DOING WHAT IS RIGHT

“…because you obey the LORD your God, keeping all His commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in His eyes.”
Deuteronomy 13:18

Please forgive me if I sound like a broken record, but haven’t we heard this command already? If you’re like me, you read over this verse and in the back of your mind feel as though you have heard these words already. And the truth is, we have. Remember, Deuteronomy was the second giving of the Law, right before of people of Isra’el entered the Promise Land. Yet why would the people need to hear these words again. Well remember once more that the original people who Moshe led out of Egypt passed in the desert. This was their children the Moshe was now leading. Even still, we hear the same command to do what is right.
Many times I look at the Hebrews in the Torah as being an arrogant and stubborn people. However, the more I look at them and read their acts, the more I see me in them. The reason they needed so many reminders was because they so often forsook His ways and got in trouble. Here again the words of Moshe, via Adonai, were to keep the commands of Adonai. Yet we see later on in Joshua, Judges, and following, that they slipped back from the ways of Adonai and then suffered the consequence.
So the question begs, what is the punishment for our not keeping the ways of Adonai? More so, do we even fear the consequence for not doing His will, or have we brushed it off saying that was Old Testament and Adonai is no longer in the business of smiting His people. Truth be told, it was hardly ever God who smote, but rather the open door because of the sin of the people that had been left open. Their disobedience became the open door for the enemy to come in through. Sin is still a door the enemy travels in through today. As is seen in this passage, and the many that follow, failing to keep the commands of Adonai can result in disaster. Let us heed the words Moshe spoke on this day. Let us here the call to obey.

Deuteronomy 14:1-21

Deuteronomy 14:22-29
Deuteronomy 15:1-18
Deuteronomy 15:19 – 16:17