40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever.
The link to mortality here is the phrase "prolong thy days." The context is the Deuteronomic recapitulation of Israel's covenant relationship with God. I find I'm not all that interested in scriptural methods of prolonging the lifespan - and, in reality, the individual lifespan was never the point here anyway. Given the fuller context of the Deuteronomic concern with the nation as a whole, we are actually talking about the abiding of the nation upon the land (see verse 26).
What is interesting, however, is the phrase that "it may go well with thee." There is throughout the entire Old Testament a subtext of a promise of temporal blessings (by which I do not necessarily mean either wealth or honor or power) during the mortal lives of those who made and kept covenants with God. Solomon was promised that if he respected his covenant as a member of Israel he would "prosper" in all that he did (1 Kings 2:3). Psalms 1:1-3 promises the same to anyone who would so live - "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Concrete examples of this were found in the lives of the Patriarchs - especially Joseph of Egypt, of whom it was said that "the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper."
Again, the key here is not so much "success" from a worldly perspective. Joseph's career included long periods of time as a slave and a prisoner. The key is found in two things. First, the presence of the Lord in your life - even as a slave and a prisoner "the Lord was with him." Second, even amongst trials and seeming setbacks and triumphs of enemies, the knowledge that there is an overarching pattern and meaning to your life. God is doing something here and it will all rebound to your own good and - even more significantly in the long term - to your being a blessing to others. As Joseph told his brothers at his final voicing of his forgiveness, "ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good." Interesting that when he tells them the good that the Lord meant he is not referring to his own status or wealth but to the opportunity given him to "save much people alive" (Genesis 50:20).
The key to a successful mortality is to so live that God is with you. This involves the creation and maintenance of a covenant relationship with him. To begin focusing in again on the chapter we began with, the important thing is to remember that covenant. The whole point of Deuteronomy is Moses's plea - "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons" (Deuteronomy 4:9).
Important to note that we are not talking about some kind of legalistic perfection here. Backsliding and forgetting are perhaps inevitable for all of us. But when we come to ourselves again and remember, we will find that the Lord has not forgotten or forsaken us. We have but to seek him again with all our heart and soul, turn to him and be obedient to his voice (Deuteronomy 4:29-31) and the covenant is restored anew. It is the relationship that God is concerned with. It all begins and ends with relationship.
No comments:
Post a Comment