Neither Add nor Take Away Anything

Jesus and the Just Reign of God
Live Justly in the Reign of God
Hear and Do the Word

Deuteronomy 4:1-10

The Message

4 ^1-2 Now listen, Israel, listen carefully to the rules and regulations that I am teaching you to follow so that you may live and enter and take possession of the land that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, is giving to you. Don’t add a word to what I command you, and don’t remove a word from it. Keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you.

^3-4 You saw with your own eyes what God did at Baal Peor, how God destroyed from among you every man who joined in the Baal Peor orgies. But you, the ones who held tight to God, your God, are alive and well, every one of you, today.
^5-6 Pay attention: I’m teaching you the rules and regulations that God commanded me, so that you may live by them in the land you are entering to take up ownership. Keep them. Practice them. You’ll become wise and understanding. When people hear and see what’s going on, they’ll say, “What a great nation! So wise, so understanding! We’ve never seen anything like it.”
^7-8 Yes. What other great nation has gods that are intimate with them the way God, our God, is with us, always ready to listen to us? And what other great nation has rules and regulations as good and fair as this Revelation that I’m setting before you today?
⁹ Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you’ve seen and heard to your children and grandchildren.
¹⁰ That day when you stood before God, your God, at Horeb, God said to me, “Assemble the people in my presence to listen to my words so that they will learn to fear me in holy fear for as long as they live on the land, and then they will teach these same words to their children.”

For Reflection

Some maintain that because Christ died for us that the old commandments have been replaced and no longer are valid.  Because we are saved by the unearned grace of God we can do anything we please with impunity.  Not so!  Christ did not end the old rules.  Rather, Christ extended the rules and gave us wisdom to apply them in love with compassion.  In doing so, Christ places us in charge.  In order to fill that charge well, we are obliged to learn from Jesus life and teaching, scripture, and each other to live lives justly as God has intended. 

Pray

for the wisdom to follow Gods rule compassionately seeking justice in all that you do.