Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, June 12, 2022
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God’s relationship with God’s people starts with God.
Too often we think the Old Testament is filled with demands from God. “Thou shalt not” seems to be the most memorable thing God said. But we forget that for every expectation, God first delivered far more than God asked.
Preceding the 10 commandments, God reminded Moses of all that God had already done for Israel. God delivered Israel from the grasp of Egypt. God claimed the people as God’s own and held them as a mother nurtures her babies. God even reminded
them that to God, they are God’s most “treasured possession.”
God started the detailing of the commandments with the reminder, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
Even with these reminders, our relationship with God is not quid pro quo (this for that). God does not expect us to behave because God has already provided. God words are to remind us that we are in relationship with God. In every healthy relationship, the giving and the taking go both ways. God puts the responsibility first on God to deliver, and only then communicates what God wants and needs from the relationship. A scenario where God is the only one giving into the relationship is no relationship at all. Considering all that God has done for us, God asks very little of us.
