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Good class yesterday.  It’s hard to believe this quarter is over.  I know that some class members prefer New Testament studies, but remember that Christ came to preach and to fulfill the “Law” – what we call the Old Testament today.  We had an interesting discussion concerning Israel and its conquest of Canaan and of some of the more difficult passages involving the slaughter of those who already occupied the land.  There are some things that cannot be explained – that can’t be understood – because we’re human.  Maybe that’s the lesson to be learned: we are not God.

1 When all these things have happened to you, the blessings and the curses that I have set before you, if you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you,
2 and return to the Lord your God, and you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I am commanding you today,
3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the Lord your God has scattered you.
4 Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back.
5 The Lord your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.
6 Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.
7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on the adversaries who took advantage of you.
8 Then you shall again obey the Lord, observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today,
9 and the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors,
10 when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.  Deut 30:1-10 (NRSV)

Realizing that we’re not God, we have to decide – on faith – to return to God . . . or not.  It’s a decision that, once made, requires commitment each day.  This too is a lesson from the Old Testament.  Israel crossed over the Jordan – answering the challenges of God, Moses and Joshua – but that decision was not one of entitlement, but of obedience.  We need to understand the same thing: we are not entitled, but we are loved.  We cannot be perfect, but we can move in that direction.