Buying six bug bombs to rid a small apartment of bugs when 1 bug bomb would have been more than enough to get the job done… or purchasing a .50 caliber rifle to hunt gophers… or having enough nuclear weapons to destroy everything three times over… each of those could be described as overkill, where someone goes to the excess of what is required or suitable to accomplish a task.  Others would say that they are just making sure the job gets done.

Reading Chapter 28 in Deuteronomy, one might think that God’s curses there are a bit overkill.  After all, the list of curses is two or three times as long as his list of blessings.

But I think it shows us something about God.  It tells us how serious he is about obedience to his commands.  It tells us how serious he is about what the consequences are when his people would disobey his commands.  It shows us that God isn’t going to take any chances that we are not going to see the seriousness of sin.

I think it also tells us something about his people then, and us today.  It reminds us how easy it is downplay the deadly consequences of sin (disobeying God’s commands).  We seem to get it in our minds that if the sin doesn’t hurt anybody, it’s not that dangerous.  Or if we don’t see the consequences of our actions, it must not be that bad of a sin.  The Israelites struggled with it.  We can struggle with seeing the seriousness of sin in our life.

God hasn’t changed.  He is just as serious about the commands he has given to us as he was about those commands he gave to his people then.  He is just as serious about our disobedience and sin today as he was about then.  Make no mistake about it – “God cannot be mocked.”  He will punish sin.

But, you might say, I have a Savior.  This is true.  But God did not send his Son as the Savior of the world in order to give you an excuse for sinning.  God also tells us that if we continue to willingly sin, finally no payment for sin is left.  Sin that is done willfully on our part betrays an attitude that rejects God’s grace and forgiveness.

God did send his Son to save you from your sin.  He has washed you clean in the waters of baptism and purified you through Christ’s blood.  In adopting you as his child, he has also showed you how a child of God is to live.  Will you do that perfectly?  No.  But when you disobey, you repent, you confess your failings, your sins, and God assures you that your sins are forgiven.

The long list of curses here wasn’t overkill on God’s part.  He knew perfectly well that spiritual danger that stood before his people.  He lovingly encouraged them to live as his people, promising to bless them as they kept his commands.  He set up a system of worship for them that gave them opportunity to confess their sins, and in the sacrifices, see a picture of the Savior who would come to take their sins away.  And he warned them of the dire consequences of disobeying the almighty God.

When God’s law confronts you with your sin, acknowledge your sinfulness to him plead for his mercy.  See his love for you in his Son, through whom you have the forgiveness of all your sins.  Thankful for God’s grace, then strive to live for him by living as his child.
Prayer:  O God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things, and am sorry that I have disobeyed and offended you.  May I never disobey or offend you anymore.  O, may I love you without ceasing, and make my delight to do in all things your most holy will.  Amen.

Today’s Bible Reading:  Deuteronomy 28
Click here to read it online.

Piles of stones have been markers for thousands of years.  Stone piles have been used as markers for trails, and later, roads.  They have been used to mark a particular point, or to mark a boundary.  We still see them occasionally today – there are often stone markers at national parks to commemorate a particular event or building.We hear something similar in our reading today.  God instructs his people to pile up some stones and to coat them in plaster so that they can write on them.  The people of Israel are then to write the terms of the covenant God had made with them.  Anytime an Israelite saw that pile of stones, they would be reminded of what God had promised to do for them, and they would remember how they were to live as God’s people.

We do the same thing, don’t we?  We perhaps hang a picture of Jesus, or a Scripture passage.  We have a cross on our wall, or maybe our baptismal certificate hanging in a special place.  They are all reminders to us of what God has done for us.  We remember how he graciously sent his Son to be our Savior.  We remember how he washed out sins away and wrote his name on us at our Baptism.  These, like that pile of stones in our reading, are markers of God’s grace and reminders of his promises to us.

And as we remember God’s grace to us, we remember who we are – God’s children.  May those markers of God’s grace not only remind us of God’s goodness, but remind us of his love which motivates us to then live as his children… just a like a pile of stones did for God’s people long ago.

Prayer:    Almighty God, you have repeatedly shown my your gracious love.  You have given me countless reminders in your Word and in my life of your love.  Help me to use these regular reminders to treasure all you have done for me and to motivate me to live as your child.  In my Savior’s name.  Amen.
Today’s Bible Reading:  Deuteronomy 27

Click here to read it online.

The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. Judges 7:7-8
Most people like to cheer for the underdog. We like to see someone prevail against overwhelming odds and adversity. However, it’s usually a lot more fun to cheer for the underdog than to be the underdog. This is especially true when it comes to life and death matters, like fighting cancer, or going into war.

The Israelite army was the underdog to begin with, outnumbered 135,000 to 32,000. Then after the Lord told Gideon to send home those who trembled with fear and to keep only those who lapped water with their hands, it was 135,000 to 300. That’s 450 Midianite soldiers to each Israelite! Impossible odds in an era of hand-to-hand combat. But the Lord gave his people the victory!

So why did God make it seem so impossible? He was making sure that the Israelites would not boast in their own strength or think that the victory came by their own planning or power. When it comes to our salvation, God wants us to recognize the same thing. He has done it all. We can do nothing!

Spiritually, each one of us was the most unlikely underdog imaginable. Not only were we separated from God at birth, but we were also blinded by unbelief. On our own we could not even begin to make the first move toward God, nor did we want to. But God did the impossible by sending his Spirit through his Word to lead us to love and trust in his Son as our Savior from sin.

The victory is the Lord’s! Therefore, instead of boasting of our own strength or righteousness, we rely on God our Savior and praise him for his gift of righteousness.

Dear Heavenly Father, you have done everything for our salvation. We have done nothing. Give us such a faith that humbly approaches you and praises you continually for your great goodness. Amen.

Today’s Devotion is brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com

You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. Hebrews 12:22
No doubt you’ve seen pictures or video of Mount Everest. Its beauty is stunning. And its height – nearly 6 miles above sea level – makes it the highest mountain in the world. It’s the stuff of legend.

That much you know. What you may not know is that Mount Everest is littered with bodies.

Over the years, you see, about 4,000 people have tried to climb Mount Everest. Almost 200 of them have died in the attempt. So extreme, however, is the terrain near the summit that it’s simply impossible to recover many of the bodies. And so they remain on the mountain to this day.

It’s a sobering thought: A mountain littered with scores of people who gave their lives for a fleeting moment of glory.

The Lord introduces us to a different kind of mountain – “Mount Zion,” he calls it. The heavenly Jerusalem. The city of the living God.  Here there is only one person who gave his life. It’s the Son of God himself. Only he didn’t do it for a moment of glory. He did it to wash us clean of our every sin. He did it to give us eternal life.

And now he lives. And because he does, Mount Zion is ours. And not just for a moment. Because Jesus lives, Mount Zion – heaven – is ours forever.

Dearest Jesus, you died to wash me clean. And now you live again. Because you do, Mount Zion is mine. Empower me never to forget what I have through you.  Amen.

Today’s Devotion is brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com

[God the Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1:13–20

Consumer Reports is a magazine that deals in superiority. It’s the type of magazine you would look at for the best of a given product and the best deal for your wallet.

In the verses for our devotion today, Paul gives us the “consumer report” on Christ. He clearly explains why Christ is superior to anyone or anything else. He is God. He created all things. He is eternal, without beginning or end. He is the firstborn from among the dead, never to die again. He holds everything together.  Each part of these verses lays out an objective fact about why Christ is superior. And each of these truths has important significance for our daily life.

Despite the times we see sin interrupt our lives; despite the horrors of wickedness we hear about in the news; despite the atrocities human beings commit against one another, evil and wickedness are not in control. Even though they may appear to be running the world, they are not. No matter what evil or wickedness may throw at us, there is nothing they can do to wrest control away from Christ. Nor is there anything they can do to separate us from Christ. For Christ defeated sin and death through his death on the cross and declared his victory as he rose from the dead.

This is the report we have on Christ. He is supreme. There are none who are greater. There are none who can take control away from him. There are none who can separate us from him. What confidence this gives us as we continue our pilgrimage on earth!

O Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, in your mercy you have brought us into your kingdom. Continue to rule over us, protecting us from the evil one until we join you in your heavenly kingdom. Amen.

Today’s Devotion is brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up to David arighteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.” Jeremiah 23:5-6
God charged his prophet Jeremiah to announce a message of judgment on his people of Judah.  Because they rejected him and worshipped idols, God declared that he would send a foreign power to crush his people and carry them off into captivity.  It was an ominous message of judgment which God brought to his people through Jeremiah.  But God remembered his promise to bring the Savior into the world from his people.  So looking ahead he announced the fulfillment of that great promise.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.”  God describes a shoot or sprout which grows out of a dying stump or from the ground where a tree stump is decaying.  With this imagery,God wanted his people to envision the coming Messiah.  His roots or ancestry would be from the line of David. But by the time of his arrival, the grandeur of the Davidic kingdom would have died and decayed under his godless successors.

The Messiah would, however, reestablish the glory of David’s throne, although not in the same way as before.  He would be a King,but his kingdom would be new and different.  His would be a spiritual kingdom in which he would benevolently rule over his people forever by faith.

God’s purpose was to save his people from sin’s curse of death.  So he sent his Servant, Jesus, to do what was “just and right in the land.” In contrast to the people who rejected him and lived in disobedience to God’s will, Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life.  He lived in perfect obedience to the will of God and was guiltless of any sin.  He did this not for his own benefit, but for the benefit of all people. God took all sin and laid it on Jesus and asked him to pay its awful penalty.  Jesus willingly obeyed his Father’s will.  When Jesus had perfectly completed his saving activity, God imputed, or charged, the perfect righteousness of his Son to us.  He is: THE LORD, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.  As we sing in the hymn: “Jesus your blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress.”

Redeemed by his blood and robed in the garment of Christ’s righteousness, we are beautiful people in God’s eyes.  In Christ God carried out his eternal purpose for us.

The events in our lives take place because God has carefully planned them and purposely brings them to pass for our good.  We live out our lives, not aimlessly and haplessly according to our own design, but all in accordance with God’s eternal purpose.  He is our gracious God who cares for us.  He proved his grace by the life and death of his Son for us, and he dailydemonstrates his love in the way he blesses our lives.

Lord Jesus Christ, I bow in worship and praise to you for my salvation.Help me to always confess you as my perfect and precious Savior.  Amen.
Today’s Devotion is brought to you by WELS and http://www.whataboutjesus.com

¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to his own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” (Exodus 32:30)

Have you every had someone talk on your behalf?  Maybe it was in grade school and you had a friend talk to that girl you liked for you because you were to shy or embarrassed to make the first move on your own.  Maybe it in court where an attorney spoke to the judge on your behalf.

Israel had sinned against the Lord.  Just days after saying they would obey God’s laws, they had Aaron, one of their leaders, make a golden calf which they said was the god who had delivered them from Egypt.  God was ready to wipe them off the face of the earth.  Because of their sin, because they had disobeyed his commands, because they had broken their covenant with God, God wanted nothing to do with them.  The Israelites sin had separated themselves from God.  They needed someone to go to God on their behalf, because they weren’t able to do it on their own.

Moses offered to go and talk to God on behalf of the people.  Moses was going to serve as a mediator, a middle man, someone who speaks on behalf of another.  Even though innocent of this particular sin, he was going to plead to God that he would have mercy and forgive the sins of Israel.

Our sins have done the same.  Perhaps we don’t view them as being as drastic or as great a sin as some we see the Israelites committing, but they have the same horrible effect – a separation from God.  They are sins that heave rightly earned God’s anger and punishment.  We need one to go to God for us.

And we do.  We have a mediator, a middle man who stands between us and God and pleads for us.  A mediator who unbelievably took our sins and made them his own.  We have a Savior who stood between us and God and took God’s anger and punishment over sin so that it wouldn’t be directed at us.  The apostle John writes in his first letter, “if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1).

You have a Savior speaks in your defense, who doesn’t just plead for God’s mercy and hope for the best, but one who has paid for all your sins and given you his righteousness.  You have a Mediator who continues to gracious speak to God on your behalf still today.

Prayer:    Dear Jesus, thank you for serving as my mediator and paying for my sins. Amen.

Today’s Bible Reading:  Exodus 32
Click here to read it online.

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• This is another one of those sad chapters in the Bible when you kinda wonder what was going through the heads of the Israelites…or through the head of Aaron.  The Israelites had agreed to a covenant with God; Moses, Aaron and the leaders the Israelites had seen God and eaten with him; and now Moses remained up on the mountain with God.   Before long, the Israelites determined that something must have happened to Moses since he had not come down yet (even though the top of the mountain was still covered by the cloud that marked God’s presence).  So, since Moses was gone – Aaron, here is our gold and silver, make us a God.  And Aaron, the person who was designated to be the high priest before God, agrees.  Makes an idol – and then says, “There are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt…tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.”  What are you doing Aaron?  What are you doing Israel?  Have you forgotten God’s promises, God’s deliverance, God’s power that quickly?  Could those same questions be asked of us – who hear about God’s promises, see his deliverance and power in the pages of his Word, hear it on Sundays, read it during the week – and just as quickly forget like Israel when trouble arises…
• We catch a glimpse of how God looked at Moses.  In 32:10, God is ready to wipe out all of the Israelites and start over with his chosen people through the family of Moses.  Moses must have been a faithful, humble and righteous man, a man who trusted his God and Savior, for God to look at him in this way.
• I had to chuckle a bit when Aaron gave his excuses to Moses about why he did what he did.  “They told me to do it…i took what they gave me, threw it into the fire and out came this idol…”  I wonder if the excuses we offer for why we sin sound just as silly to God…
• Moses certainly had a deep love for the people God placed him over.  He loved them to the point of being willing to be sent to hell and blotted out of God’s book of life if God would only forgive the Israelites.  He serves as a mediator, a go-between between the Israelites and an angry God.  I can’t help but think of our mediator – Jesus, who stood between us and God, who pleaded for our forgiveness, faced God’s anger in our place, and secured for us the forgiveness of all our sins!

What are your thoughts and/or questions?

Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it.  Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. (Exodus 30:19-20)

Where do you stand on the issue of cleanliness?  Are you one who might describe themselves as a neat freak?  One who likes to be clean, but doesn’t take it to an extreme?  Or maybe one to whom cleanliness isn’t all that important.  Growing up, I had a sign in my bedroom that read:  “Cleanliness is next to godliness – but messiness is just as close.”  Not that I wasn’t clean – it just wasn’t as important to me as other things…and so there was a bit of messiness too.

Cleanliness was something that was important to God.  And not just being physically clean.  God instructed that Aaron, the high priest, and all the other priests had to be clean before approaching him.  In the courtyard of the Tabernacle was a large basin filled with water.  Here, the priests were to wash their hands and feet, not just cleaning the dirt, blood and other things that made their hands and feet dirty, but it was also a symbolic washing of all their impurities away.  God demanded that they be clean – both physically and spiritually – before they could serve before God.  The punishment if they weren’t clean – death.

The point God was making here to the priests and to the Israelites was that to come to me and to come before me, you must be clean.  Think about what “clean” means to God.  It means being clean from sin, perfectly pure, without sin.  It is why the priests had to offer sacrifice first for their own sins each day.  It is why they had to regularly wash their hands and feet.  They weren’t clean on their own – instead, they trusted in a coming Savior who would clean them spiritually, and showed their trust in this Savior as they symbolically offered sacrifices and washed themselves.

How clean are you?  Not a personal hygiene question – but a spiritual one.  The sin that is part of our lives leaves a horrible, deep stain on our soul.  We dirty our minds with pornographic images and thoughts of anger or revenge, we dirty our mouths with profane words and gossip, even our actions show the dirtiness of sin in our heart.  We are in desperate need of a spiritual bath, a spiritual cleansing.

Which is exactly what God gave us.  John tells us that the blood of Christ purifies us from all sin.  The Savior’s whose birth we are about to celebrate came to cleanse us from our sins of thought and word and deeds with his death on the cross.  In the waters of Baptism, we receive a washing with water and the Word that God tells us gives us new life and washes away our sins.

We’ve been made clean by our God.  All our sins – whether in our minds, in our words, in our actions – have been washed away by the Christ-child whose birth we are about to celebrate.  Cleansed by your Savior, confidently stand in the presence of God and joyfully worship your new-born Christ.

Prayer:    Dear Lord, thank you for washing away my sins with your blood.  Amen.
Today’s Bible Reading:  Exodus 30-31
Click here to read it online.

Check out Pastor Kratz’s thoughts on this reading on the “What Does This Mean?” blog by clicking here.

Join us for our Christmas Services celebrating God’s gift of his Son!

Christmas Eve – Service of Lessons and Carols  –  5:00 pm
Christmas Day Festival Service  –  10:15 am