Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why You Need a Reminder | Torah | Deuteronomy 27:1-8

Episode Date: November 2, 2022

Are you a forgetful person? Do you often forget God's gifts? How does God give reminders of his love for his people. Jensen shares the reminder of God's gifts from Deuteronomy 27:1-8. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Deuteronomy 27:1-8 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. You could say that I'm a forgetful person. And if you said that, you'd probably be super right. And because of this personality trait, I found that it's helpful to leave myself little reminders around the house so that I won't forget to do things. Like the other night, my husband asked me if I could vacuum up the living room while our son was napping the next day. and I told him as long as I remember, I would do it. But if he really wanted me to do it, then he should probably set the vacuum out in the living room the next morning so that I couldn't possibly forget. I knew that the next morning, every time I saw the vacuum, I would remember what Sam had asked me, and I'd vacuum up the living room. See, reminders are helpful. Apple even gave us a permanent app on our phones to send as reminders because they know that we all have a tendency to forget things we don't want to forget. Visual reminders can help us call to the front of our minds things that are important to remember. Now, the first eight verses in Deuteronomy 27 begin the third section of Moses's speech to the Israelites. He has finished the retelling of the law, and now he's setting out to lay down the blessings and curses that come along with keeping or failing to keep these laws that God has commanded of them.

But before he jumps in, we have these eight verses. Let's read them together. Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people. Keep all these commands that I give you today. When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster. Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you,

a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord the God of your ancestors promised you. And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal as I commanded you, and coat them with plaster. Build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them. Build the altar of the Lord your God with field stones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God. And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones you have set up. Moses begins this section by telling

the Israelites that they must keep all the commands he has just given them today. Now, if you've been listening, you know that these commands are long and detailed and can sometimes be difficult to understand and even follow. What Moses is commanding them isn't an easy ask. As the Israelites finally step over into this promised land, they are being reminded that their daily life is to be governed by obedience to God's law. And then, the first thing they are to do when they enter into this land is to stop and build an altar and to write these laws out onto the stones of the altar. And there they will sacrifice offerings to the Lord, rejoicing and worshiping God. For years, the people of God have lived in slavery. They've been set free, only to wander the desert for 40 years. And now, on the cusp of

entering the promised land and being given the inheritance they have been. and long promised. The Lord knows that what they need is a visible reminder. Now, you'd think that the wonders they'd seen in the desert or the story of God's saving grace bringing them out of Egypt would be enough for the Israelites to remember to be obedient to the covenant they've made with God. You would think that the gift of the promised land overflowing with milk and honey, the blessing and riches when they used to be slaves and wanders in the deserts would be enough to remind the Israelites to follow God because he is provided and because he is good. But it isn't, because the human heart is prone to wander.

And so Moses commands the people to stop as they enter into the long-awaited promise land and to remind themselves that this land is a gift from God. And that they inherit this gift based on a covenant of obedience. This altar made up of the law Moses had just laid out for the people of God is to be a reminder of obedience to the people of Israel, but it will also serve as a witness against the people of Israel when they inevitably fail to uphold their end of the covenant. As this altar reminded the people to be obedient,

it would also always remind them that they couldn't possibly be perfectly obedient to the law. They would never succeed in upholding their end of the covenant. But God would. If you remember way back in Genesis, when God was making this initial covenant with April, to make him into a great nation and to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. When he did this, he promised to be ultimately faithful to his people whether or not they follow this covenant, because ultimately they never will be able to. The people will face consequences of

sin and justice against their transgressions, but God will never stop being faithful to his plan to redeem his people. Throughout the Old Testament, the people of God are pointed forward to the one who would come to redeem them, to fulfill the law. And God faithfully becomes man in the person of Jesus to do just that. He lived a perfectly blameless life, living in complete obedience, and he died as a sacrifice to atone for the sin of all of Israel and all human life. When he was raised from the dead by his own power, he broke the power of death. He paid once and for all, for all the injustice and disobedience every one of us has lived out. While modern day Christians don't have an altar made of stones as a reminder, we do have a cross. The cross is a beautiful

reminder that we look to as we enter a covenant relationship with God. The cross reminds us of our inability to be obedient. Jesus had to die because of our brokenness. But it also reminds us that we have been set free. Our debt of sin has been paid and we are no, longer under the power of death, but life. There is a future before us in the kingdom that Jesus is building, a kingdom that he spent his life sharing with us and showing us. It is a beautiful place, a promised inheritance. I know that this is true, but in this life, I can become distracted, overwhelmed, busy, and I forget that the gifts I have are from God. I forget that he has called me, to obedience. I forget that the only reason I have life is because he died for my sin. I need the

reminder of the cross. I need the reminder that without Christ I am broken and sinful. And when I come face to face with the ways that I enact injustice, the ways that I hurt people, the ways that I cause pain. I also need the reminder that Christ has seen the depths of my brokenness and he still died to redeem me and bring me into his perfect kingdom. That is a gift. And so today, as we fight to live as faithful disciples of Jesus, let us not forget the reminder of the cross. And maybe we need to set visible reminders on our phones or through a piece of jewelry or a sticky note. I don't know what it is that will be most helpful to you, but when we see the cross, may we always remember how our God has redeemed us.

May we fight to live in daily obedience out of gratitude to this gift, so that we can partner with him in bringing his kingdom to life today in our actions, words, and deeds. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday, that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.