Well, there are many others and most of them are products of society’s selfishness. On the whole, we want something for nothing – that’s why lotteries, game shows, free offers for double-glazing etc. are so important and chased after by people.

I’m no different really when I think about it. I do not enter competitions which require some judgement in answering say in no more than 15 words why, but I just entered the other day a competition to win a DVD player. I fancy something for nothing, but if I’m honest I don’t why I do it as I don’t expect to win.

More than a chasing after things for ourselves, we also have world-view that says good people will be rewarded and bad people will be punished. The problem for the world is that it doesn’t actually know who a good person or bad person is and so has the habit of rewarding and punishing according to its own variable judgement scale.

So to cope with this we create gods in our own image. We don’t make models or statues of gods, like the Greek, Roman or Egyptian gods – we are far to sophisticated to make images of animals or people.

But what we do is make gods in our own image, gods who are like us, with all our strengths and all our failings. Gods who offer love, good gifts, help the poor and needy, but also gods who are there when we need them for a quick miracle or a hoped-for answer, gods who hit out at those who don’t like, who agree with our self-made self-righteousness.

But let us allow Moses to introduce us to another God, who is bigger than us, more compassionate than us, more holy than us, more forgiving than us, more generous than us, more consistent than us, more wise than us. Our reading today gives us a clear image of a genuine God, far above us in so may ways, but wanting to be right down with us and beside us and within us.

And to do that it has to be a merciful God, putting up with us and dealing with us. At the end of the day, God knew that however much he set up his people with a wonderful land, victory in battle, laws to follow and so on, they would break the covenant and so incur his threatened wrath (Deut 29:28). But this God is a generous God who makes advance provision for his people’s restoration. This is what Deut. 30 is all about – acknowledging the reality of failure and preparing for restoration.

God knows that his people will be driven into exile one day, but that they will also be forgiven. Revealed here (cp 29:29) is the truth that God loves us, and no matter how sinful we have been, we can be pardoned, cleansed and restored (30:4b). But Moses tells the people that God’s forgiveness is conditional, guaranteed and generous.

God’s forgiveness is conditional (30:1-2)
‘When you return to the Lord’. There must be repentance, a right about turn. I remember when as a family we had gone to Malta on holiday and our flight arrived about midnight, we picked up a hire car and tried to drive to our apartment. Got totally lost in Valetta the capital and was stopped by a policeman in the middle of the night for driving the wrong way up a one-way street. To get it right, we needed to do a compete about turn.

If we are to receive God’s forgiveness, we need to do a complete about turn as well. Our sorrow for sin must be more than emotional; it must be so genuine that our behaviour changes, for we are called to obey God (30:2).

God’s forgiveness is guaranteed (30:3)
Our repentance, when genuine, will lead to forgiveness and restoration. God has promised it (cp. 1 John 1:9) and amazingly we must take heart and proclaim to a deeply broken and hurting world that no sin is beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness. Israel’s sin may mean banishment to the farthest corner of the world (30:4), but it is not beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness if they repent and obey. So it is for us.

Now that doesn’t mean we can go on sinning and repenting, trusting that our confession will grant us God’s forgiveness. No, we cannot treat so lightly the grace and mercy of God. Paul in Rom. 6:1-2 says no way to that. We are called to a new life, not to revisit the old life.

God’s forgiveness is generous (30:4-10)
God is not just about forgiveness. Ok, you’re forgiven, now go your way. He is about forgiveness and love, not just wiping the slate clean, but restoring our lives with blessings too numerous to count. Not only does he welcome us back with open arms as the waiting father did to the prodigal son, but he is willing to travel to get to us (30:4b).

God is longing to bless us if we are obedient. He wants to restore us (30:3), to bring us to a new land (30:5), to make us more prosperous and numerous (30:5), to delight in us as a father delights in his child (30:9:b).

The passage tells us of a God open-handedly pouring out blessings one after another if we are obedient and follow his commands – i.e. follow the best way to live. Sin is so tempting, it seems such a good idea, so fulfilling, surely a little bit, but it destroys the relationship between us and God, it stops up the out flowing stream of generosity and blessing, and it laughs in our face afterwards.

God’s forgiveness is there and for us who live after Christ it is there on our hearts and in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. God has indeed done as 30:6 states, as the prophets stated in Jer. 4:4, and which Paul picked up in Col 2:11-12 and later in Rom. 2:29.

What then is our responsibility in this covenant, this treaty between God and his creation? We are called to total commitment to God. That’s our challenge and as Moses states it is both achievable and understandable (30:11).

God’s word informs our minds (30:11-14)
Not only is God’s word for us not too difficult, it is also accessible: it is neither in heaven nor across the sea (30:12-13). It is within us, stored away in the believing mind – not just written in ancient texts but secured in our memories and obeyed in our lives.

An article in my paper caught my attention recently. A leading climbing magazine, Trail read by 37,500 climbing enthusiasts published an escape route from the top of Ben Nevis in dangerous conditions. The instructions were correct except for one crucial compass bearing which was omitted by mistake. As a result of part of a sentence being left out instead of directing climbers to safety, the article led them straight to a 1000 foot sheer drop known as 'Gardyloo Gully.'

There’s a spiritual message in this. The top of Ben Nevis in the mist is a dangerous place to be. You need to get to safety and to do this you need reliable instructions. The instructions can be 90% right, but the 10% error is enough to send you to your death over the edge of the precipice.

This world today is like the person stuck on the top of Ben Nevis in a howling snow storm, with no visibility and no way out except one narrow way down the mountain. If you follow the wrong instructions you will go over the edge of the cliff. If you follow the Maker's instructions you will be led to safety. The choice is yours.

We need to get intentional about reading and studying God’s word, not just on a Sunday a church, but daily and to grow in time to make it central to our thinking and living. For us, so much more than ancient Israel, we have the advantage that the word of God is living and active: living in Jesus Christ, active by his Spirit. The word is truly revealed, manifested and made known to all who seek.

God’s word challenges our will (30:15-18)
In Moses’ concluding remarks, he reminds Israel of the necessity of commitment. Here we have the stark alternatives: life and prosperity OR death and destruction (30:15), keep his commands and then you will live (30:16) OR if your heart turns away you will certainly be destroyed (30:17-18).

This challenge to our will is not a call to some cold detached legalism; it is to be an act of love. That is what is required. God is not interested in mere dutiful obedience. As he loves us, so he asks that we love him, that we turn our will to love him, that love for God is an intentional act of our will (30:16).

God’s word moves our heart (30:19-20)
‘Choose life … love the Lord … hold fast to him.’ (30:20). We do not drift into loving; a choice has to be made. It is just the same choice that Jesus asked of Peter by the Sea of Galilee before he could be restored to service (John 21:15-17).

Though God calls upon all creation as his witness (30:19), it is the heartfelt tender appeal to choose life which dominates here. God is longing for his people, for us to choose life. God entreats us with deep compassion and faithful love to choose life, to choose to commit to him and he lays out incalculable advantages for us if we so do.

This is the God we worship, this is the God revealed in Jesus, this is the God at work in our hearts by his Spirit. Is he your God? And will you commit to him? And will you call others to know him?