Deuteronomy 5-8: The Covenant – Part II
Saturday, May 31, 2026
We explore a few Favorites as we consider that Christ is The Life we hope to live.
Exploring these chapters of Deuteronomy, we return to the Readers’ Guide, page RG 112: “One of the themes that sets Deuteronomy apart from earlier thinking in Israel is that God’s promises either to Moses or to David are not simply guarantees that God will stand by this people with protection and help, no matter what they do. Earlier theologies of God as divine warrior that always fights for his people is now transformed into a new view of God who will uphold the covenant and all of its terms, including blessings and curses, according to how Israel keeps its part of the treaty. The stress falls on both faithful worship and social justice as ideals for Israel. Repentance and change of heart are often required if Israel is to return to covenant loyalty”. And so we see that God’s love is merciful and ever present, yet requires us to forgive because God will forgive all who repent. God, being God, must forgive us because God is good. God longs and aches for us to answer the call to love, just as the prophet Hosea longs for his harlot wife Gomer. God is always waiting with outstretched arms, asking us to own our faults and ask forgiveness. Perhaps the difficulty of this kind of living is reinforced by Jesus when he says that he has come to “set the world afire”. (Luke 12:49)
The writer of Deuteronomy tells us in Chapter 8: “Be careful to observe all the commandments I enjoin on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the Lord promised on oath to your fathers”. In this way, we know that our promised land awaits us. All our impossible dreams wait to be fulfilled. In accord with our covenant, we only must turn, repent, repair and ask forgiveness. Then will God’s all encompassing, ever-abiding, deeply trusting love restore us to our best potential.
God in heaven, God of all, we know that you are constant, just and compassionate. Be patient with us as we search here in the desert for the narrow path that leads to you. Save us daily through Jesus Christ. Send your Holy Spirit to abide in our small little temples that we maintain in constant waiting for you. Stay with us, comfort us, restore us. Amen.
Tomorrow, our life in the New Covenant.
From a reflection written on August 25, 2007.
Senior, Donald, ed. THE CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE. New York, Oxford University Press, 1990. RG 112. Print.
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The Noontimes 