Re-accepting The Gift of God's Word

Today is the beginning of Shavuot -- the Jewish "Feast of the Weeks." The celebration begins officially at sundown and lasts until sundown Thursday. During this time, according to Jewish tradition, God gives the Torah to His people again, and they re-accept the gift of His word.

I love this view of God's word -- His revelation of the Law, and the visions of His prophets. It is a gift to us: His way of allowing us to hear His voice.

Psalm 119:15-16 says,

I meditate on your precepts
    and consider your ways.

I delight in your decrees;
    I will not neglect your word.

In verses 105 and 106, 

Your word is a lamp for my feet,
    a light on my path. 

I have taken an oath and confirmed it,
    that I will follow your righteous laws.

God's law is His way of showing His love for us. He sets us apart, and desires only the best for us, and so gives us the way to get along with one another, and with Him. Jesus tells us as much in Matthew 22:36-40. He was asked which is the most important law, and He responds that the entire will of God -- the entire law -- is about our devotion to our Creator, and to a slightly lesser extent, about how we treat His creation.

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Who better to guide us through this world than the One who made it? So, the word of God is a gift. And it's a gift we can re-accept every new day, as we bind it to our minds, and write it on our hearts.