And Yet He Chose Us
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Deuteronomy 10:12-21
12. "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13. and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I command you this day for your good? 14. Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it; 15. yet the Lord set his heart in love upon your fathers and chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as at this day. 16. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19. Love the sojourner therefore; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20. You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him and cleave to him, and by his name you shall swear. 21. He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and terrible things which your eyes have seen.
Verse 14 is what first caught my attention this morning. Imagine this: God made the sky, the stars, the planets, everything in the universe. He made the earth, the mountains, the oceans, the vegetation , and everything on the planet. Of all the beauty and majesty of the earth, the wonder of the skies filled with stars on a clear night, what did God decide was his favorite? None of those! You and me! God loves man most of all, puny, weak, extremely slow to evolve, full of sin and exhibiting our rebellious natures throughout our lives -- he chose us! We are him -- a molecule of him in within each of us! It’s just too mind-boggling to understand! So what we have left, is to praise him, serve him, cleave to him.
All God asks of us is praise, service, obedience, dependence upon him and him alone. And yet, because he loves us so much, because we are his prized and precious creations, he allows us to worship other gods, seek after our own glory, depend upon people and things to make us happy and whole. And then he rejoices when we “wake up and smell the coffee” and run back to him, repentant and ashamed; yet certain that even if we suffer because of our sins, God will walk through the suffering with us. He will wait for us to find him and turn to him and rededicate ourselves to him.
My question, though, is how patient and forbearing is God really, though? He sent the Israelites all the signs - the plagues and warnings upon their oppressors when they refused to let their slaves go free. He sent them countless signs of his mercy and love -- assurances that he would protect them and ensure their welfare - and he promised them many descendents. And after all those years of man rejecting God’s promises, turning away from the hope of eternity, because it was “just too hard” for us, God sent Jesus. One final sign for all time. One last chance for us to ‘get it.’
God kept every promise he ever made. If he promised retribution for sin, that’s what happened; if he promised a rewarding life for obedience, that’s what came to pass. He “has done for you these great and terrible things which your eyes have seen” Thousands of years of unbroken promises. Thousands. And then Jesus. So I ask again: How patient and forbearing is God? I’m afraid to find out, because I’ve already spent close to 50 years testing his patience, and challenging his forbearance! I’ve run from him so far, and hidden from him so deep in the darkness, that he had every right to never lead me back to him. He had every right to condemn me for all time. Time and time again; over and over again.
12. "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13. and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I command you this day for your good?”
My hope and prayer today is that we demonstrate in some small part the reverence, awe and gratitude for God’s love that we could never adequately express. And that we spend our day doing all that the Lord requires of us.
Mary
