You know, all throughout Scripture God is pretty blunt about the consequences for sin, and they're not pretty. God is just but God is loving. Sin demands due consequences, but God loves us. He made no bones about the fact with Israel that there would be repercussions for unfaithfulness. However, He also promised them that when all that had come to pass, He would not fail to bring them back. Even if they were as far flung as the heavens, God intended to gather His people back beneath His wings: their punishment was only for a time, discipline to teach them and remind them, just as any father would do for his children. God's love is ultimate and key: He would be faithful to the justness of His Law, His character and holiness demanded it. But He would also be faithful to His people and He would bring them back to Himself. Did God keep His promises? Indeed He did: after the Babylonian exile, 70 years of exile from the Promised Land, the Jewish people are brought back to Jerusalem and to what became known as Judea under Rome. And there in Judea, another of God's promises is fulfilled: His Messiah, the Christ, is born. I think these first ten verses of chapter thirty are perhaps among the most beautiful in the Bible. You can hear God's tender care for Israel in them. "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." (v.6) It's beautiful, no?
Tomorrow's Reading: Deuteronomy 30:11-31:29
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