Readings for today: Deuteronomy 2-4, Mark 11:15-33
Over the course of my life, I have been blessed to spend time with some truly great Christians. Men and women of profound spiritual depth who have exerted a shaping influence on the church and the world through their speaking, teaching, and writing. Their names are well-known. They’ve founded and led great ministries, churches, and organizations. Some of them have passed on from this life. Others are still very much engaged in their work. And for reasons I still do not know or frankly understand, they have chosen to spend some of their valuable time with me. It’s deeply humbling to be on the receiving end of such mercy. It was not something I achieved. It was not something I earned. It was not the result of my hard work or effort. I simply lucked out. For whatever reason, they chose me.
I think of these experiences as I try to wrap my mind and heart around the words we read in our text for today. “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:7-8) It’s been decades since that first meeting between Moses and God at the burning bush. In that time, Moses has seen the most incredible things. He watched God take a rag-tag group of slaves and turn them into a nation. He watched God humble the greatest ruler of the greatest empire in the world. He bore witness to God’s love and mercy as He carried His people through the Red Sea and delivered them to the Promised Land. He grieved at the faithlessness of God’s people that caused them to wander in the wilderness under judgment for forty years. His life has been rich and full and blessed in so many ways. Perhaps the most marvelous thing about it all is Moses never loses his sense of awe over God’s mercy. Here he is at the end of his life and he still can’t get over the fact that among all the nations of the earth, God chose Israel.
Not only did God choose Israel but God remains faithful to Israel. Despite her constant whining and complaining. Despite her hard hearts and stiff necks. Despite her many sins and acts of unfaithfulness. Despite the fact that God knows she will fail over and over again. He remains true. He lives up to His promises. “But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.” (Deuteronomy 4:29-31) God is so good. His mercies endure forever. His covenant love never fails.
Why does God do all this? Is it for Israel? Is it for us? On some level yes. God has chosen us from before the foundations of the earth to be the object of His great love. But more than that, God has chosen us to be His instruments of mercy as well. His great desire is to use us to draw an unbelieving world to faith. God wants the whole world to look on us in wonder and awe just like Moses. To stand and stare in disbelief that the God of the universe would choose a people for Himself. Forge them through fire and trial and struggle and war into a people for His own possession. A chosen nation. A royal priesthood. Set apart to declare His glory to the world. “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?” (Deuteronomy 4:32-34)
Friends, there is no end to the mercy of God. If you seek Him, you will find Him. If you turn to Him, you will find His arms wide open. If you ask Him, He will come into your heart and into your life and you will be saved.
Readings for tomorrow: Deuteronomy 5-7, Mark 12:1-27