all of our devotion and praise.
Thank you Lord for your Grace for one day we shall understand these things better.
Grant us all wisdom as we continue to watch and pray that our hearts might not be deceived in these last days.ln Jesus name we pray Amen.???
Father,
May I worship you every day of my life.
You alone are worthy of praise and honor.
The clock rules my working life. Every hour and minute can be consumed with this or that priority. Help me to find the pause button often throughout the day.
May I never be too busy to stop and read your word and thank you for my many blessings.
I pause now to tell you how much I love you. In humility I ask, how can you use me now?
Let’s go now and find one more for Jesus!
Amen