Tuesday after the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 10, 2023 by under
Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:12-21 (NKJV)
10:12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? 14 Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. 15 The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. 16 Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. 18 He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. 19 Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. 21 He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.”
Devotion
The preaching of Moses reflects the answer of our Lord to the Pharisees from this past Sunday’s Gospel reading. Moses commands the Israelites to “fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord.” Why are they to do this? Because the Lord God chose their fathers above all peoples of the earth. They were the elect of the Lord to be His people and He would be their God, their only God. The physical sign of this was through circumcision. But Moses commands the Israelites to have circumcised hearts, that is, to cleanse their hearts through contrition over their sins and faith in the Lord God’s grace and forgiveness.
We have also been chosen by the Lord God. We are His elect, whom He has chosen since before the world’s foundation. The proof of this is in the Son of David, the Lord Jesus, who became flesh for us in order that He might buy us back from sin, death, and the power of the devil by His innocent suffering and death. We have been buried with the Christ through Holy Baptism. He is our God, and we are His people. We have received the spiritual circumcision which by the faith created in us leads us into contrition and faith in the Lord God’s grace and forgiveness.
Prayer: O God, forasmuch as without Thee we are not able to please Thee: Mercifully grant, that Thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
