THE COVENANTAL GOD
Deuteronomy 29 and 30
“Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.”
God’s faithfulness and loyalty is beyond compare. When he says “yes” he has already taken into account every possibility and every eventuality. His reach covers the most distant land under the heavens and all he requires is for the Israelites to reach out their hands toward him. In other words, we do what we can and he will make up the rest. This is the God who invites us to covenant with him.
This is what it means when he tells us “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.” It does not mean that what we do is sufficient; only that it is sufficient for God to do the rest in Jesus Christ. God knows our limitations and he does not set us standards that we can never meet. But he does require us to reach out to him. It could perhaps be merely a cry to him as we drown in the darkness that surrounds us, like the thief next to Jesus. It could be the challenge of abandoning that which holds us back from truly reaching out to him, like the rich young ruler. He does not require us to have the right words or the right phrases, just the right heart.
This is the God who invites us to covenant with him.
But when our hearts turn away from him and we grow cold towards him and our passions burn for the things and experiences that run contrary to his will, and we discard the values that he taught us, that he stands for—love, compassion, mercy, goodness, selflessness, generosity, grace—we must not expect him to be indifferent.
This too is the God who invites us to covenant with him.
“But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.”