“And the Lord said to Moses: ‘You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them … And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.'” (Deut 31:16-18 NIV)
Sometimes I have to wonder about this story. Throughout the book of Deuteronomy God states over and over again that the people of Israel will fail Him. He even spends a good amount of time outlining what will happen to them when they do, and history records that this is exactly what happened! Time after time the people fell into idolatry, and in the end, the Kingdom of Israel was overtaken by the Assyrians, and the Kingdom of Judah was taken into captivity by the Babylonians.
So if God knew in advance, why did He continue to call Israel “His” people? Why didn’t He just reject them? Why didn’t He reject planet Earth? Why didn’t He just “throw in the towel” so to speak and go off to a more worthy planet?
Friends, this story reveals two great truths about God:
First of all, God keeps His promises. God promised this land to His servant Abraham, and He keeps His Word! “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates …'” (Gen 15:18-19 NIV)
Just as God didn’t reject Israel there in the wilderness, He is going to keep His promises to us, as well!
The second great truth about God that is revealed here is this: God sees the depths of our hearts and He loves us the same! God knew Israel would fail Him, yet He loved them so much that He sent His only begotten Son to dwell among-them! What an honor!
Why did He do this?
I would like to propose that perhaps all of the bad choices made by the people throughout history may have actually contributed to the big picture!
Let me explain. My son recently put together a “photo mosaic” jigsaw puzzle. Each tiny piece was actually a picture in and of itself. Some were pictures of an eye, others were trees or buildings, etc. Some were pretty, some were not. But when all of those tiny images were put together, they made up a huge picture of a beautiful bald eagle.
I believe this is how God sees our world. Each of us is a tiny piece, and by only looking at the piece, we fail to see the “big picture”. But when God looks at us, He knows where each pretty piece-and each ugly piece-needs to go in order for the end product to be beautiful! God sees the ugliness that dwells in the depths of our hearts, and He chooses to take that ugliness and work it into the “big picture” in a beautiful fashion!
Remember, the Bible tells us: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Eccl 3:11-12 NIV).
Does this mean that we don’t need to worry about cleaning up the bad choices we make? No. We are urged time and time again to do just that. God knows that our bad choices will only lead us to unhappiness in the end, and that’s not what He wants for us. What it DOES mean, is that despite the fact that He knows we will fall, He loves us the same, and He is willing to work something beautiful out of that ugliness!
And that’s what He did with His special people. He took the ugliness of their bad choices, put it into His “photomosaic”, and the beautiful big picture that resulted spells “Salvation!” For each and every person who has ever lived on this earth!
Halleluiah!
I don’t know about you, but I take great consolation in God’s “photomosaic” view of life. It comforts me to know that He sees the ugliness of my bad choices, yet He loves me the same! He never stops calling me, trying to pull me out of the mire of sin I have chosen, yet He loves me enough to keep trying. And even more special, He uses the ugliness of my piece to make His “big picture” into-Something beautiful!
In His love, Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, Mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, www.scripturalnuggets.org, with Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org