Deuteronomy 27:1-8: in context

As Israel prepares to cross the Jordan into the promised land, Moses commands them to do something when they arrive: set up large stones, coat them with plaster, and write on them all the words of the law, very plainly. They were to make a permanent, public, clearly legible record of God's law, set up in the land, so that God's word would be kept before them and not forgotten as they settled into the prosperity and busyness of their new life. Write them very plainly, Moses says, that the words might be clear and lasting.

The command to write the law plainly on stones addresses a real danger: forgetting God's word amid the busyness and prosperity of life. God knew that once Israel entered the land of milk and honey and settled into their new life, they would be tempted to forget the God who gave it and the word he had spoken. And so he commanded a deliberate, lasting reminder: the law written plainly on stones, set up where it would be seen, a permanent record to keep God's word before them. The reminder was intentional, made deliberately so that the word would not be forgotten. This holds a wisdom for us, for we too are prone to forget God's word amid the busyness of life. The demands of daily life, the press of activity, the comfort of prosperity, can crowd out God's word, so that it slips from our attention and is forgotten. And the remedy God gave Israel is one we can apply: to make deliberate, lasting reminders that keep God's word before us. God told Israel to write his words on the doorposts of their houses and to bind them on their hands, deliberate reminders woven into daily life. I have hidden your word in my heart, the psalmist says, that I might not sin against you. Keeping God's word before us, through deliberate reminders and intentional practice, guards us against forgetting it. This is a matter of intention. God's word does not stay before us by accident; amid the busyness of life, it is easily forgotten unless we make deliberate effort to keep it in view. Reading it regularly, memorizing it, placing reminders where we will see them, returning to it intentionally, are ways of writing it plainly before us, so that it is not forgotten. Israel was to write the law plainly on stones; and we too do well to keep God's word deliberately before us, lest it slip from our attention amid the press of life. This calls us to make deliberate reminders that keep God's word before us. Israel was to write the law very plainly on stones, a lasting, intentional reminder against forgetting; and we, likewise prone to forget God's word amid the busyness and prosperity of life, are called to keep it deliberately before us, through intentional practice and reminders, so that his word stays in view and is not crowded out and forgotten, but remains plainly before us to guide and guard our lives.

Am I prone to let God's word slip from my attention and be forgotten amid the busyness and prosperity of life, and can Israel's command to write the law very plainly on stones as a lasting reminder move me to keep God's word deliberately before me through intentional practice and reminders, reading and returning to it so that it stays in view and is not crowded out, but remains plainly before me to guide and guard my life?