Day 61

Justice and Gratitude

Read: Deuteronomy 25-26

Deuteronomy 25 deals with the subject of justice. A society must have a judicial system that determines guilt and innocence, but the punishment must not be so severe as to degrade the guilty. One of the high priorities in our society is to call for judicial reform. Christians should unite with others to demand a better system of justice.

Justice includes economic justice (vv. 13-16.). In many ancient societies, a balance was used for measuring goods to be sold. Secretly using two sets of weights, one when you buy, another when you sell, was a way of cheating people. Christians need to realize that we are called to absolute honesty in all of our business dealings.

Deuteronomy 26 deals with gratitude. When bringing offerings to the Lord, we must remind ourselves who we are—people who have been rescued by God, purely because of his grace. If we are those who live in a land that produces riches, this is simply because God has caused it to be so. Therefore we are to bring the firstfruits of our labors to God as an expression of our realization that we have what we have because God has given it to us.

Here we are shown the spirit with which we are to worship. A danger is that we go to church with a heart filled with anxious concerns for the week ahead instead of with gratitude.

PRAYER
Father, help us to be utterly honest all week and to worship you with a heart filled with gratitude each Sunday. In Jesus’ name. Amen.