This week we begin worship with:
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
When is "now"?
Moses had gone up the mountain for 40 days to receive the commandments of the covenant. Then, only to find the people having gone the way of idolatry in his absence.
And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly.
After smashing the tablets in anger he returned to the mountain to protect the people from God's wrath.
Deuteronomy 9:25
“So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you.
At the end of which, Moses received a second set of tablets, the assurance that God would not act on His anger, and the command to restart the journey.
Deuteronomy 10:11
And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’
This is "now". After stumbling, after messing up, after being protected from God's wrath, we are to restart our journey. Let's go.
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