Moses reminds the people not to forget all they have seen,
heard and experienced in these forty years in the wilderness. His main task is to take them back to that
day at the mountain when they gathered around it while he alone climbed up to
be in the presence of God. They heard
the voice of God giving them the Ten Commandments, on which all else in the Law
is based, heard His voice with their own ears, an event unique in the history
of humankind. Most of these present were
young at that time, recall that an entire generation of people have passed away
by this time, and only those too young to be considered decision-makers at the
time they failed to enter the Land are left.
That day at Horeb is what makes them truly a nation, makes them unique
in the world, and will always be their most important moment. If they forget that, all is lost, they no
longer are truly the people of God.
Jesus sets the bar high for discipleship. The first disciples knew that cost and
willingly left everything behind to follow Him.
We have dumbed down the requirements for discipleship, failed to uphold
Jesus' one and only standard, allowed what Bonhoeffer called cheap grace to be
the rule of the day and I wonder how much we miss in the process. Because they had nothing but Jesus the
disciples saw, heard and experienced things that would not have been possible
if they had been preoccupied with other things.
Jesus says that in comparison to their devotion to Him those who would
be His disciples must hate even those who are closest to them. Disciples must have allegiance to one alone,
and any other claim on their lives must be rejected if it conflicts with His
claim. If we gave 100% to Jesus and His
kingdom, would we be the salt the world needs?
The needs of the people in the wilderness were provided for
directly by God. They had no access to
malls or convenience stores, they were completely dependent on Him for
sustenance and provision. Jesus called
His own disciples away from all other sources of provision to a life of radical
dependence on the provision of God. Paul
knew that same life. Even though he had
his own profession, tent-making, that was simply a place and way of preaching
the Gospel to all and sundry. It was
nothing more than a platform for His real vocation of sharing the Good
News. He knew what it was to be
afflicted for the Gospel, to suffer privation and loss as well as physical and
emotional affliction, but in all this he was comforted by God in order that he
might be better able to comfort his brothers and sisters in their own
affliction. We are called to share in
the suffering of the world in order that we might be more like God, "merciful
and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." We know how the world is and we are to be
gentle with those who suffer as He has been gentle with us in our own hour of
suffering. We are never to forget that
comfort He has given us.
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