Today’s Reading: Exodus 22:22-24; Leviticus 19:3, 9-10, 14-18, 32-34, 2-:9. 24:22. 25:35-38; Deuteronomy 5:16, 21, 20:1-20; 21:18-21; 22:1-4, 6-7, 23:9-13, 24-25; 24:29-22; 25:4

Among many laws, today’s reading is somewhat nice & agreeable – about welfare of the poor, honouring your parents, elderly, strangers and neighbours, no coveting others’ possession.

Did you notice how many time he states “I am the Lord” in today’s reading? 8 times! This is the first commandment and he repeated 8 times in this passage, just in case we forget. The problem is that we tend to forget it very fast… You may be better than me, but I don’t know how many time I have to stop myself making decisions or do stuff on my own power and agendas without referring all of them to God my Lord first. Thank goodness I have a circle of my brothers/sisters in Christ who remind me constantly!

Another theme in this reading is “remember you were slaves in Egypt” — we are reminded 3 times. I find it interesting how fast we also forget where we were without God when we are doing well. When we are doing “well”, we tend to forget where we were before God rescued us. The Israelites were like that; after many centuries later, we are still like them unfortunately. Over the last month or so, I had to laugh at the Israelites for their mistakes, especially “repeated” mistakes and said “Are you kidding? After witnessing so many miracles, you still forget God and do something stupid like that”. The saddest part of that is I tend to be so deluded that I cannot even see myself doing it just like the Israelites in my life. How many times did God show me of his love and faithfulness to me in such a personal way? Despite that, I tend to forget so fast and so often that he is in control, not me.

Are you in control today? If you feel you are in control, check again!