Wednesday after the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 19, 2022 by under
Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:11-20 (NKJV)
30:11 “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
Devotion
Yesterday’s reading helps us understand today’s: the original audience for Deuteronomy was not made up of unbelievers. The things God has Moses tell the people to do are not things that can be done apart from Him. They can’t be done without faith in His works and His promises that make the hearers His people and Him their Lord! How would people “choose life” while dead in trespasses and sins? Such choosing is a spiritual impossibility for the unbeliever! (Cf. 1 Cor. 12:3; 3rd Article of the Creed in the Small Catechism.)
For you, though? It’s not mysterious, not far off, not beyond the sea or in heaven, so that you would need someone to go get it for you. It is already at hand—it’s already in your mouth, already given to you to speak and sing liturgically, even before you are old enough to read! This is why it is so essential that children be with their parents in church: so that they may learn to sing and say what the adults do each week. (They do it at home, but in the liturgy the experience comes with the guarantee that it is good and right and salvific!) Through such worship that Word of God becomes a part of them. What’s coming out of their mouths can help them to know that they need to cling to the Lord, and to know how it is done: continuing to believe that through Holy Baptism they already possess everlasting life, having been given faith in the crucified Son of God!
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.
