Justin Houtz

Deuteronomy 10, Galatians 1

DateVersionReading Plan
June 12, 2025ESV (2016)OT/NT Plan 2025 – 2027

Deuteronomy 10

Observation & Interpretation

Moses recounted that the LORD told him to cut two tablets of stone like the first and that the LORD would write on the second set of tablets what were on the first. Moses was also to make an ark of acacia wood and place the new tablets inside the ark (Deut. 10:1-2). Moses did so, making the ark and placing the tablets inside, then came down the mountain (Deut. 10:3-5). In parenthesis, Moses described the journeying of the people and the setting apart of the tribe of Levi to carry the ark. Levi had no inheritance because the LORD was his inheritance (Deut. 10:6-9).

Moses stayed on the mountain as the first time, forty days and forty nights, and the LORD listened to him this time also (Deut. 10:10). The LORD told Moses to go on his journey at the head of the people and take possession of the land that the LORD had given them (Deut. 10:11).

Deut. 10:12-22 summarizes the essence of the law, that the people were to love the LORD their God with all their heart and soul and keep His commandments. To the LORD belong the heaven, the heaven of heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet the LORD set His heart in love on their fathers, choosing their offspring after them above all peoples. The people were to therefore respond by circumcising the foreskin of their hearts and no longer be stubborn. The LORD is God of gods and Lord of lords, mighty and awesome, impartial and taking no bribes, executing justice for the fatherless and widow, loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. The LORD is their praise, their God who had done great and terrifying things that their eyes had seen. Their fathers went down as seventy persons but now they were as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Application

The LORD is worthy of all our praise because He is our praise. So important is this for us to grasp because it sets our hearts aright in understanding the LORD as the object and embodiment of praise itself. By this we see that praise is as much a divine, ontological assignment as it is an action or posture of the heart. Nothing else can make such a claim as to Him alone belongs this glorious state. May we then view the Lord God in Christ Jesus with the reverence and awe that is His due, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

Galatians 1

Observation & Interpretation

Paul greets the churches of Galatia as an apostle—not from men or through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead (Gal. 1:1-2). Paul expressed his astonishment that they “should so suddenly surrender the truth of the gospel, and he solemnly labels their action as deserting God for a false gospel.” (BBC) He twice declares a solemn curse on anyone who preaches a gospel contrary to the one he preached to them (Gal. 1:8-9). Paul was not seeking the approval of man but of God since in trying to please man he would not be a servant of Christ (Gal 1:10).

Paul made clear that the gospel he preached was not of man but of God. He did not receive it from man but through a revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:11-12). He recounted his former days as a persecutor of the church, zealous for the traditions of his fathers (Gal. 1:14). But when God who set him apart from before he was born and called him by His grace was pleased to reveal His son, He did so in order that Paul might preach Christ among the Gentiles (Gal. 1:15-16). Paul did not consult with anyone, nor did he go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before him, but went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. “After his conversion (Ac 9:3–9), Paul did not feel any compulsion to travel immediately from Damascus to Jerusalem to consult with the authorities on the gospel. He went to Arabia (see Ac 9:23–25; 2Co 11:32–33), then back to Damascus.” (CSB Notes). After three years, Paul went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas (Peter) and remained with him fifteen days (Gal. 1:18). Paul did not see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother (Gal. 1:19). Paul was truthful in what he wrote to the churches in Galatia (Gal. 1:20). He described more travels and that he was still unknown to the churches in Judea that were in Christ (Gal. 1:22). “That Paul was personally unknown to the Judean churches agrees with the silence about him in Acts from when he went to Tarsus (Ac 9:30) until Barnabas went there to bring him to be involved in the church in Syrian Antioch (Ac 11:25–26).” (CSB Notes). They only were hearing it said that Paul was now preaching the faith that he once tried to destroy and they glorified God because of him (Gal. 1:23-24).

Application

The repetition of cursing Paul spoke on those who preached a gospel contrary to the one he preached underscores the vital importance of both knowing and sharing the real gospel. By knowing it—being saturated in God’s Word and through the guidance of the Spirit—we are shielded from aberrant teaching. However, equally crucial is that our sharing it with others would be a faithful and comprehensive expression of salvific truth. This entails a constant, steadfast emersion in the gospel—permeated to the full—to bring to bear this message of utmost importance to every soul the Lord sees fit for us to encounter.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, You alone are worthy of our praise because You are our praise. Father, help me to look upon You rightly and respond in steadfast faith. Father, help me by Your Spirit to know You and make You known, to protect me from twisted doctrine and share the hope of life eternal in Your Son.

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