Covenant of Love Deuteronomy 1-16

Years ago, I was working with a gentleman who was telling me a story about a friend he had. In his version of the story, his female friend was likened to Mother Teresa. This woman's husband had some type of accident which caused a traumatic brain injury, and he was destined to spend the rest of his life in a full-time care facility. The wife divorced her husband and went on to marry another man. However, she made frequent visits to her first husband in the facility and would bring him to stay with her and her new husband over the holidays. My colleague thought this was such a noble and loving way to treat her ex-husband. (Now, I recognize that caring for a spouse who can no longer and will never be able to participate in the marriage as before, would come with extreme stresses and sadness that I haven't experienced.) However, the story struck me as just being terribly sad for the husband instead of considering the wife a saint.

As I have reflected on this week's reading this story came to mind. I feel like many American Christians treat God like this wife treated her husband. Once upon a time, when they first became Christians and they could sense the presence of God easily, they sought His face passionately and frequently. But as the burdens of life set in, they choose not to hold on to their commitment. Once they didn't feel the excitement of the relationship with the Lord and they were forced to continue on based largely on their commitment, they backed out. Now, they come to church occasionally and visit God on the holidays instead of seeking His presence daily.

A covenant cannot be based upon a feeling or the ease of enforcing the covenant. Satan will ensure that life is tough, in fact, brutal at times. We won't always feel the goodness of God working in our lives. Nevertheless, we are called to walk after Christ in the good times and the bad.

What has struck me about the book of Deuteronomy is that this has been the first time in our Bible reading this year that we are reading that we are to LOVE God and that He loves us! Thus far, much has been said about God the Creator, Provider, and Covenant-Maker. However, this week's reading in Deuteronomy gives us a new perspective on the level of commitment we are to have as we to respond to the Lord.

You may have heard Jewish teachers refer to "The Shema." This passage of scripture is a central passage to the daily life of the practicing Jewish believer. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 emphasizes that we are to love God with our whole being and that we are to weave these commandments into our hearts and daily lives, and we are to teach future generations how to love God.

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Deuteronomy 6:5

This verse might sound familiar to you from reading the gospels. In Matthew 22and Mark 12 we find Jesus quoting Deuteronomy 6 when responding to the scribes saying that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord thy God will all thine heart, soul, and strength. (And the second was like unto it, that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.) The highest calling in our walk with God is not merely perfect obedience, but rather we are to operate from a love-relationship with God.

Deuteronomy 7:7-9 points out that God loves His chosen people and is a faithful covenant keeper toward them. He is merciful to them that "love Him and keep His commandments". In chapter 10 we read that the Lord requires that we fear the Lord, walk in His ways, LOVE Him, and serve Him with all our heart and soul. Throughout Deuteronomy we are taught that God loves us, and we are to love Him in return. Although the concept of a love relationship could have been inferred from the previous books, it is laid out clearly for us in Deuteronomy. Our motivation for all that we do "religiously" should be motivated by our love. We are sinners saved by grace and that should provoke us to obediently and lovingly following the One who saved us. Our model of the love we are to have is Jesus Christ. He loved us, but He also loved the Father. If we consider how He walked sacrificially and in obedience to the Father, we have a picture of how we are to serve the Father.

I pray we each can know the great love of the Lord toward us and respond to Him with our whole hearts and souls through a life dedicated to Him.