Nothing is more valuable than our relationship with God

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

As an alternative to jetting away on summer holidays, we’ve been exploring the world from a distance, immersing ourselves in cultures, languages, music, food and TV which feel refreshingly different from ours. I’m getting the same feeling from observing the life of Israel through today’s passage. Ancient festivals! Laws about sacrifices! Good treatment of slaves! These feel a long way from where we are, even though I know we are connected.

But where are those connections between the plan God rolled out for early Israel and anything which could shape our “new normal” for the better today? I’m struggling to find them in the details, many of which are specific to this faraway place and time, but can we discern any principles on which the laws were built which might endure today and beyond?

The biggest one, I feel, is that God has always wanted people to know that we shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that anything in the world belongs to us more permanently, securely and with any more value than our relationship with him. Most of these laws are simply ways of showing that in practice.

One surprisingly radical one which I love is God’s command for the regular cancellation of debts among his people. It’s hard to imagine people being faithful to this, especially in the detail of remaining open-handed shortly before debts would be cancelled. In fact, history shows, this was a problem, and the writer reflects this with tension like this: “There need be no poor people among you” (15:4) vs. “There will always be poor people in the land.” (15:11). I’ve sadly heard Christians excuse poor welfare provision and minimal compassion by leaning on Jesus quoting the latter (Matthew 26:11). But it couldn’t be any clearer here that poverty is not the state God wants people to be in, but a sign that those of us with stuff need to treat it as God’s stuff, ready to be moved around, rather than our own held tightly.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God loves us and cares about our quality of life. He gave specific instructions to ancient Israel based on love and concerns which endure today. He wants us to grow relationship with him, providing prophecy so people can hear his voice, times to remember and celebrate significant parts of our life’s story with him, and ways of challenging our natural tendency to look after ourselves first with instructions to treat others with compassion.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

Listen better for God’s guidance on how to treat our current good fortune with well-paid work and be looking out for where our neighbours need anything we can help with.

Who am I going to share this with?

People in our local community, especially families of Noah’s school friends.