Newsletter November 2024 Part 1
The Community of God
“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, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. 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. (Deuteronomy 10:12-15)
Moses spoke these words to the Israelites after reminding them of their fathers’ deliverance from Egypt and the covenant He had established with them at Mount Horeb. Moses had warned them not to fall into the sin of idolatry as their fathers had while he was on the mountain receiving the tables of stone on which God wrote the Ten Commandments. Now these tables lay in the Ark of the Covenant as a reminder of God’s purpose – to live in loving relationship with Him and with one another.
So far this second generation of the Exodus had known nothing apart from their seemingly endless journey in the wilderness, but now they were finally on the verge of entering the Land of Promise. Aaron had just died and Moses himself would soon follow. Without these leaders, it would be easy for them to enjoy the blessings of the land while failing to remember the God who had delivered their fathers and brought them into their inheritance. Moses therefore reminded them that it was not because of their merit that God had chosen them, but purely because of His love. All He was now requiring of them was to love Him in return and live their lives to please Him.
In Egypt, the Israelites had been strangers without rights, oppressed and exploited for the benefit of that powerful nation. The new existence that God intended for them in the Land of Promise was to be different. As God Himself is just and does not show partiality, the new community was to be governed by love and justice. (Deut. 10:17-19) As He had delivered them from oppression and made them into a people as numerous as the stars of heaven, they too were to show kindness to the weak – the fatherless, the widow and the stranger. Their love for Him and for one another was to be a sign to the nations of the world that He alone is God, the almighty Creator, who loves and cares for His creation.
Sadly, as we follow the story of God’s people, we see them turn time and again to the ways of the world, worshipping other gods and oppressing and exploiting the weak among them. God therefore sends them prophets who warn them of the consequences of their disobedience. Rejecting God by practising idolatry and injustice would ultimately lead to their expulsion from the land and their scattering among the nations whose ways they had chosen to follow. God would hide His face from them (Deut. 31:17-18) until they recognised their sin and turned back to Him with all their heart. Then He would bring them back to the land and restore them. (Jeremiah 3:14-18) In that day there would be no more need for an ark nor for tables of stone, for God would rule over them and write His laws in their hearts so that they all would know Him and live in obedience to His will. (Jer. 31:33)
When the eternal Word became flesh (John 1:14), God’s heart was ultimately revealed. In Jesus we see the expressed image of God’s person, the brightness of His glory. (Hebrews 1:3) He left the place of glory He had with the Father to share in our humanity and live in complete obedience to the Father’s will even to the point of giving His life on the cross. (Philippians 2:8)
In His last words to the disciples before the crucifixion, Jesus gave them a new commandment (John 13:34) … that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” While the commandment to love one’s neighbour was already part of the Mosaic Law, Jesus was taking this to a deeper level: This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13) He calls us to lay down our lives for one another, and for those who do not yet know Him. God’s presence now dwells in us, by the Holy Spirit, making us a shining light of love in a dark world of conflict and injustice. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. (Matthew 5:14). Are we allowing God’s light to shine within us, His body, so others will see and come to it and there find His salvation?