#didyouknow 1) Chosen people? Yes. Deserving people? No. This chapter sounds different from the other chapters. I think it should have been the prologue as opposed to an epilogue. As in, let me tell you all the reasons yalls a bunch of stiffnecked, short-term memory, ungrateful people. Its nice to hear cause otherwise all of this chosen business could get to ones head, I would think. 2) You dont deserve it, your enemies are just way more awful than you. I have a hard time with this one. 3) Moses and you When reading biblical stories, I try to make direct connections with the protagonists. What do Moses and Jesus do? How do Moses and Jesus think and view the world such that I can be more righteous, too? In this case, Moses is praying. He prays and humbles himself for the people he loves. He does this because not even G-d can stay calm having to deal with our behaviors. G-d needs Moses and Moses needs G-d. And the people need Moses and the people need G-d. So how does this apply to you/me? What this tells me is that we shouldnt be hard on ourselves for growing angry with one another, being frustrated by one another. This will happen. Its in our nature. It would be impossible for this not to happen. What we should do though, at least according to the Old Testament, is forgive be humble and pray (or appeal to higher forms of self) so as not grow a stone heart. 4) again with the anger But I addressed this above The Word: Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people. Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed you. Furthermore the Lord spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you. But the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also. Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. I prayed therefore unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm. (Deuteronomy 9:4-6, 8, 13, 19, 24, 26, 28-29 KJV)
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 12:46:15 +0000