Deuteronomy 30

I'm a fan of the films of director David Fincher, but his oeuvre is intriguing in that every other one of his films is brilliant, with the intervening films ranging from underwhelming to pretty good. (His films, in release order, are Alien 3, Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Gone Girl.) One of his more minor works, The Game, (though it's still pretty good) stars Michael Douglas as Nick Van Orton, an insufferable stuffed shirt, who finds himself embroiled in a real-life--and quite sinister--game. The game starts out harmlessly enough, providing conundrums that Van Orton can handle, but then it starts to spiral out of control. Or does it? One of the many pleasures of the film is trying to figure out the true intentions of those running the "game," which is why I'm deliberately being vague.

Just as the game starts out providing challenges within Van Orton's capacity, God and Moses also say, "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach" (verse 11). God does not require anything of us we cannot accomplish or allow us to face temptations we cannot overcome. Easy to write, of course, because I know I've definitely given in to temptation innumerable times. I suppose I can be kind, generous, and compassionate (imagine that)--especially to people who don't annoy me--but I can also be selfish and surly, stubbornly refusing to perform simple tasks that would require only a scintilla of effort on my part but would help others enormously. In school, I tended to procrastinate, deciding to read for pleasure instead of doing math homework. Sure, when I procrastinated with English papers, I got away with getting good grades, but I regretted it. I pulled a few all-nighters in college, and each time I thought to myself wretchedly, "I am never going to do this again." Well, I never did do it again--after I graduated from college.

But when I do happen to act admirably, often it's because I remember the tenet in verse 14: "The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it." Here, Moses is referring to the Law of the Covenant, but God's word--and indeed God Himself--is always right beside us, guiding our paths and giving us strength when our own faculties fail. I feel I'm at my strongest spiritually not when I see God as some sort of spying policeman, but as the Creator of the universe giving me the fortitude to prevail over challenges and temptations.

The previous few chapters have boasted their own fair share of the doom and gloom that will befall the Israelites should they disobey. But the first ten verses of this chapter offer just one the myriad reasons why God is great: He forgives. If we admit our transgressions and come back to Him, He welcomes us with open arms. How awesome is that? How many people hold lifelong grudges, sometimes for atrocities that many would find difficult to forgive and impossible to forget? Sin is so unfathomably offensive to the perfect and holy God, and yet He still loves us, forgives us through the death of His son, and what's more, actually wants to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us! All too often, I take for granted just how truly singular God's love and grace are.