Today’s readings. (Deuteronomy 16), (Ecclesiastes 8), (Acts 7)

We all have memories; bad things we try to shut out of our memory, good things we try to retain and bring to the fore.  We read today how Moses told the people to look back on; “all the days of your life (that) you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt” [Deut. 16 v.3]  The Passover Feast was set up to aid that memory, to cement it into their consciousness.  Most of the generation that had experienced the miraculous deliverance had failed to do that and had died in the wilderness because of their faithlessness.  Now Moses is delivering the message to the next generation; whose leaders had been teenagers and children at that time.

Today’s chapter details the feasts they are to keep when they start living in the promised land. As well as remembering the actual deliverance, through the Passover feast, there are 3 other feasts associated with farming the land and the reward of harvesting.  This they would experience for the first time in their lives. The key lesson is they are not to “appear before the LORD empty handed.  Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD” [v.16-17].  

Verse 20 has another blunt ‘punch line’ message, “Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

Now we consider our own journey in life, how close are we to the climax of all that God has prepared for all those who truly believe in and love Him?   Is the crossing of the Jordan close at hand for us?

We must face up to today’s challenges and make sure we “escape all the things that are going to take place” [Luke 21 v,36] as the Almighty prepares to cleanse the earth of its’ evil.  Let us “remember the day” when we made the commitment to join the Lord’s side and accepted his “deliverance” by being baptised.   If you have not yet experienced such a day – ask yourself – very seriously – why?  Don’t let “that day come upon you suddenly like a trap” [Luke 21 v.34] so that you fail to enter a far greater “promised land”.