Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing
and a curse – the blessing if you obey the
commands of the LORD your God that I am giving
you today; the curse if you disobey the commands
of the LORD your God and turn from the way that
I command you today by following other gods,
which you have not known.”
— Deuteronomy 11:26–28

General Dwight D. Eisenhower went to visit the Nazi
death camps in Poland. Eisenhower’s statement,
which is featured prominently at the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., says that he
went to see the evidence with his own eyes so that
he could be a witness if the world ever tried to deny
the Holocaust. Seeing is believing. Believing is
knowing that something is true.

When God told the children of Israel that they were
to see that they had a choice before them, He was
telling them to know – with complete clarity – that
following His ways would bring them blessings and
going against Him would bring curses. It’s as if God
was saying to them, “See! Know it, experience it,
and store this truth in your heart. There will be a
time when your vision gets cloudy. There will be a
time when you have decisions to make in life.
Choose Me. Choose blessings.”

It would benefit us to think of this verse every day.
Sometimes we let ourselves sink into the murkiness
of life, into a place where life seems confusing.
However, life isn’t complicated. Not when viewed from
the place of clarity that God provides for us in this
reading. In every decision we face, there is only one
deciding factor – which path is most congruent with
the will of God? If we navigate according to that
compass, we will never go wrong.

Seeing something with our own eyes is a way to
believe. Yet it is also true that believing is a way of
seeing more deeply, more clearly, more fully than
just our eyes can.

With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

(excerpts taken from Holy Land Moments)