Daily Devotion for Monday 6/8/26

First Reading: Exodus 19:2-8a

At Sinai God assured Israel, “You shall be my treasured possession,” and commissioned them to serve as mediating priests for the nations. The people commit themselves completely to God’s will.

Devotion

The Promised Land; release from captivity; a wilderness of uncertainty. What do we emphasize in the Exodus story? Today’s reading points to God’s action and God’s purpose. While we must be very careful how we claim parallels in, or precedents from, the past, we who live in the United States might ask if there is anything we should learn as we prepare to celebrate fundamental events of our nation’s origins. History shows it is one thing to be rid of an oppressive ruler. It is so much harder, then to establish true freedom. Our reading suggests that honoring a covenant is necessary to create and preserve such a nation. The Creator of the Universe set an enslaved people free so that they could become a people, a nation governed by God’s intent for the good of all. It is one thing to celebrate a claim to independence. It is another to continue to “form a more perfect union.”

Prayer

Thank you, O God, for the gift of your covenant. Open our hearts, transform our wills so that your law guides our work for the common good. Amen.

Paul H. Moessner '04 D.Min.,Luther Seminary