LOVE PRIORITIES

LOVE PRIORITIES

Deuteronomy 10:12-22 NET.

¹² Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you except to revere him, to obey all his commandments, to love him, to serve him with all your mind and being, ¹³and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving you today for your own good? ¹⁴The heavens — indeed the highest heavens — belong to the LORD your God, as does the earth and everything in it. ¹⁵ However, only to your ancestors did he show his loving favor, and he chose you, their descendants, from all peoples — as is apparent today. ¹⁶ Therefore, cleanse your heart and stop being so stubborn! ¹⁷ For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe, ¹⁸ who justly treats the orphan and widow, and who loves resident foreigners, giving them food and clothing. ¹⁹ So you must love the resident foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

²⁰ Revere the LORD your God, serve him, be loyal to him and take oaths only in his name. ²¹ He is the one you should praise; he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you that you have seen. ²² When your ancestors went down to Egypt, they numbered only seventy, but now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.

The title of the book of Deuteronomy comes from the Latin for second Law. Moses is in the final phase of his life and ministry. He knows that he will not be going with the children of Israel when they cross over the Jordan and begin occupying the Promised Land. So, he writes Deuteronomy – not as a new Law for his people, but as a reflection on the basic principles of the Law God had given him at Sinai. He knows that if his people are to succeed, they will have to get over their stubborn selfishness and think and live God’s way. He searches for a way to summarize all that it means to live like the people who have been redeemed from slavery by a loving, compassionate God.

The big picture – the basic principles that Moses writes about in today’s text is the same message we get from Jesus in the New Testament. When the experts in the religious law came to Jesus to interrogate him, they asked him which commandment in the Law was the greatest. Jesus quickly answered that question by quoting from Deuteronomy. He said, “‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ – a quote from Deuteronomy 6:5. Before the lawyers had a chance to redirect, he went on to say, “This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ That is a quote from Leviticus 19:18, but the principle is taught again in today’s text from Deuteronomy. These two commands go together and constitute the gist of God’s requirements for his people. He wanted them to love him and others. Jesus condemned his generation of Israelites because they sought to love God by hating others. But what Moses taught in Deuteronomy and what Jesus taught in his parable of the Good Samaritan is that you cannot truly love God if you refuse to love all those around you – particularly those who need you.

Today, I want to break down the message of Deuteronomy 10:12-22 into its various parts and analyze each part. I want to do essentially what an appliance repair technician does. I realize I am dating myself by this illustration. Nowadays, when you have a toaster that does not work, you throw it away and get another toaster. But back in the old days, we had people that we called appliance repair technicians. What these people did was take apart the appliance and examine each part to find out which parts were working and which needed to be repaired or replaced. Once they repaired the damaged part, they put the toaster back together again, and now your old useless toaster was new and useful again.

What we want to do for today’s text is examine all the principles in the word carefully to see which ones are working and which ones need to be understood and applied correctly. The problem is not really like the problem in the toaster. There is no part of God’s word anywhere that is defective and needs to be replaced. But it is entirely possible that – like the Israelites in Jesus’ day – we are incorrect in our application of God’s word. So, here we go. We will break down all the principles taught in today’s text to see which ones we need to refresh and apply more correctly.

Loving God must be the priority.

Moses taught the children of Israel that their first priority in life was to love their Creator and Savior, God. He also broke down that principle into its component parts, wanting his relatives to know precisely which God they were to prioritize.

So, he talks about God the way we sometimes do when we pray the simple prayer at meals: God is great, and God is good. He is great because there is no one higher than him. Everything and everyone belongs to him. The whole planet and everything above it also belong to him. He “ is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God.”

The theologians speak of this aspect of who God is when they define him by pointing out the three ways that he is different from all his creations.

We cannot measure up to God in terms of space because he is everywhere, and we are not. We are confined to one place and one time, while he lives in every place at all times.

Also, unlike us, God is unchangeable. His greatness and nature do not change. Nothing we do can change him into something else other than what he has always been.

The third way God is different from us is his life does not and cannot ever come to an end. He existed before anything or anyone ever lived. The Bible says that he alone possesses immortality (1 Timothy 6:16). The only way any creature can ever become immortal is by means of his grace. God has promised believers eternal life, but we should not be arrogant like those who claim that all people are born immortal. That is not what the Bible teaches.

In summary, God is great because he is unmeasurable, immutable, and immortal. We are challenged to love God with all our mind and being. We will find it difficult to obey that command because God is so different from us. But God makes it easier because of what he has done for us. He gave us life to begin with. He gave us forgiveness, restoration, and deliverance. God is great, but he is also good. We can love God by focusing on all the good things he has done for us and all of his internal goodness. This includes his holiness, righteousness, faithfulness, integrity, graciousness, loyalty to his covenant, and kindness toward those who believe and trust in him.

We have many reasons for loving God, but it still comes down to our choice. He has created us with the power to love freely, which means we also can reject him, be unfaithful to him, rebel against him, and disobey his commands.

Loving God requires a change of attitude and action.

Moses outlines all of the components of this toaster and identifies all the changes in our attitude that will be necessary if we are to love God truly.

We need to stop being indifferent about God and start revering him. Reverence is a kind of fear. It is not the fear a person might have of a rabid, snarling animal. That is fear, but it is not reverence. Reverence is like the attitude you might have toward your boss if you are starting work at a new job. If you have decided to work for this new boss, you want to please her. You want to say and do the things that will make your new boss happy. You want her to be grateful that you are working in her office. You might notice that your new boss’s desk is neat and orderly, so you will decide to tidy up your desk so she is not displeased with its appearance. You might notice that when you come to work, your boss is always there already. You will decide to be punctual so that your boss will approve. That is what reverence is. It is not fear of punishment. It is seeking to please someone to whom you are already committed. That is the first attitude change that Moses suggests in verse 12.

We need to determine to stop ignoring all of God’s commands and start obeying them. Obedience is an attitude that is expressed by actions. Human beings are created with the ability to follow commands. Unfortunately, we are also capable of resenting commands, rebelling against the ones who give commands, and demanding independence from any authority. God does not tell us to unthinkingly submit to anyone who wants us to do anything. He tells us to obey him. He requires that we follow all of his commandments. He does not say that we can make a list of his commandments and cross off all the ones that we cannot understand or that we do not want to obey. Obedience is the attitude that predisposes us to pay attention to what God wants and directs us away from the inclination only to do what we want.

God does not tell us to stop caring about ourselves. What he wants us to do is to care about him as well. He wants us to change our focus so that who we care about is not determined by our needs and desires. He wants us to love him first.

God does not want us to stop serving ourselves and others. He wants us to focus on serving him with all our mind and being. The Hebrew literally says all our hearts and throats. The heart is the symbol for the blood’s circulation, and the throat is the symbol for the breath’s circulation. He wants us to serve him as if our lives depend on serving him. That is not easy to do.

Loving God entails loving as God does.

The priest and the Levite in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan thought that loving God wholeheartedly meant staying focused on their religious traditions. Their lives centered around sacrifices and ceremonies and things they did for their congregations. It is very easy for 21st-century evangelical Christians to live like that, too. If we think that loving God means getting together for a special service every week and singing and praying together, we can become very much like that priest and Levite were.

But notice what Moses said about who God is and what he is focused on in verses 17-18:

“… God who is unbiased and takes no bribe, who justly treats the orphan and widow, and who loves resident foreigners, giving them food and clothing.”

If we revere our boss, we want to do things like she does, things that identify with what she focuses on. God is great, and God is good, and he demonstrates his goodness by internal integrity. He does not take bribes to pervert justice. He is unbiased. He does not treat some people with preferential treatment, nor does he ignore the needs of others. The priest and Levite in Jesus’ parable thought that they could ignore the man lying in a heap on the road because they had more important things to do rather than stop and help him. But God’s priority is helping the needy. If loving God is our priority, then we need to care for the needy too.

Loving others is loving as God loves.

God loves the orphan and the widow. He loves the resident foreigner, giving him food and clothing. Rahab and Ruth were resident foreigners. These were people who chose to live in the Israelite community even though they were not ethnically Jews.

When Jesus answered the lawyer’s question about the greatest commandments, he said the second greatest commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself. Immediately, the lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” He was not thinking according to the Law in Deuteronomy 10, or he would not have asked that question. According to Deuteronomy 10, loving our neighbors is loving the dispossessed and the underprivileged. It is reaching out to people who are not in the same socio-economic category as we are.

The LORD told the Israelites that they must love the resident foreigner because they were resident foreigners in the land of Egypt. When they get into the Promised Land, they will be first-class citizens. The resident foreigners will be those who choose to submit to their laws and live in their communities. God wanted his people to love those people. He wanted them to draw those people to him by their actions and by their care and consideration. He wanted his people to be his witnesses. He wanted them to testify to his character by their character.

Jesus told his disciples the same thing. He said they were to be his “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8). He wanted them to spread his love to every nation on the planet. Loving others had to be a priority for them, and it needs to be a priority for us.

TWO LAMBS

TWO LAMBS

Exodus 29:38-46 NET.

³⁸ “Now this is what you are to prepare on the altar every day continually: two lambs a year old. ³⁹ The first lamb you are to prepare in the morning, and the second lamb you are to prepare around sundown. ⁴⁰ With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering. ⁴¹ The second lamb you are to offer around sundown; you are to prepare for it the same meal offering as for the morning and the same drink offering, for a soothing aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD. ⁴² “This will be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you to speak to you there. ⁴³ There I will meet with the Israelites, and it will be set apart as holy by my glory. ⁴⁴ “So I will set apart as holy the tent of meeting and the altar, and I will set apart as holy Aaron and his sons, that they may minister as priests to me. ⁴⁵ I will reside among the Israelites, and I will be their God, ⁴⁶ and they will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out from the land of Egypt, so that I may reside among them. I am the LORD their God.

We need to do some things regularly.

The Lord instructs the children of Israel here that when they set up the Tabernacle they are to prepare a particular offering to him every day, continually. Every morning they were to sacrifice a lamb and every evening another lamb. Most of us are creatures of habit. We have things that we do every day. Nobody has to check up on us and make sure we are doing those things. We get into the habit of doing those things perpetually so that they are instinctual.

For me, Bible study is like that. For years now, I have followed a regular ritual that begins with translating a biblical text each day, followed by a devotional from that text. I have gone through the Bible several times that way. People wonder how I can publish so many books every year, and that habit is the reason. Because I have studied and written so many articles, devotionals, and theological posts, it is relatively easy to put them together in book form.

I’m also methodical about the medicines I take. I know which meds to take in the morning and which to take in the evening. I take them first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I label my medicine bottles with a big “M” for my morning meds and a big “E” for my evening meds.

My sermon preparation follows a pattern as well. I usually do my research for the next week’s message on Monday, write the sermon presentation, and record the video on Tuesday. That leaves Wednesday for visitation, Thursday for Food Bank, and Friday and Saturday for my weekends. It’s all habitual. It’s how I function. The pattern helps me get everything accomplished that is important to me.

I’m not one of these “last minute” people. If I came to a Saturday night and had done no preparation for my sermon, I would be a basket case. In fact, if I had to wait until Wednesday to write my sermon, I would be nervous and anxious. I don’t mind deadlines, but I feel better if I can finish a project a month before the deadline.

Now, I am saying all this to clue you in on how I do things. But it seems to me from today’s text that God wanted to establish some habits for the children of Israel, too. He wanted them to get used to doing certain things at certain times every day, to doing the things that really matter on a regular schedule.

We need to worship God regularly.

According to today’s passage, the most important thing on God’s list for his people to do regularly was worship him. The offerings that he prescribed for them were the way they would show their appreciation for God, and he told them to sacrifice those offerings every morning and every evening at sundown. That is why he told them to offer two lambs every day. These were not family offerings. These were not for individuals. They were national offerings. The priests would offer them for the whole nation.

But notice the nature of these morning and evening sacrifices. They consisted of the meat of a lamb, oil, flour, wine… everything that would be part of a fine meal. Why did God want them to prepare a meal for him twice a day? He did not need to consume any food. That is not it. But in every tent, every family would prepare a meal for themselves every day. They did this to sustain themselves, but it was also a way of coming together and enjoying each other’s company. It was a time of fellowship for each family.

The sacrifices that God prescribed for his people were to take place at a place called the tent of meeting. They symbolized God’s desire to get together with his people regularly, consistently, and habitually. From the standpoint of what God wanted, he was prescribing a unique form of worship: a symbolic meal shared with the Almighty twice a day.

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus tells the church in Laodicea, “Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with me” (3:20). That is what God wants of his people. He wants them to worship him by showing their appreciation for him the same way they would do for a family member.

It makes sense if you remember that these are all former slaves. They were not used to being able to show their appreciation for anyone. The only way they knew how to commune with anyone was over a nice meal. That was the height of their gift-giving. Now, they have been rescued from Egypt, but they have not been automatically transformed culturally. They still have minimal experience with divine worship. But they do know how to show their appreciation by sharing a meal. That is what God asks of them.

He gave them their freedom. He could have asked for much more, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to stay close to them. When he smelled the aroma of those meals cooking, it was soothing for him. He could overlook many offenses as long as his people wanted to please him. Just two meals a day was all it took for that.

God will meet with us regularly.

Today’s passage also tells us about the other side of the bargain. It outlines what the Israelites are going to get for regularly communing with the LORD. He promises to meet with the people and speak with them at the entrance to the tent of the meeting. The pagans all around them had their rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices that they used to manipulate their gods. But the worship of the Israelites was not to be like that. They were not trying to appease an angry God. They were trying to stay close to a compassionate God. He was not just going to be there for the meal. He was going to be there for the people themselves. He was going to speak to them there.

He was also going to share himself. He would pass on his holiness to the place, to the priests, and to the people. They would become different people because God himself would transfer his holiness to them. He would be their God, and they would be his people. Ten chapters earlier, he told them that they were to him a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (19:6).

That is what New Testament Christianity is supposed to be as well. Peter tells believers, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Just as the Israelites were called out of slavery into holiness, so we—the church—are called out of the darkness of sin into the marvelous light of God’s holiness.

Now, the point is not that we have to be holy in order to experience God’s presence. It is the other way around. We become holy as we experience God’s presence in our lives through regular, consistent, perpetual worship. We don’t change for him. We change by staying close to him. Once we are saved by grace through the shed blood of Christ, we can come into the presence of God and commune with him regularly. Nothing we can do for him comes close to what his regular presence can do for us.

Devotions from Exodus:

The book is 296 pages long and was released on May 17, 2024.

BLOODY TUNIC

BLOODY TUNIC

Genesis 37:31-35 NET.

³¹ So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a young goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood. ³² Then they brought the special tunic to their father and said, “We found this. Determine now whether it is your son’s tunic or not.” ³³ He recognized it and exclaimed, “It is my son’s tunic! A wild animal has eaten him! Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” ³⁴ Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵ All his sons and daughters stood by him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go to the grave mourning my son.” So Joseph’s father wept for him.

Penny and I had the opportunity to drive up to Virginia this past week. We got to walk in the snow and visit some people we hadn’t seen in a while. But the excuse we used for traveling was that it was Tuesday, the birthday of one of our grandchildren. Tuesday morning came, and I witnessed a wonderful sight. I had woken up and was doing my devotions at the kitchen table. Suddenly, the quietness was broken by two very small children running downstairs together. They were playing together and just enjoying each other’s company. The older sister started singing to the birthday girl. It was the happy birthday song – the same song we sing each Sunday morning when we are celebrating with one of our members. At the end of the song, the older sister tacked on, “Happy birthday, Jesus bless you.” and my heart melted.

One of the joys of being a parent is when you have the chance to see and hear your children or grandchildren enjoying each other’s company. That was a joy that Jacob had lost. He was a profoundly unhappy man, and the things that happened, as recorded in today’s text, added even more sorrow to him. I’m not going to go over all the events of the story because I’m sure you all have read today’s chapters. Instead, I am going to focus my message on one object that is introduced in the story. The bloody tunic that Jacob’s sons showed their father.

the tunic was a symbol of love

It did not start out as evidence in a crime scene. It started as a precious gift given by a proud father to his favorite son. Jacob loved Joseph because he was the firstborn of Rachel – who was always his favorite. This chapter says that “Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was a son born to him late in life, and he made a special tunic for him. When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated Joseph and were not able to speak to him kindly” (vv. 3-4).

So, you see that the Patriarchs continue to produce broken, dysfunctional families. What made matters worse was that Joseph had some interesting dreams—dreams that indicated that, at some point, all his family would bow down to him. That just made the ten brothers greener and more angry at him. Meanwhile, his father just “kept in mind” what he had said. Like Mary, the mother of Jesus, Jacob pondered these things in his heart. He loved Joseph so much that he would not dare rebuke him.

The tunic was a special gift. It signified a special standing among Jacob’s children. It was like an inheritance given beforehand. It symbolized a special relationship and set Joseph apart as a special blessing who would be blessed. It was how Jacob expressed his love for his favorite son.

the tunic was a symbol of envy

I mentioned that the older brothers were envious of young Joseph. Because that special garment set him apart from them, some of their hatred was focused on that blessing. They considered it a curse. The brothers were so envious that they saw an opportunity for sweet revenge when Joseph came to Dothan. They saw him coming, and before he even reached them, they had already plotted to kill him. They said, “Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!”

Two of the older brothers displayed a bit of constraint. Reuben, the oldest, suggested that they just throw him into a deep hole. Judah suggested that they sell him to some foreign traders who happened by. As soon as Joseph reached them, the brothers stripped him of that precious tunic and tossed him into the hole. When the foreign traders arrived, they fished him out and sold him to them for twenty silver coins. They got their revenge and some money to sweeten the deal.

the tunic was a symbol of treachery

It was a symbol of sibling rivalry to the extreme – like Cain, who waited until his brother was alone with him in the field and clobbered him to death. They cared so little for their own brother that when the opportunity presented itself – they took it. The wonderful colored tunic that had been a sign of their father’s love would now be evidence of Joseph’s supposed death by a wild animal. All it took was some goat’s blood.

No doubt these sons of Jacob had been told many times of their own father’s betrayal of his brother, Esau. He found Esau hungry and offered him a bargain – some stew for his birthright. Then he and Rachel cooked up a scheme where they would deceive his father, Isaac, by pretending to be Esau and getting his blessing as firstborn.

So, these sons of Jacob cooked up a plot of their own. They would present this tunic to their father as evidence that his favorite son was dead. How ironic that Jacob himself had used a goatskin to pass himself off as Esau. Now it would be goat’s blood that covered his precious garment.

the tunic was a symbol of deception

When the ten sons returned to their father, they came with a lie, and backed up their lie with a deception. They didn’t say it. The best lies are those you don’t say but force others to believe. They just “brought the special tunic to their father and said, “We found this. Determine now whether it is your son’s tunic or not.” Of course, Jacob had no problems identifying this sign of his love, now covered with evidence that he had met a sudden, violent death.

It was not just a lie; it was a false lie. Joseph had not died at all – though he probably often felt it would have been better if he did. At the time this incident is happening, Joseph is on the way to Egypt to be sold as a slave. He was on his way to his destiny. But his brothers had convinced Jacob that he was ended. They had their revenge against the dreamer and got rid of those pesky dreams – they thought.

the tunic was a symbol of mourning

When I was eleven years old, I had an older brother. His name was Gary. He was 16. I remember a joyous day when Gary brought home his special prize. It was a green Honda 100 motorcycle. Gary loved that vehicle. He went everywhere with it. It was a symbol of his pride in being able to ride it and his joy that it was his very own.

But in June of that year, a terrible thing happened. I can still remember my mother getting a phone call. I don’t know who called her, but what I recall was that Mom was calm and collected on the phone. But as soon as she hung up, she called out to my Dad: “Come on, Buck, Gary’s been in a wreck.” The two of them left the house quickly, and my two sisters and I began praying and crying.

Gary died that day. Some well-meaning people took his broken and mangled motorcycle and brought it to all the nearby schools. They used it as evidence to teach young people to be extra cautious on motorcycles or don’t ride them at all. They also had his cracked helmet, with a blood smear still prominent on it. Sometime later, they brought that wrecked motorcycle back to our place and dumped it in a pile. From then on, every time we saw that pile, we grieved again.

The Bible does not say what Jacob did with that bloody tunic. It just says that “Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters stood by him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go to the grave mourning my son.” So Joseph’s father wept for him.”

Actually, the Hebrew says something even more specific. Jacob said that he would go down (יָרַד) to Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) to his son mourning. Sheol is the state of being dead. Jacob planned to mourn himself to death and join his son in the state of death. The Bible tells us some very specific things about Sheol.

Sheol is always described as a place that is down there – a place you descend (יָרַד) to. When the biblical authors compare it to something, they always compare it to a pit or destruction. When Eric Lewis examined the 65 references to Sheol in the Old Testament, he concluded that the term specified “not the place of interment, nor a presumed locality of departed spirits, but the condition of death, the death-state.”[1]

Sheol is also described as a place of silence. When David was in threat of death, he cried out to God to deliver him because he said, “In death, there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” (Psalm 6:5). To David, there is no afterlife. There was merely silence and stillness – a waiting on God to perhaps rescue by resurrection. To the Old Testament saints, a residence in Sheol would not be considered a goal to attain. It was an inevitable consequence of their mortality – to be avoided at all costs.

Sheol is also described as a dark place where people sleep. It is a silent, dark state or condition in which everyone exists at death and can only live again by a resurrection from the LORD. It is always contrasted with heaven and never equated with it. It is not the hope of the saints; rescue from it is the hope of the saints. That is the Old Testament consensus. When Jacob said he was going to Sheol he was not anticipating a happy reunion there.

When Jacob saw that bloody tunic, he was convinced that all hope was lost. When we experience tragedy, we can start feeling that way, too. But we can learn from this story. Tragedy does not mean that everything is lost. As long as we have a God in heaven with a plan for our lives, we can trust him to carry out that plan. Jesus told us that in the world, we will have trouble. But he also told us that he has overcome the world. We can find our hope in him. He gives a hope of a life after death. It starts with a resurrection unto eternal life. That is a destiny we can cling to no matter what we face today.

[1] Eric Lewis, Christ, The First Fruits (Boston: Warren Press, 1949), 48

Here is a quote from Devotions from Exodus:

“Nuisance

The frog was also a deity in the Egyptian pantheon. Heqet was a goddess who represented fertility. To have the territory overrun by these creatures was more than an annoyance. It was another reminder to Pharaoh that his worldview was erroneous. It was an embarrassment. And even though his magicians were able to duplicate the same thing on a smaller scale (because they were illusionists) he was perturbed, so he appealed to Moses to have Yahveh stop the plague. He was starting to take Yahveh seriously. Moses even gives Pharaoh the honor of choosing the day for the pestilence to stop. But when the break came, Pharaoh still stubbornly refused to comply with Yahveh’s demand.

I wonder if we are any better than Pharaoh was. We regularly experience nuisances in our lives, and they sometimes are so bad that we appeal to Yahveh to rescue us. But do we ever stop to ask if Yahveh wants to change us? Maybe an annoying event might be his way of getting our attention. Perhaps we should not be so quick to return to business as usual when the nuisance is over.

LORD, forgive us for ignoring you when you remind us of our need to change. Help us to see the possible significance of the annoying interruptions in our lives. Keep us sensitive to your guidance” (p. 40);

The book is 296 pages long and was released on May 17, 2024.