Today's reading: Deuteronomy 30; Luke 9
I feel like a complete broken record in bringing this up over and over again, but as we get near the end of Deuteronomy, I just feel like this is such essential context for us to have going forward through the rest of the Old Testament.
The popular conception out there today of God in the Old Testament being vindictive and ready to judge at the drop of a hat is simply not the picture we actually have in the Old Testament.
Yesterday we saw some pretty intense curses that God said He would bring upon Israel if they failed to obey Him, and they definitely are intense, but the thing is, like we've talked about over and over, God does not set a very high bar for them avoiding those curses. Largely it comes done to maintaining their loyalty to Him and not turning to serve and worship other gods in the land He is giving them. He even reminds them as much multiple times in our chapter today with warnings like, "But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish."
And, to be clear, this is an entirely reasonable expectation. None of those other gods left Canaan to rescue Israel from Egypt. None of those other gods provided the people manna to sustain them while they were wandering in the wilderness for forty years. None of those other gods drove people out of a good land to give it to them. In fact, it was the people of those other gods who were defeated before Yahweh and His people so that He could give them that good land. Even apart from Him being God of gods, Lord of lords, and author of all creation, in so many ways God has earned the right to expect loyalty from Israel specifically.
So as we continue on through the Old Testament and we are reading about the initial rumblings of these curses in Judges, or as we get into the prophets and see them come full force against Israel, it is essential to remember that God is not eager to bring these curses upon His people, and He is not bringing them because someone somewhere got the timing wrong and didn't wait long enough after being made unclean before bringing their offering or something. These curses come about because Israel at large turns from Yahweh to serve god who have not earned their allegiance the way He has.
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