Daily Devotional • March 12
A Reading from Deuteronomy 9:13-21
13 Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people. 14 Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.’
15 “So I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was ablaze; the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God, by casting for yourselves an image; you had been quick to turn from the way that the Lordhad commanded you. 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and flung them from my two hands, smashing them before your eyes. 18 Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all the sin you had committed, provoking the Lord by doing what was evil in his sight. 19 For I was afraid that the anger that the Lord bore against you was so fierce that he would destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. 20 The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, but I interceded also on behalf of Aaron at that same time. 21 Then I took the sinful thing you had made, the calf, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was reduced to dust, and I threw the dust into the stream that runs down the mountain.
Meditation
The man of God, Moses, was a prophet in that he brought the Word of God to men. He also proved to be a priest, since he interceded for the people before God. Despite our images of an angry Moses throwing down the tablets, the Moses account tells more of a symbolic act and an expression of grief for what the people had done. God’s children are those who mourn for the sin of the world (Matthew 5:4), not those who place themselves above it and call for the destruction of the enemies of the Church (Matthew 5:10-12). Jesus, as he stood on the Mount of Olives looking at the city where he would die, mourned over Jerusalem (Luke 13:34, Matthew 23:37).
The proud, in contrast, rejoice that they are different, indeed better, than others. We are the ones who seek the destruction of our enemies, or those we perceive as the enemies of God. In our natural state we blindly claim a privileged relationship with God and think of ourselves as above the unwashed pagans or rebellious masses. But our call is to be humble, to love our neighbors (even our enemies), and to reach out to all people with the good news of Christ. Humble people realize that they, too, are sinners in need of God’s grace. Humble people are zealous for God in that they obey God and fearlessly proclaim God’s love and man’s need to repent and return to the Lord. Humble people are broken-hearted people because they mourn for all sinners and their fate, as well as the unrequited love of God.
Chuck Alley is a retired Episcopal priest (St. Matthew’s, Richmond, Va.), and an adjunct associate professor of anatomy on the medical faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University. Avocationally, he is an avid woodworker.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Episcopal Diocese of Springfield
The Diocese of Northern Malawi – The Church of the Province of Central Africa
The Rev. Dr. Chuck Alley, former rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, teaches anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School.
