Glory to God! Hallelujah! As we are entering in to a new week and a new day in our life, let us be aware of the fact that the Lord our God is the One who keeps us alive and keep moving forward in life for we are created by God in His own image and likeness (refer to: Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7; 5:1-2; Job 33:4; Psalm 8:4-6; 100:3; Isaiah 43:7; 64:8; Malachi 2:10). Also, we need to understand that the things that keep us alive [such as life, the body and all the parts, oxygen, water, food, and so on for the functioning of that body] are neither created by human beings nor controlled by them rather they are created and controlled by the One who created us – the Lord God Almighty. In order to survive on this earth, one needs to have life in oneself, an appropriate body for that life to live in and survive, need body parts such as heart, liver, kidneys, blood vessels, nose, mouth, stomach, and all other necessary parts in the body to function the body to keep it alive/active. And, it is beyond human beings’ abilities to create life or make a body or body parts such as ours [or any other living things] or substances like oxygen, water, and the food we consume without which it is impossible to live/survive on this earth. In the light of this, God is asking us, as His dear children and the beneficiaries of God’s benevolence and benefits, to represent Him in the world and display His loving kindness and mercy and compassion and righteousness and justice and so on in and through our lives. In return, God is expecting nothing from us but to manifest His character and attributes in and through our life style and love and fear Him without any hesitation and obey His commands completely.

The Scripture passage we chose for our meditation is very instructional and rewarding if we do what it says (Deuteronomy 10:12-13 / mentioned above). In a nutshell, the book of Deuteronomy is the summarized form of all that the Lord their God did and said to the Israelites for the past forty years as they traveled through the wilderness as Moses repeated to the later generation of Israelites, as it is mentioned: These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—that is, in the Arabah—opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab … In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them (Deuteronomy 1:1-13). During those years of traveling and temporary tent-living as they traveled through the wilderness and remote places, the Israelites went through a mixed kind of life-experience in their everyday life, which means, there were some good days [whenever they followed the Lord faithfully] and bad days [whenever they rebelled against Him]. As we evaluate their everyday life-situations, we can understand that most of the times the Israelites failed to follow Him faithfully and, thus, sinned against Him. Despite them being unfaithful to the Lord on several occasions, He had compassion on them as He was not willing to destroy them completely rather the Lord said to Moses to lead them to possess the land He swore to their ancestors to give them, as Moses stated: … It was not his will to destroy you … and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them (Deuteronomy 10:10b-11). God still loved them and cared for them and led them to the land He promised to their ancestors to give them. As per Moses’ descriptions, all that the Lord asked of them was to fear and love Him, and obey His righteous laws and decrees and commands, as it is mentioned in Deuteronomy 10:12-13 …

• • … fear the Lord our God (10:12a)
  • … walk in obedience before the Lord our God (10:12b)
  • … love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul (10:12c)
  • … serve the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul (10:12d)
  • … observe/obey His righteous commands (10:13a)
  • … observe/obey His righteous decrees (10:13b)
  • … so that, our life will be fruitful and rewarding (10:13c)

This means, God expects us to submit to the will of God fully and wholeheartedly and follow Him faithfully, which means, a complete surrender with obedience and a total dedication with absolute loyalty is required to follow Him faithfully. Moses continued to live faithfully before the Lord his God all his days and praised God, saying: I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he (Deuteronomy 32:3-4). As the Scripture points out and encourages us …

• • … let us trust God
  • … let us fear God
  • … let us love God
  • … let us serve God
  • … let us obey God
  • … let us follow God wholeheartedly
  • … let us walk in His ways
  • … let us keep His righteous laws and decrees and commands, and
  • … let us do good and the right thing at the right time

Dear friends in the Lord, as we conclude our this week’s meditation on Deuteronomy 10:12-13, let us be aware that the Lord God promised His blessings to everyone everywhere equally because God does not show favoritism, as Apostle Paul stated: For God does not show favoritism (Romans 2:11). Moses also stated that For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes (Deuteronomy 10:17). Jesus said that the Lord God Almighty is kind to the ungrateful and wicked (Luke 6:35) and causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). However, the difference is that those who follow Him faithfully and keep His commandments will receive the promised blessings and those who do not follow Him faithfully will miss receiving those promised blessings. As parents want their children to follow their instructions or a company or institution ask its employees to follow their policies/requirements as they accept the job offer, the Lord requires everyone to love Him with all their heart and mind and soul and strength and keep His laws and decrees and commands in its entirety and, then, ask whatever they want, it will be given to them as Jesus assured (John 14:13; 15:16; 16:23-24). May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!