The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. …
Deuteronomy 5:2-5
Moses tells the people that the covenant between them and God is personal. It isn’t with the saints before them. God is at work in the present. He has entered into a face-time relationship with us. Moses mediated the initiation of the relationship because they were afraid of God’s signs. We are in the same situation today. God wants face time with us. The difference is that according Hebrews we don’t come to a fiery, scary mountain with harsh commands but to Mount Zion full of angels and saints; a city with God through Christ as the mediator. Our personal covenant is better.
From here Moses rehearses the Ten Commandments, the Shema, and instructions to be sure to bring this relationship to our children and grandchildren. The Ten Commandments are descriptions of God. They tell us who He is. The tell how to relate to Him. The Shema is the greatest commandment or telling of who God is of all. God is the One and Only and deserves more than a passing service to fulfill some requirement. He deserves our very being in serving Him. It seems the body of Christ can convey this, but we aren’t always so successful at introducing our children and theirs to Him.
Our lives are to be given to expressing God to our children. We are to show them when we work, rest, get the promotion, or stay where we are that He is the preeminent focus of our lives. I believe it is because of our casual, less than pervasive serving of the Lord that many children are lost from the kingdom. They are presented the encompassing nature of our God and they look elsewhere for fulfillment. The boring religion their parents are practicing is dull so they look for something shiny and exciting to fill their needs.
I cannot give my children a relationship with the Lord. It is personal. They must get their own. I can present an honest, open view of how much I love Jesus. My first witness is to them. Only by pursuing the Lord with all of my heart can I convey its value to them.
Face to Face,
Pastor Jason
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