For reflection
Deuteronomy 6:5
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.[14 (#ulink_262b943b-b2d1-5555-b283-de69eb16716b)]
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.
Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.
Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem[15 (#ulink_b8910074-245c-5eb7-9490-7a0cf26eac36)] on your forehead,
and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 When the LORD your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,
houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you have eaten your fill,
take care that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
The LORD your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear.
Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are all around you,
because the LORD your God, who is present with you, is a jealous God. The anger of the LORD your God would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth.
16 Do not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.
You must diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his decrees, and his statutes that he has commanded you.
Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and occupy the good land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give you,
thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has promised.
20 When your children ask you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?”
then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
The LORD displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household.
He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors.
Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case.
If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right.”
7 When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you—
and when the LORD your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.
Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,
for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles,[16 (#ulink_006da334-e748-53aa-a7ac-8b07250aa225)] and burn their idols with fire.
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
7 It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples.
It was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him.
Therefore, observe diligently the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that I am commanding you today.
12 If you heed these ordinances, by diligently observing them, the LORD your God will maintain with you the covenant loyalty that he swore to your ancestors;
he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, in the land that he swore to your ancestors to give you.
You shall be the most blessed of peoples, with neither sterility nor barrenness among you or your livestock.
The LORD will turn away from you every illness; all the dread diseases of Egypt that you experienced, he will not inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.
You shall devour all the peoples that the LORD your God is giving over to you, showing them no pity; you shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
EYE WITNESS
The question whether miracles occur can never be answered simply by experience. Every event which might claim to be a miracle is, in the last resort, something presented to our senses, something seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted. And our senses are not infallible. If anything extraordinary seems to have happened, we can always say that we have been the victims of an illusion. If we hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural, this is what we always shall say.
—from Miracles
For reflection
Deuteronomy 7:17–19
17 If you say to yourself, “These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?”
do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,
the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
Moreover, the LORD your God will send the pestilence[17 (#ulink_4d7762b7-79d5-56b8-a2d7-b16beb5a958a)] against them, until even the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed.
Have no dread of them, for the LORD your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.
