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Day 63 – Thru the Bible
Today we continue through Deuteronomy and Psalms. We also continue with the Shema video series.
Video – Meod:Strength
You can learn more about The Shema prayer here About – The Shema.
How does this video help you understand the Shema prayer better?
Deuteronomy 30 – Here we read of repentance and restoration. That this text is about repentance is clear from the fact that returning/turning to the Lord brackets the text (vv. 2 and 10). This repentance is not just external but internal, since it is “with all your heart and with all your soul.” This repentance is the result of divine grace, since it results from God circumcising the heart, “so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” and “again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments.” That this text is about restoration is clear from the fact that the Lord “will restore” those who return/turn; the Hebrew word for “restore” is the same as the word for “return/turn.”
This inner work of grace, this circumcision of the heart, is spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah as God putting His law within people and writing it on their hearts according to the promise of the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31).
How do we see this promise fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus? Hint: Hebrews 8.
While the law required internalization (Deuteronomy 6:5), the gospel brings this internalization into realization (Romans 8:3), so that obedience from the heart is possible for those who now walk “according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).
In verses 11–14, the sanctifying grace that internalizes the commandments and enables their keeping is from the same source that gives the commandments. Here Moses identifies the enabling grace as “the word [that] is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”
How do we know from the New Testament that this enabling is from the Holy Spirit, who both expresses God’s truth and enables its reception and application? Hint: 1 Corinthians 2:14–16; Ephesians 6:17.
Because the righteousness of Jesus’ obedience has been transferred to our account (Romans 4:3–8; 5:19), believers are indeed motivated from the inside out to keep God’s commandments. Ultimately the commandments of God boil down to this simple call: love (1 John 5:2).
Obedience is impossible apart from the gospel, but inevitable with it.
Deuteronomy 31 – Israel’s entrance into the Promised Land was the result of both sovereign grace and human responsibility. Israel dispossessed the nations, because the Lord went before His people. Israel conquered the nations according to the commandments, because the Lord gave the nations to His people. Israel could be strong and courageous in the mission against the nations, because God was always with His people.
How has the promise that God is always with us been confirmed and fulfilled in Jesus? Hint: Matthew 28:20
Knowing Jesus is always with us, the church can be strong and courageous in carrying out the divine mandate to make disciples of the nations (Matthew 28:19).
Psalm 63 – For the believer, awareness of the presence of God is better than life itself. In contrast to the rebel, who squirms at the nearness of God, those who have been reconciled worship Immanuel (Romans 2:15). At times, the Father proves the necessity of our dependence upon Him by hiding His face. In this way, the believer’s dependence on union with the life of God (ultimately made possible through Jesus) is as real as the human need for water and confirms the reality of God’s love, which is more real than our present circumstances (1 Peter 1:8).
Any suffering Christian can testify to the quiet assurance that comes from realizing that there would be no such longings for righteousness if the faith were not real. Even while he lay awake in his anguish, David knew the peace that surpasses understanding under God’s wings and in the clutches of His embrace (Philippians 4:7).
God’s people will rejoice in the Lord because His truth is vindicated as He fulfills His redemptive promises (John 15:11; Romans 4:11–12).
How does this Psalm encourage you to praise Jesus?
What other thoughts or questions does today’s video and reading bring up?
Some of these notes are from the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible study notes. We highly recommend this study Bible.
Videos produced by www.TheGospelProject.com.
All links you need to be a part of this are here – Thru the Bible in 2018.