Contemplative Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 6:25 (New Living Translation)

25 For we will be counted as righteous when we obey all the commands the Lord our God has given us.

This is from Deuteronomy or the second telling of the law to the people. Their ancestors died in the wilderness due to disobeying the commands of Jehovah their God. These new generations are being told the law. This is the promise: They will be righteous when they obey Jehovah.

I looked for the definition of righteous in several places. The common theme is “morally right or justifiable.” Consider these commands:

• Eat this animal, not that one.
• Do this activity on this day and don’t do that activity on that day.
• Love and worship one god, Jehovah the God of this chosen people.
• Tell the truth, always.
• Be faithful to your spouse, always.
• The list goes on for quite a ways. These are sufficient examples.

A person is justified in these actions. They don’t have to spend days arguing with philosophers on the decisions involved.

What freedom this brings. What time and energy it saves. Blind and ignorant following of some old stuff? Gee whiz didn’t God give people brains to think about things?

Oh, yes, God gave us brains to think about stuff. And God let us plenty of things and time to think, imagine, invent, pursue, etc. There are many days when the people wished they had more commands so that decisions wouldn’t be so complicated. I have many days when I wished I had more commands so I wouldn’t have so many complicated decisions.