Day 44 – October 28, 2023: Deuteronomy 11-15 and Mark 9

There is a verse in Deuteronomy that made me immediately think about Lancaster County. Read Deuteronomy 11:11-12 that says: “But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky. A land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” The fact that we live in an area that receives natural rain and does not need irrigation is beyond a shadow of a doubt a blessing. The rest of the readings in Deuteronomy are commands that we have read in the past.

It also struck me the ferocity that the Lord wanted to keep the people of Israel from worshipping idols. If a community was found to be worshipping idols the people, the goods and the town itself were to be destroyed by fire. That seems like it would be a bit of a preventative for folks to want to follow along with what the nations around them are doing as opposed to what the Lord had commanded. But we read that even this incentive wasn’t enough to stop the rampant disobedience that we will be reading about in Scripture.

Mark 9 gives us the transfiguration. I think I have attached this in the past but this is definitely my favorite rendition of it. It also contains the story of the boy and Jesus casting out the demon from him.