Deuteronomy 28:1-14 – 7/14/2026
Deuteronomy 28:1-2 (NRSVue)
If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God
Passages like today’s evoke for me a promise of a better world, blessing for all if we can learn to live better. Yet some people take these same words to be an indication that a modern nation-state should follow literally the laws set down for an ancient people who lived in a quite different world. People who think that we should literally follow these laws literally combine Nationalism with a strange variation of Christianity that holds a particular view on Biblical inerrancy. This worldview envisions a civil society where anyone who does not conform to their narrow understanding of Christianity is outside the protection of and the services of the state.
Of course this worldview claims to be biblical while picking and choosing what to take literally and what to ignore or explain away. Accepted are things like the death penalty for not conforming to the patriarchy in various ways. Rejected from the Bible are things like Sabbath and Jubilee years and selling all one’s possessions and giving everything to the poor. The problem for all of us is how to live out teachings that are thousands of years old, when so much context and understanding of the world has changed. One can choose to live in a way that forces others to come to the same answer or one can be open to difference, respecting disagreement whenever possible, only resorting to compulsory conformity when necessary. One results in violence; the other opens the possibility for lasting peace. One of these choices respects others as made in God’s image; the other holds the self and its ways above everything else as the only possibility of being correct.
Whatever we are to get out of these ancient texts like today’s, it is clear that they are not to be the basis for nationalism or the oppression of others who do not hold those texts to be sacred.
Revised Common Lectionary Readings for 7/14/2026:
Deuteronomy 28:1-14
Ephesians 4:17—5:2
Psalm 92
Reflections of a Dionysian Lutheran, comments on the daily readings of the Revised Common Lectionary by Justin Marquis
Dionysus on a Bike 
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