What a treat today! Deuteronomy 29 offers two things in particular I find of interest. Hebrews warns us against allowing a root of bitterness to spring up. Deuteronomy 29:18, 19 identify this bitter root with secret idolatry of the heart - a root that bears poisonous and bitter fruit. And the glory of verse 29! Easy to remember (29:29): "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." There are things that are none of our business - questions we have no business answering, areas we have no business prying into. But when the Lord reveals something to us, that is our heritage, and a heritage to pass along to our children, so that we may live in obedience to the Revealer.
In the NT reading, impossible to avoid the fact that as forgiveness delights the heart of God, there is nothing that so angers Him as our refusal to forgive - we who have been so richly forgiven. Grudge bearing holds in contempt the unspeakable mercy we have received.
Great writing from Dr. Luther today too!
without your post, I wouldn't have seen Matthew 18:21-35 as a sermon on Deuteronomy 29:18-20 - for what is refusal to forgive? It is subbornness, it is bitterness, but most of all, it is idolatry as we deny the true God who has been merciful to us
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Deuteronomy 29 verse, one of my Homiletics professors here at Concordia offered that to us as a text for the funeral of one whose faith is unknown (or perhaps doubted). Allows you to move beyond the big question on everyone's mind, and which you are not able to answer, and instead point those still living to the revealed Gospel.
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