Love and Memory in Deuteronomy Essay

Love and Memory in Deuteronomy, is the prompt for this weeks reflection paper. First, we must identify what each of those terms means to us in context to Deuteronomy and for me Love does not just mean love in the sense that we all know. Although you could easily write a reflection amount the many ways God displayed his love to his people, like when he parted the seas for them and crushed the Egyptians behind them, or when he was slow to anger when they chose to worship Baal while Moses was a top Mt. Sinai, but I choose to interpret love in Deuteronomy as God’s continued faithfullness to his people. â€Å"Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.† (Deuteronomy 7:9, English Standard Version) Here God is described as a faithful God, and one who will always love those that love him, and follow his word. This is such a powerful verse and really speaks to the faithfullness of God to his people, here it shows that God is obligated to us, that he must love those that love him. I think it also shows that he is bound to look out for us because he is our â€Å"faithful† creator, and that as the creator he is obligated to look out for us, to satisfy us, and provide for us, and ultimately look out for us enough so that we may seek him out and follow him with out Faith. That creation of the Covenant is the ultimate example of God’s faithfullness to us as it takes out all mystery and makes things most certain for us, and shows his commitment to us as a people, because of the covenant we know all the cornerstones of His divine government. The many ‘I wills’ in Deuteronomy cover everything that we as a people might need in both the past, present, and future. There is no avenue of life that we can venture to where we can not find God, and he has given us clear definition of His heart and intentions by his word and covenant. God’s love in Deuteronomy can best be described as his faithfullness to us, and as mentioned prior, there is no greater example of this than his Covenant, and new Covenant with us through Jesus Christ. â€Å"And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.† (Deuteronomy 8:2, English Standard Version) Memory plays a huge role in Deuteronomy as God is very clear in this verse, that the people are to remember, that all they have been through was a way for God to see what was in their heart, to see what kind of people they were. Memories, in general, throughout time are always a great way to see someone’s true heart. There were times the people worshipped false idols or cried out against the Lord, and in those moments peoples true natures were revealed, the memories of those times are a great reminder of where people stood, and as it says in that verse that is what it was all about, was for God to measure their true hearts. This principle is still the same today, we are often judged by our past deeds, and it is not because we do not believe people can not change or that people do not deserve new chances, but often times we are what we do, and again the memories of our past actions are a great way to measure who we are as people.