Because The Lord Loved You

Reading of the Day: Deuteronomy 7-9

Deuteronomy 7:8: But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

In the previous post, we focused on the need for the Israelites to remember The Word of God as they enter the promised land...in these next chapters, we focus on the "why." Their need for The Word was to be the fruit of a loving relationship with God! God reminds them that they were saved from bondage for the sole reason & purpose of God loving them...how beautiful is that! God speaks through these Scriptures through Moses, constantly bringing the Israelites back to that main point. It's all about His love! He reminds them that it's not about how big of a group they were: Deuteronomy 7:7: "The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:" Also, it wasn't how powerful they were: Deuteronomy 8:17-18: "And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day." Also, it wasn't about how righteous they were: Deuteronomy 9:5: "Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." They did not obtain favor or victory for any of those reasons! It was simply because The Lord loved them so much, just as He deeply loves each one of us today! It's not because we can gather a crowd for Him. It's isn't because of our own power. It isn't because of how righteous we try to be. He saves us out of our bondage because He loves us! And because we love HIM, we then do things to show it! It's not about earning love, it's about showing it! God shows it to us, and we show it back to Him by following His Word! God's reason for doing all He does is out of love-we don't have to complicate it or feel unworthy of it! We are never worthy, and that's what God is showing us throughout these Scriptures! It's not about worthiness in what we do, but Who He is! And what we do is just a loving gift back to The One Who first loved us!