Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: nickcarraway; NYer; ELS; Pyro7480; livius; ArrogantBustard; Catholicguy; RobbyS; marshmallow; ...
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ Ping

Please FReepmail me to get on/off the Lenten Ping List.


3 posted on 03/10/2017 9:21:52 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies ]


To: All

From: Deuteronomy 26:16-19

Israel, the People of the Lord


[16] “This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and or-
dinances; you shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with
all your soul. [17] You have declared this day concerning the Lord that he is
your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his com-
mandments and his ordinances, and will obey his voice; [18] and the LORD has
declared this day concerning you that you are a people for his own possession,
as e has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, [19]
that he will set you high above all nations that he has made, in praise and in
fame and in honor, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God,
as he has spoken.”

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

26:16-19. The main part of Moses’ second discourse (chaps. 5-26) ends with
a new, solemn proclamation of the Covenant between the Lord and his people,
on which their mutual relationship is based. Israel is the people — property of
God, chosen by him from among all nations. And the Lord, for his part, is the
God and Lord of Israel, whom he has solemnly promised to protect.

Verses 17 and 18 begin with turns of phrase typical of the language of con-
tacts and pacts: one contracting party has the other declare or swear some-
thing. This gives the passage great beauty and strength: through the wording
of the Covenant, Israel makes the Lord undertake to be its God and protector,
while God calls on Israel to testify that it will be faithful to his commandments.
The wording of the Covenant is extolled in other passages of the Old Testa-
ment. Thus, Hosea 2:25 uses the imagery of love to express the dialogue be-
tween God and Israel: “You are my people. [...] Thou art my God.”

By treating man in this way, God shows himself to be both near to man and far
above him. The mutual commitment of God and men in the Covenant is not a
simple business-like transaction; it is something enduring, something which is
being renewed all the time: for man, and particularly for the Christian, every day
is a renewal of the Covenant, a new beginning (cf. Is 43:19). St. J. Escriva writes
“Committed. How much I like that word! We children of God freely put ourselves
under an obligation to live a life of dedication to God, striving that He may have
complete and absolute sovereignty over our lives” (”The Forge”, 855).

As regards the structure of Deuteronomy in its present form, vv. 16-19 act as
both a summing up of Moses’ second discourse and as a preparation for chap-
ter 28, the end of that discourse, consisting of “Blessings and Curses” exhor-
ting Israel to be faithful to the Covenant it has made with the Lord.

*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase
The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

Please pray for this ministry and support it through this PayPal link. For other
options (check, money order, etc.) please contact the Listowner directly.

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” — St Jerome

*********************************************************************************************
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

For: Saturday, February 23, 2013

1st Week of Lent

Optional Memorial: St Polycarp, Bishop
(Preference Given to Liturgical Season)

From: Deuteronomy 26:16-19

Israel, the People of the Lord


[16] “This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and or-
dinances; you shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with
all your soul. [17] You have declared this day concerning the Lord that he is
your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his com-
mandments and his ordinances, and will obey his voice; [18] and the LORD has
declared this day concerning you that you are a people for his own possession,
as e has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, [19]
that he will set you high above all nations that he has made, in praise and in
fame and in honor, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God,
as he has spoken.”

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

26:16-19. The main part of Moses’ second discourse (chaps. 5-26) ends with
a new, solemn proclamation of the Covenant between the Lord and his people,
on which their mutual relationship is based. Israel is the people — property of
God, chosen by him from among all nations. And the Lord, for his part, is the
God and Lord of Israel, whom he has solemnly promised to protect.

Verses 17 and 18 begin with turns of phrase typical of the language of con-
tacts and pacts: one contracting party has the other declare or swear some-
thing. This gives the passage great beauty and strength: through the wording
of the Covenant, Israel makes the Lord undertake to be its God and protector,
while God calls on Israel to testify that it will be faithful to his commandments.
The wording of the Covenant is extolled in other passages of the Old Testa-
ment. Thus, Hosea 2:25 uses the imagery of love to express the dialogue be-
tween God and Israel: “You are my people. [...] Thou art my God.”

By treating man in this way, God shows himself to be both near to man and far
above him. The mutual commitment of God and men in the Covenant is not a
simple business-like transaction; it is something enduring, something which is
being renewed all the time: for man, and particularly for the Christian, every day
is a renewal of the Covenant, a new beginning (cf. Is 43:19). St. J. Escriva writes
“Committed. How much I like that word! We children of God freely put ourselves
under an obligation to live a life of dedication to God, striving that He may have
complete and absolute sovereignty over our lives” (”The Forge”, 855).

As regards the structure of Deuteronomy in its present form, vv. 16-19 act as
both a summing up of Moses’ second discourse and as a preparation for chap-
ter 28, the end of that discourse, consisting of “Blessings and Curses” exhor-
ting Israel to be faithful to the Covenant it has made with the Lord.

*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.


4 posted on 03/10/2017 9:24:53 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson