Deuteronomy 6-7

“The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession” (6:6).  Most cultures had developed some kind of religious ritual to satisfy their natural hunger for spirituality, meaning, and control.  But God Himself visited the Israelites.  He gave them commandments “from the midst of the fire, of the cloud and of the thick gloom, with a great voice” (5:22).    God continued revealing Himself through generations, and finally He sent “His exact image,” the Son, to earth.

We no longer serve Him from a distance, separated by “clouds and fire and thick gloom”, but intimately, as beloved children.