Deuteronomy 7:9-“Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.”
This scripture is very comforting, in that, we know without any doubt and understand that our God is one true and living God; not the idols of the Gentiles, who are false and lifeless ones, and therefore not the proper objects of adoration.
‘Faithful’ signifies trustworthiness and the rigid observation of obligations. God regards Himself as bound to a certain line of conduct.
‘A faithful Creator’ – bound to take care of those whom He has made; to supply their necessities, to satisfy their desires, and to give to each the possibility to discharge their ideal.
‘Obligations from His past self’ – bound to those He called. He cannot begin and not complete anything because the divine nature is inexhaustible in power and unchangeable in purpose.
‘Obligations from His covenant and highest Word in Jesus Christ’ – bound Himself to a known line of action, when Jehovah entered into a covenant with Israel. Idols give their worshippers no promises and cannot be thought of as faithful. God has defined His conduct to us by some Word spoken to our heart that binds us to Him. God is faithful just to forgive us our sins.
God recognizes and discharges these obligations because of His nature. With God there is no change of character or nature, no emergence of unseen circumstances, no failure or exhaustion of power.
The most important fact is our God is One who always keeps His covenant of loyal love, and who lavishes His steadfast lovingkindness and mercy to us. He also pays those who hate Him with the wages of death. God wasn’t attracted to us and didn’t choose us because we were big and important—in fact, there was almost nothing to us.
On our part, we have been given a strict caution against all friendship and fellowship with idols and idolaters. The proper understanding of the evil of sin, and of the mystery of a crucified Saviour, will enable us to perceive the justice of God in all His punishments: temporal and eternal. We must intentionally deal with our lusts that war against our souls; we should not show them any mercy, but crucify and utterly destroy them. We are set apart for the service of God, or chosen to execute the important purposes of His providence. Our selection to this high destiny was neither on account of our population, nor due to our extraordinary merits (for we have pursued unworthy conduct). In fact, the motives that led to diffuse the best and most precious blessings to all mankind, were to vindicate God’s wisdom and also to illustrate His glory.
God is a God we can depend on. However, inspite of unconditional lovingkindness and mercy, we have a stipulation from our side – to love God and to keep His commandments, i.e. obedience to His Word – so that we may observe this covenant to a thousand generations down our line!
