Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD
alone. 5
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you
today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about
them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you
rise. 8
Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your
forehead, 9
and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 10 When the
LORD your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you--a land with fine, large cities
that you did not build, 11 houses filled with all sorts of goods that
you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive
groves that you did not plant--and when you have eaten your fill, 12 take care
that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of slavery. 13 The LORD your God you shall fear; him you
shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear. 14 Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of
the peoples who are all around you, 15 because the LORD your God, who is present
with you, is a jealous God. The anger of the LORD your God would be kindled
against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth. 16 Do not put
the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17 You must
diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his decrees, and his
statutes that he has commanded you. 18 Do what is right and good in the sight of the
LORD, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and occupy the
good land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give you, 19 thrusting
out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has promised. 20 When your
children ask you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the decrees and
the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?" 21 then you
shall say to your children, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the
LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 The LORD displayed before our eyes great and
awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household.
23 He
brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he
promised on oath to our ancestors. 24 Then the LORD commanded us to observe all
these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep
us alive, as is now the case. 25 If we diligently observe this entire
commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the
right."
This is a very difficult passage to work with. The first
impression suggests that God assists a favoured nation to drive people off
their land, out of their houses and away from their food. They are to “go in and
occupy the good land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give you, thrusting
out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has promised.”
A God who assists a nation in colonizing the land is a
theme that has been used by many nations to justify occupying the land of their
neighbours. This is evidenced in the colonizing aspirations of the British
Empire, Nazi Germany, and the Apartheid Government of South Africa. All argued
that they ruled their occupied land as a God-given trust. But a loving and just
God does not crush the weak, or exclude the aliens – quite the contrary: Zephaniah
brings a word from the Lord: “I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I
will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.” [1]
I would therefore not want to justify the invasion of
land by the children of Israel as God’s special favour. I would rather suggest
that they – like many other nations – justified their land invasion by
attributing it to God. And in this we learn our lesson for today – a tough
lesson in the way we serve God: let us not equate our own greedy, selfish
desires with the will of God. We need to work much harder at discovering what is the
“good and acceptable and perfect” will of God.[2]
This is when we bend our will to the will of God – rather than wanting to claim
that God conforms to our will.
Song:
Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be
no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.
Trinity Sunday
30 The Triune God
The Scripture passage for
the day is drawn from Rueben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer
for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 190.
This reflection is from my own
devotional exercises for the day.
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