Deuteronomy 10:18-20–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

Posted by Seth on Nov 23, 2009 in Bible Study, Daily Devotions |

Deuteronomy 10:18-20–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Deuteronomy 10:18-20 wherein we see God’s heart for the sojourner and our responsibility to him.

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.

Underdogs often get overlooked. With everyone trying to make his/her way in this world, it is difficult to be the one who already has multiple strikes against him–success, in the most basic sense, can be a great difficulty. But there is One whose eye sees every person and the weaknesses or adversities that are carried. He is, according to verse 17, the Lord your God [,the] God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He is the One who the opposition to the underdogs will have to deal with one day. And to those who would be on His side, He essentially says, “Join me in how I treat such people; be used of Me to show them kindness.” There was a specific reason for this that God gave to His particular people in the Old Testament: they could relate to the sojourner. During their 400 years in Egypt, they were in an ultimate sense away from home. But the reality for each one of us who now know God through Jesus is that we have also played the part of the stranger or sojourner. For we were estranged from God, living as His enemies until His grace overcame us we came home into his loving arms. Consider for instance Ephesians 2:19: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. The job then that we have before us is to exhibit that same kind of grace to the weak outsider that we have been shown and enjoy today. And furthermore, just as it was not enough to tolerate such people and meet their basic needs, we are reminded here that there is a call to actually love them just as God loves them.

The foundation to all of this, just as to any other acts of obedience is to flow from holy fear of Him. We’re to serve Him, abide in Him, and be resolved in His name. On a practical level, it might help us to think back on times when when we have been the minority among a group of people that were thriving within their context. What would have meant the world to us would be for someone to show us warmth and kindness, not because we automatically fit right in to their group, but because they were able in some way to empathize with us. So it is in the body of Christ where the presence of the church is strong and it is easy to surround ourselves with many people who are much the same as us.

Keep your eye out today for those who might have weakness in an area where you have been given strength. Love them as God loves them; serve God by blessing them.

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