Some interesting texts in this reading:
It was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. [Deut. 5:3] The Lord's relationship is with us, not our family or congregation. His promise and presence in our life is a thing of the present and not a thing of the past. It is with all of us who are alive here today.
The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain. (At that time, I stood between the Lord and you to declare to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) [Deut. 5:4, 5] Wait a minute. They may very well have been afraid, but weren't they commanded not to come up into the mountain while Moses spoke with God? ["...the Lord said to him [Moses], 'Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish....' Moses said to the Lord, 'The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, "Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy."'" Exodus 19:21, 23] I'm not sure about this. If you have some idea about this perceived discrepancy, please post me.
The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt.... [Deut. 7:15] But doesn't the Lord end up inflicting His people with several fatal plagues that we've pointed out in previous readings? Ok, maybe those plagues weren't precisely the diseases they knew in Egypt. But is God really that legalistic? Perhaps He's only talking about the people truly doing their best to follow after HIm. They're not the ones touched by plagues in earlier chapters. Only those who don't follow or obey who are killed by disease.
Another interesting and overlooked miracle that announced God's presence in their lives is not only did God lead them and feed them while they wandered in the wilderness but also "Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years." [Deut. 8:4] Now that would be a daily reminder that the Lord is with you. Of course, most teenagers and maybe a good number of adults might get tired of wearing the same thing whether it wore out or not. Our son John gets attached to his clothing so he might like this particular miracle. Above is picture of what David Skidmore calls John's Canaan shoes...[because "the soul never dies"].
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