Day 2
Monday in the first week of Lent
Deuteronomy 32:2 NIV
Let my teaching fall like rain
….and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
….like abundant rain on tender plants.
The words belong to Moses. They come from the beginning of a prophetic song about the people God brought out of Egypt, a song that will speak of their faithlessness and ultimate judgment, but also of God’s faithfulness and ultimate deliverance.
It is a painful song at the end of a book filled with appeal after appeal to honor God’s commands and follow God’s way. Moses is like so many who see the tragedy coming but can get no one to listen. Still, at the beginning of his song, there are these sweet words: a rich metaphor urging us to let God’s word soak in and renew the soil of our hearts.
The law God has given through Moses does not come to crush or burden a people with excessive demands. They are not spoken to condemn. They are given to show forth the path of a life together that can be something of the goodness God intended for us on that first day our forbearers were set into a garden. We were called to tend that garden – meaning not only to water the plants but protect the good world God made – to care for a world of peaceful bounty where we need not hide from God or one another.
But we lost that garden. And the commands God gave we twisted and distorted until justice and faithfulness were lost and no future awaited but one with tears. Still, the prophetic song reaches out to us, calling us to hear, calling us to let the teaching of God water our souls and bring forth the fruit that abides.
Eternal Word, Enduring Mercy
guide our heart and lead our way
that we may be nourished and renewed
by your life-giving word.
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(My apologies for the delay in posting this reflection)
Image: dkbonde.
Scripture quotations is from the New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
© David K Bonde, 2021, All rights reserved
Holy Seasons 