Suddenly, my life-long perception of ten black-and-white “commands” is laid bare for the hollow and meager interpretive shell it has always been. A chapter-a-day podcast from Deuteronomy 5. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.

Deuteronomy is Moses taking the face of his people lovingly in his withered hands and looking them in the eye one last time. These are the words of his deathbed. A chapter-a-day podcast from Deuteronomy 4. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.

Before there was Goliath there was Og, King of Bashan. There are moments for all of us when we’re facing our own giants. Sometimes they are just rumors. Sometimes they are very, very real. In either case, God’s message never changes. A chapter-a-day podcast from Deuteronomy 3. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.

Today’s chapter is about restraint, timing, and finally stepping into what God has purposed, planned, and prepared. A chapter-a-day podcast from Deuteronomy 2. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.

What could and should have been an eleven day trip has taken them 40 years to bring them to this place in this moment — because they were afraid to follow God into the Promised Land. Forty years in the wilderness was not so much punishment as it was spiritual formation.

A chapter-a-day podcast from Deuteronomy 1. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.

Today’s final chapter of Hebrews reads like the last day of camp. A a heart-felt list of loving marching orders from a camp counselor to a tearful camper who doesn’t want to return to “real life.” A chapter-a-day podcast from Hebrews 13. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.

The author of Hebrews is writing to an audience of believers in the middle of a grueling real-life marathon. They are at risk of hitting the wall. The author knows it. A chapter-a-day podcast from Hebrews 12. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.

When today’s chapter speaks of the unseen — of walking toward a country you’ve never seen, of trusting a God that cannot be measured — it presses all my deepest buttons. A chapter-a-day podcast from Hebrews 11. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.

There is a spiritual reality and an earthly reality. Spiritually I am graciously and mercifully forgiven forever, eternally cleansed from sin’s stain. Physically, I am a wayfaring stranger continuing to make my way through this world of woe. A chapter-a-day podcast from Hebrews 10. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.

Troubled times. Political corruption. Nationalism zealously on the rise. Assassinations increasingly common. Political resentments. Religious fervor. Arrogance of the ruling class.

I’m not talking about today.

A chapter-a-day podcast from Hebrews 9. The text version may always be found and shared at tomvanderwell.com.