Chronological Reading Plan for Mar 16, Deut 17-20

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 17, 18, 19 & 20. Tomorrow's are 21, 22 & 23.

God continues to review and embellish the guidelines for His children. Much of this was covered in Exodus and Levitcus but, it bears reviewing and repeating. God is establishing things like judicial and social order, worship, cultural identity. All of these will be important to Israel as they settle into their new home and begin lives as a royal priesthood, serving as examples to the entire world of what holy living should be like. All the while, God is revealing His character and nature, rolling out the templates He will use in redeeming lost souls, structuring His Church and its ministry in a fallen world. 

We have the advantage of hindsight. The Jews are unaware of the bigger picture. They're hearing these things for the first time, absorbing the parts they are given, embracing, in faith, the parts they cannot yet know. Like children, they will do well at times, stumble and fall at others. God has not yet revealed the full plan of redemptive history. It is sufficient, at this time, that His people are obedient. It is not necessary for them to know why, only that God "is" and has called them to do some very specific things.

We would do well to learn from them. They are faithful for no other reason than He is God. Yet sometimes they

demonstrate imperfection and at others, breath-taking, disobedience. Through it all God remains a constant presence, a consistent discipline, a fount of grace and mercy, bringing His children, step by step, into the fullness of His promise. 

He asks the same of us, not our perfection, but our desire to come closer, to know Him better. He asks us to repent when we stumble, but never expects us to walk perfectly without stumbling. The Law is there to show us the same thing it showed to the Jews, we are unable to avoid stumbling. We all need a savior.  With the benefit and blessing of the full counsel of Scripture, it is easy for us to see that Christ is our only savior. He is the only acceptable perfection for God's holy standards. In Him, we are being perfected...but each of us has a way to go.