February 16, 2024 - Deuteronomy 9-12

Israel is about to see fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham of a land.  It’s not an exact analogy (I suppose, by definition, an analogy is never exact. 😊) but I think of a child receiving an inheritance, property and monies that he did not obtain on his own; rather, the inheritance was given to him by another.  Here, Moses cautions the people, “Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord  has brought me in to possess this land,’ . . . 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.  Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people” (9:4-6).

This is so reminiscent of our own situation:  “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,  whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus. 3:4-7).

In loving kindness Jesus came

My soul in mercy to reclaim,

And from the depths of sin and shame

Through grace He lifted me.

From sinking sand He lifted me,

With tender hand He lifted me,

From shades of night to plains of light,

O praise His name, He lifted me!   -- Charles H. Gabriel (1905)