Deuteronomy 7 – 9
Verse 7:9 talks about the covenant with Israel:
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
I read this and wonder if this is limited to a thousand generations and when that will happen. For your peace of mind it’s been about 4030 years since Moses wrote this and considering a generation today is approximately 25 years, we are only 161 generations since this writing. Even if we defined it by 10 years we are just over 400 generations, so we will not see it happen in our lives. Or this was to tell the people that they are safe and can comfort in being under God’s love.
Verse 8:3 caught my eye because of the last part:
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Notice those were the same words Jesus said to Satan when tempted in the wilderness. I have to wonder about Jesus’ early life and if He was in the scriptures all the time or if He had God in his ear or since He was God He knew the scriptures. Either way we need to understand the energy within us and that the body needs the bread, but our souls need the Word of God. We eat to maintain our bodies; we study to maintain our souls.
Verse 8:5 brings me comfort:
Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.
Sometimes we think of God as a unyielding tyrant ready to spank us for any infraction. We look at how some of the stories seem to be minor “infractions” of the Law which result in extreme punishment. I think what God is teaching us is that no matter if its murder or a “little white lie,” both are equal in His eyes. At the same time one has to wonder if that statement is true since the penalty for most “major” infractions is death, where minor ones can be covered by a sacrifice. What do you think?
Verse 9:5 ensures that they understand this favor is not because of their “righteousness”:
Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob
That is a KEY POINT we need to understand, we are saved by grace and not by what we do. We need to understand God’s standard of “righteous” is unobtainable. No matter what we do will not change our relationship with God other than maybe rejecting His salvation. In that instance it could be lost, based on what I have read in the Bible over the years. I think the key to works is we do them to please God and not to earn “salvation points”. We do them because we want to help others, we want to do what is right and we want to show God’s love to the world!