Psalm 79:1-6
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 5-9
Matthew 5:17-19
After reviewing today’s readings, I felt I had been given counsel as to how to create a path toward fulfillment and wholeness. It was a set of instructions that I needed to hear today and need to remind myself of everyday. “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live….” All three readings, from Moses in Deuteronomy to Asaph in Psalm 78 to Matthew, are exhortations on the path to fulfillment and wholeness. “Live by God’s law,” they cry out in unison.
Deuteronomy counsels further that to have once known and lived this path offers only momentary solace. Here Moses warns of the danger of complacency and arrogance and the need for ever-present diligence: “…take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart….”
Each day in my life, despite the knowledge that the only path to wholeness is through God’s law, I stray from this path. Though my eyes have told me otherwise, I, at times, believe that I have found a gentler, easier way to fulfillment. But there is no gentler, easier path. From the time of Moses “till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law till all is accomplished.” This Way is the only path.
