Our God – the God manifested in the Bible and especially in Deuteronomy – is a righteous, holy, faithful, loving, and gracious God, and He is also very fine, tender, considerate, and sympathetic; what a God we have!
If we read this wonderful book, Deuteronomy, we see that our God is both a God of love and of righteousness. On one hand He loves us as His people and He wants to bless us and freely give Himself to us as all the riches of the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land.
On the other hand, He is righteous, and His government is strict and narrow, often saying No to our requests and desires.
Many times, however, we may be too free and not fear God; we may have not touched God’s authority and His dealing hand, so we may not truly fear God.
But once we touch God’s dealing hand, we will fear Him, realizing that He deals with us righteously so that we may be disciplined, perfected, and prepared to enter into the good land to inherit and possess it.
So the Bible – and in particular the book of Deuteronomy shows us these two systems – the system of grace and the system of government; these don’t contradict each other but rather, the system of government helps us to enjoy the system of grace, and as we enjoy grace, we are under God’s rule.
The Bible is faithful in showing us the love and government of God; at the same time, the Bible is faithful in showing us our real condition, so that we may not trust in ourselves.
On one hand the Bible shows us God, what He is, what He desires, and what He does; on the other hand, the Bible shows us who we are, what we are, and how sinful we are.
We need to know that we ourselves are a failure, and we should no longer trust in ourselves but put our trust in God, who alone is faithful. We are not righteous, holy, faithful, and loving, but our God is righteous, holy, faithful, and loving, and He is making us the same as He is.
Though we are in sin, we fail, and we many times do not willingly cooperate with God in His system of government, He will break through, and He will get what He desires.
The book of Deuteronomy concludes with Moses blessing the children of Israel, tribe by tribe, because God will fully bring His people into the good land.
No matter how unfaithful we are to God, how unrighteous we may be in our daily life, and how unholy we may still be in our constitution, God will eventually accomplish His intention that we enjoy His full blessing.
He did it with His chosen people Israel, and He will do it with us. Hallelujah!
No matter how defeated we may be right now or how many failures we may have in the future, God will enable us as His chosen people to enter into the rich Christ to possess Him, enjoy Him, experience Him, and even live Him. Hallelujah!
Our God is Faithful – He’s Faithful in His Word to Fulfill what He has Promised!
Our God is a faithful God (1 Pet. 4:19; 1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; Rev. 3:14; 19:11).
If we confess our sins, our God is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). God is faithful in His word (1 John 1:10), which is the word of the truth of His gospel (Eph. 1:13).
In His word He tells us that He will forgive our sins because of Christ, who died for our sins so that we may be forgiven (Act 10:43).
If we confess our sins, He is faithful in His word to forgive us of our sins.
God is faithful, through whom we were called into the fellowship, the joint participation, the enjoyment of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
God is faithful both in His system of grace – in giving all that He is to us for our enjoyment, and in His system of government.
Though there may be many temptations that come to us, no temptation has taken us except that which is common to man, for our God is faithful, and He won’t allow that we would be tempted beyond what we are able (1 Cor. 10:13).
God didn’t promise we would live a life without any problems or temptations; He promised, however, that He will also make a way out for us, a way out of temptation, so that we may be able to endure it.
Our God in His faithfulness will NOT allow any temptation to befall us beyond what we are able to endure, but He will always make a way out for us. What an encouraging and sweet word!
Our God is faithful; every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God will be fulfilled (Deut. 8:3; 1 Tim. 1:15; 2 Tim. 2:11).
Our faithful God has called us, and He will also sanctify us wholly and preserve our whole being complete (1 Thes. 5:23-24). Hallelujah, our God is faithful – faithful is He who calls us, who will also do it! We may be faithless, but He is faithful!
We may fail Him, but He has started this process of transformation in our being, and the God of peace Himself will sanctify us wholly, and our spirit and soul and body will be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Surely this divine faithfulness is such a sweet attribute of God (see 2 Tim. 2:13; 1 John 1:9). He will no give up on us; He has formed us, He has drawn us to Himself, He brought us into Christ, He brought Christ into us, and He will remain faithful to us.
He is faithful to us in His word that, whatever He has promised to us, He will do it.
In Deut. 8:9-15 Moses wanted the people to realize that Jehovah their God is the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
Our God has covenanted Himself to us, and He is faithful in that covenant; however, if we don’t respond to Him by keeping our side of the covenant, there will be some discipline and some governmental dealings.
God will not overrule us; His faithfulness has only one hindrance – our unresponsiveness.
This is why in His governmental dealings He works so that His faithfulness would prevail and our unfaithfulness would not prevail; He will eventually gain us in His faithfulness.
Lord, thank You for being faithful to us in Your word to forgive us of our sins whenever we confess our sins to You. Thank You for being faithful to Your word to fulfill in us all that You have spoken to us in Your word. Thank You Lord that, even when we are not faithful to You, You still remain faithful to us in Your word. Save us from being unresponsive to You; may we say Amen to Your word, Amen to Your dealings, and Amen to Your faithfulness. Amen, Lord, do in us what You have spoken to us in Your word that You will do! Bring us into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive, extensive Christ together with all the saints so that we may be built up as Your dwelling place, the church!
God is Love – He is a Loving God, and He loves us and also Disciplines us
God is love; love is the nature of God’s essence, an essential attribute of God (see Rom. 5:5, 8; 8:35, 39; 15:30).
In His system of grace, God simply loves us.
In Deut. 7:7 He told His people that it was not because they were more numerous than others or better than them that He loves us; rather, they were the fewest among the peoples, but He set His love on them.
It is not because we are better than others that God loves us; we do not deserve His favor and grace, yet He still loves us, and though we are not qualified to be loved by Him, He still loves us.
As seen in Jer. 31:3, God loved us with an eternal love, and He has drawn us with eternal lovingkindness. In God’s heart there’s love toward us; though we may go through trials, temptations, sufferings, and the Lord’s discipline, it is all because He loves us.
Deuteronomy speaks of God as God of love (Deut. 7:7; 10:14-15; 11:12). As a God of righteousness, God is strict and narrow, but as a God of love, He is broad and all-embracing.
How can these two coexist in the same person – being strict and narrow, yet at the same time broad and all-embracing?
Our God is a loving God, but His love is not a spoiling love or a natural love; His love is a perfecting love. God loves us and at the same time He also disciplines us, for He has His governmental administration (Heb. 12:6).
Whomever God loves, He also disciplines, and He perfects us in His love toward us.
As a whole, the book of Deuteronomy ultimately shows us that the love of God consummately works for us, His people, so that we may enjoy His full blessing according to His will and foreknowledge (Eph. 1:4-5, 9, 11; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rom. 8:29).
As long as we are the people of God who love God, all things work together for good, for we are called according to His purpose. In spite of our failure in loving God and fearing Him, and in spite of our unfaithfulness, God will be successfully (Phil. 1:6).
We shouldn’t look at the defeats we suffered today or the failure we had yesterday; we need to look at the Lord’s love and believe that He will complete the good work that He has begun on us!
No matter the condition of His people, God will be faithful to the end; eventually, He will accomplish His intention so that we may enjoy His full blessing (1 Cor. 1:8-9; Rom. 8:37-39; Num. 6:23-26). Hallelujah!
What a sweet and wonderful revelation of God we see both in the book of Deuteronomy and in the whole Bible! The book of Deuteronomy is very particular in its revelation of what God is (see Deut. 1:6-8; 3:20-21, 24; 4:1).
All the rehearsed statutes and judgements, with the new developments, speak forth in detail concerning the God of Israel (7:10; 10:14-15; 11:12).
The God manifested in the book of Deuteronomy is not only righteous, holy, faithful, loving, and gracious, but also very fine, tender, considerate, and sympathetic – this is our God (Eph. 1:3, 17; 2:4; Rev. 5:12-13). Hallelujah!
His intention is to work Himself into us, and He uses the systems of government and of grace to love us, infuse us, transform us, discipline us, and work all things for good so that we may become His people and know Him as our holy, righteous, faithful, and loving God!
Lord Jesus, we love You. We love You because You first loved us and because You never stopped loving us. You love us even when we are unlovable. Thank You for loving us so much that You even discipline us so that we may partake of Your holiness. Thank You for not spoiling us in Your love but perfecting us and disciplining us so that we may eventually enjoy Your full blessing according to Your will and foreknowledge! Amen, Lord, we love You, we open to You, and we want to respond positively to You in Your love, care, discipline, and judgement, so that You may gain us what You are after!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Rick Scatterday for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Deuteronomy, msgs. 2, 23 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 2, The Governmental Administration of the Righteous, Holy, Faithful, and Loving God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Our faithful God, faith cannot break, / Nor death, nor hell, His promise shake! / Who ask in faith, He’ll not deny; / His Word is sure, He must reply. (Hymns #693)
– Thy mighty love, O God, constraineth me, / As some strong tide it presseth on its way,… / Thus wholly mastered and possessed by God, / Forth from my life, spontaneous and free, / Shall flow a stream of tenderness and grace, / Loving, because God loved, eternally. (Hymns #431)
– Lord I want You to have Your way, / Save me from being Satan’s prey, / I am believing You. / All I can give to You, my Lord, / Is my whole being, love outpoured; / Lord, I belong to You. / Jesus, faithful God, / Gain us through and through; / Use us thoroughly / To see Your purpose through. (Song on, Jesus, O living Word of God)
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