A Saturday morning journal entry, a Saturday morning post. Can’t remember the last time I did that. But I have some time alone this morning and thought I’d give it a try. Really haven’t had much alone time this week as I’m engaged in a tri-country, partial family reunion. My oldest daughter and her family from Canada and me for the USA flew down this week to spend a bit of time with my youngest daughter who lives in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. This while my other daughters and their families in Washington and Oregon are “enjoying” some winter (good week to be gone). So, I have been fitting in my daily readings where I can.

And for some reason (could be a Spirit reason), wading into Deuteronomy this week has been more impactful than I remember it from past years. And what hits me after the first dozen chapters is that what Moses is laying down really shouldn’t be rocket science to pick up. It’s actually pretty simple. So, shouldn’t it be easy? Evidently not.

You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey . . .

(Deuteronomy 5:33, 6:3, 11:26-27 ESV)

Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live . . . Be careful to do them, that it may go well with you . . . I am setting before you a blessing if you obey . . . Chew on that. Simple, right?

Not foreign. Same today. “Trust and obey; for there’s no other way; to be happy in Jesus; but to trust and obey” (well-known hymn . . . at least for us boomers). Simple. So, just do it.

Moses is talking to those who have grown up in the wilderness. Those who have all buried both parents and older brothers and sisters along the way. Those who know that the graves are reminders of a generation who did not trust and obey. So, you’d think that when Moses says, “Keep the commandments and it’s going to go well for you”, that they’d say, “Sure, we’ll do that. Easy!”

Yeah, but not easy. For even if the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak (Mt. 26:41). I’m not talking theory here, I’m talking experience — like decades of too much experience.

Oh, the power of the flesh — even in the those who have been redeemed and rescued from slavery and sincerely want to live in freedom. Oh, the lure of Egypt that draws us back to ways that are not God’s ways. Oh, the temptations of the man (and woman) whose father is Adam (and mother is Eve). Oh, the reflex propensity to cover-up with self-made coverings and hide and convince ourselves that somehow we’re still “mostly righteous.”

I know it. Paul knew it, too. Yeah, that Paul — THE Apostle Paul.

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

(Romans 7:22-24 ESV)

Answer? Jesus!

Jesus the only man who fully knew the “happiness” of “trust and obey.” The One who knew the blessing of perfect obedience. The One whose spotless perfection allowed Him to be my atoning sacrifice. The One whose unwavering righteousness was credited to my account so that I too might “live long” and “multiple greatly” as God has “promised.”

Thank God for the gospel. Not just the gospel that saved me almost 50 years ago, but the gospel that continues to keep on saving me from 50 days ago and 50 minutes ago. Days and minutes where though I longed to walk in the way, and to be careful to obey His commandments, so often I ceded the victory to the “waging war” in my “members” — the struggle of the old man, the flesh in me, against the Spirit, Christ in me (Gal. 2:20, 5:17).

Obey. Simple.

Obey. Not so easy.

Obey. Something I desire to do more and more, each passing day, only by His transforming grace. And only for His everlasting glory.

Amen?