MONDAY 14 February 2022 “Valentine’s Day” Deuteronomy 6:13-25

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Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends on this Monday, Valentine’s Day 2022.

All around the world men and women will be buying or making cards with loving words, many will purchase flowers and chocolates and other things which express love and admiration. I wonder what “Valentine’s Day” means in your life and your family tradition?

One reason Valentine’s Day exists is to combat jealousy, would you agree? Yet in several places in the Bible we are told God is a ‘jealous God’! Does that make sense to you? As we continue our journey with Moses and his farewell messages to the people camped at the Jordan river valley, we’ve just completed God’s design for a God honoring family, (Deut. 6:5-9) and Moses’ urging that when the people enter the new land they are careful to NOT forget all God has done for them. (Deut. 6:10-12) Next Moses said some things which seem to fit very well for today, Valentine’s Day.

“Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only and take your oaths in His name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and His anger will burn against you, and He will destroy you from this land. Be sure to keep the commands of the LORD your God and the stipulations and decrees He has given you. Do what is right and good in the LORD’s sight, so that it may go well with you, and you may go in and take over this land which the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers…” (Deut. 6:13-18)

The Hebrew people had lived centuries in brutal slavery in Egypt. They understood the power and the pain of the slave masters’ whip. But God had rescued them from that bondage and repeatedly told them that He loved them, they were His people whom He treasured. He would care for and protect them. Their journey from Egypt to this Jordan river valley had many, many miraculous examples of God doing for the Israelites exactly what He had promised. God had made a covenant of love with them, and He was always faithful to that Covenant. Sadly the people were not faithful, even though they had promised God they would be. (Exodus 24) The golden calf they had made at Sinai, (Exodus 32) and their idol worship and immorality at Shittim, (Numbers 25) were two very significant examples of their unfaithfulness to their covenant with God.

Did you know, my friends, God was trying to use the covenant relationship between He and His people as a picture, a model of marriage? Years later Jeremiah the prophet wrote these words from God to the people of Israel: “The word of the LORD came to me: Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved Me and followed Me through the desert… Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of His harvest…” (Jeremiah 2:1-3) Do you hear God’s description of the marriage relationship of faithfulness and love and reliance which the Hebrews had with God, at least in the beginning? But it didn’t last very long. Jeremiah continues: “What fault did your fathers find in Me, that they strayed so far from Me? They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.” Jeremiah wrote about 700 years after Moses, and his words represent the sad and repeated departure of Israel from God’s offer of a loving, close, faithful relationship.

Many years after this the Apostle Paul wrote Ephesians 5 describing a God honoring marriage, and then this summary statement: “This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Jesus Christ and His church.” (Ephesians 5:33) Yes, Jesus presents Himself as the heavenly ‘bridegroom’ and those who have trusted in Him for full salvation are the bride of Christ, according to Revelation 19:7).

On this Valentine’s Day it’s appropriate for us to see that Almighty, Holy God wanted His dearly loved people Israel, to understand the holy covenant relationship He had designed for He and them, was a model for their marriages, their families and for other nations to see what a faithful, covenant relationship with God was like. The commandments and other laws and guidelines God had given to His people at Sinai defined the relationship He desired with His people and the holy lives He was calling them to live. If they were faithful in living in alignment with God’s commands, God would bless them greatly and they would live peaceful, prosperous, honorable lives, building God honoring marriages and families. When Moses described God as a ‘jealous God’ it was intended for the people to understand the covenant relationship God and the people had was very much like the covenant relationship of marriage between a God honoring man and woman. Faithfulness to the covenant promises made to each other is vital to the integrity of a marriage relationship. We understand that on this Valentine’s Day, right? Nothing damages a love relationship more than unfaithfulness, infidelity.

Moses then reminded the people again of the importance of each generation making sure that the next generations understand and hold this covenant relationship with God in the highest of esteem. “In the future when your son asks you, ‘what is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?’ Tell him ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand…and if we are careful to obey all this law bfore the LORD our God, as He has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.” (Deut. 6:20-25) At Mount Sinai God had said “Now if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, than out of all the nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.“ (Exodus 19:5,6) Do you see my friends, that God promised the people of Israel that He would view them as His precious, treasured, holy people if they kept His covenant commandments?

So on this Valentine’s Day, I wonder what you’d like to say to God in thanks for HIS creating you, His love for you, His offer of His Son Jesus Christ to pay for your sin debt, His offer for you to become part of the Bride of Christ by trusting in Jesus for your salvation, and His offer to place His Holy Spirit to live within you and all who have been redeemed by Jesus, and adopted into God’s family? Do you understand God’s jealousy for your love for Him and how it grieves God when you and I turn our love away from God and pursue things which draw us away from God?

May I invite you to join me in something special this Valentine’s Day? Would you set aside some time to write a card of thanks and love to God!? No you don’t need to mail it… but write what your heart wants to say to God about your commitment to living a covenant love relationship with Jesus, and put it in your Bible, maybe right here in Deuteronomy 6. Date the card, and then spend some time in worship, looking to see if any part of you has drifted away from the love relationship God deeply desires to have with you?

Here’s a song that speaks of that deep, deep love of God…

Today’s Scripture is Deuteronomy 6:13-25.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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