Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“For six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, June 19, 2022
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God loves God’s people fiercely and with passion.
God is a jealous God. When people get jealous, we express it with anger, bitterness, maybe even thoughts of revenge. One definition states jealousy can mean being “fiercely protective.” God does so much for God’s people out of love, desire, and yes, jealousy.
Coming from Egypt, the people certainly would have brought with them idols and figures of the gods of Egypt they had learned to adopt. God made it clear that God wanted the people to leave Egypt’s gods in Egypt, and claim God as their own from here on out.
Even as God laid out the first few commandments, God continued to state all that God had done and intended to continue to do for God’s people. God said people would suffer the consequences of people’s iniquity for three to four generations. This is not a warning, but a description of how people’s sin lives on long after people pass on. However, God promised that for people who were faithful to God, God would bless them to the thousandth generation! Where sin lingers for a short time, blessing lasts hundreds of times longer!
God also asked that people refrain from cursing God. This is not as much about swearing in general as it is about cursing God, which fails to honor God’s contribution to our well-being. We cannot curse God and love God at the same time.
Finally, God wove self-care (and communal care) into the fabric of God’s commandments. God knew that people were not created to work endlessly, and that people who failed to take time away from work could not give to God the time and attention that God deserves. Even as God laid out what God expects of people, God also ensured that God cared for people.
