Recently while driving to an appointment, I took a wrong turn and ended up in an unfamiliar part of the city. Caught in traffic, and headed the wrong way, as soon as I was able I pulled over. I needed a minute to get my bearings and call my husband. After hearing my plight he asked, “Why didn’t you just follow the route the GPS gave you?” I meekly replied, “Because I thought my way was better.”
As it turned out, that “better way” left me lost, stressed out, late for my appointment, and turned a thirty minute trip into one that took twice as long. That’s how it was with the Israelites. They had the ultimate, perfect GPS….God. Yet because they rebelled against His directions, an eleven day trip through the desert turned into a forty year journey through the wilderness. Now here in Deuteronomy, with God’s people finally entering the promised land, Moses stresses to Israel that they reached their destination not because of themselves, for they were faithless, but because of God, who remains faithful…always!
“Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments.” (vs. 7:9) Why does Moses call God “the faithful God”? To be faithful is to to be steadfast, enduring, dependable, loyal, and trustworthy. Attributes God demonstrates perfectly. Despite their rebellion and unbelief, God stayed faithful to Israel.
Remembering His promises to their forefathers, the Lord kept His covenant with His people, and remained steadfast in His love for them. Such is the wonderful nature of God. What He says, He does. “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Num. 23:19). Never do we need doubt God, for His Word is true. And in a world where hurt and disappointment is plentiful, how comforting it is knowing that for a thousand generations, the Lord remains faithful to those who love and obey Him.
Everywhere I look I see the faithfulness of God. I see it in the needs He so generously meets. In the family and friends He blesses my life with. In the mercy and grace He patiently shows each day, and most of all in His never ending love. Such abundant devotion that He gives not because I love Him, but because He loves me. Moses reminded the Israelites that they were a precious people, handpicked by God to be His own. Chosen not for their greatness, but because of the Lord’s faithfulness and love. (Deut. 7:6-8) And as a child of God and an heiress to His promises, I too can receive that same unmerited faithfulness. A faithfulness that turns my brokenness into healing, my condemnation into redemption, my bitterness into love, my bondage into freedom, my sin into righteousness, and my death into eternal life.