Day 94
Deuteronomy 1:1-2:23, Luke 9:57-10:24, Psalm 41:1-6
A new chapter and a new book. This is a new chapter for the people of Israel and Moses starts by reminding them what has gone before. We also have to remember that this is a completely different manuscript, possibly hardly ever read alongside the book of Numbers. So Moses is setting out what has gone before, and there is some important milestones for them to remember. When they have "done good" and when they have not. When they have followed God and when they have rebelled against them.
In the Gospel there is a good example of taking up our cross. Jesus warns of the cost that there can be when we follow the Lord, that it may not always be plain sailing. He then goes on to send out the 72 with this well known passage about how they are to react if their message is well received or rejected. In the Old Testament God tells his people to go and they step out in faith, in the New Testament Jesus is telling people to go, even without purse or bag, and they are to step out again. In both reading there is a cost, a wilderness and there is a journey and a wandering.
More significantly though, in both journeys there is a God. The Psalmist says that "The Lord will protect him and preserve his life". When we look at the history of the Bible, the time that lapsed between all these journeys, we see a God who remains constant. He was there throughout the Exodus, he was key in the life of the Psalmist, he walked with the disciples when they went ahead in the journey, and he continues to walk with us.
Sometime we need to hear the call to walk out like those disciples, to care for the poor like the Psalmist, but sometimes we just need to know that God is with us on the journey, we need to feel his presence and walk with him.
A new chapter and a new book. This is a new chapter for the people of Israel and Moses starts by reminding them what has gone before. We also have to remember that this is a completely different manuscript, possibly hardly ever read alongside the book of Numbers. So Moses is setting out what has gone before, and there is some important milestones for them to remember. When they have "done good" and when they have not. When they have followed God and when they have rebelled against them.
In the Gospel there is a good example of taking up our cross. Jesus warns of the cost that there can be when we follow the Lord, that it may not always be plain sailing. He then goes on to send out the 72 with this well known passage about how they are to react if their message is well received or rejected. In the Old Testament God tells his people to go and they step out in faith, in the New Testament Jesus is telling people to go, even without purse or bag, and they are to step out again. In both reading there is a cost, a wilderness and there is a journey and a wandering.
More significantly though, in both journeys there is a God. The Psalmist says that "The Lord will protect him and preserve his life". When we look at the history of the Bible, the time that lapsed between all these journeys, we see a God who remains constant. He was there throughout the Exodus, he was key in the life of the Psalmist, he walked with the disciples when they went ahead in the journey, and he continues to walk with us.
Sometime we need to hear the call to walk out like those disciples, to care for the poor like the Psalmist, but sometimes we just need to know that God is with us on the journey, we need to feel his presence and walk with him.
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