These verses talk a lot about the festivals that are to be held to honor and praise God, and the Israelites are told to be joyful at them. This is nice as it is the first time there is a lot of joyfulness mentioned, in the account of Moses years at least.
Very quickly the story moves back to punishment of the wicked though, and the theme is “put the evil away from you”.
This is the first appearance of the “eye for an eye” rulings, which interestingly, is the very verse that Jesus turns upside down in his Sermon on the Mount, which I read last night.

I feel that I did not do the Sermon on the Mount enough justice. After all the vengefulness of the OT, it is suddenly talking forgiveness, which was a radical concept then. No wonder they hated Jesus so much.
Dear God, Show me how to find you through these difficult verses. Please increase my faith, I want to find you so badly. Please help me teach my children your ways, so that they are good people who help create your kingdom on earth. Please forgive all my failures and my sins. I fall so short of what you require. Thank you for Jesus, for the whole New Testament, where you come to us and rescue us from our sins. In Jesus name, Amen.