Deuteronomy 9:27-29 "Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin: (28) Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. (29) Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm."
As I read through Deuteronomy again, I realize just how depressing these verses
can be. Please don't jump down my throat just now for admitting these feelings.
Let me explain what I mean. In these first 9 chapters (and probably more
chapters to follow), we see Moses listing one by one all the times of rebellion
and transgressions that the children of Israel had committed in the forty years
since being brought out of Egypt. I used to work for a man who would
bring up, for the next six months to a year, every failure that I had ever made
in management. It was disheartening to me and eventually I left that job for
another where the work was appreciated. Again, please don't jump down my
throat until I finish my thoughts for today. I bring all of these
thoughts up to you this morning because I was comparing myself to the man who
was criticizing me. I knew he had faults as well and he was deflecting
from himself to my faults in order to make himself look better.
Now that I have that out of my system, let me say there is a definite reason
for God moving Moses to speak of all the transgressions of Israel. God
had a better way for them that would have saved them from all the disasters and
shortcomings that had been experienced in those forty years. God does not
deflect away from Himself in pointing out our failures; rather, He directs us
to Himself. We cannot begin to compare ourselves with God for we are
sin-filled creatures and He is the Most Holy God. There is no fault nor failure
in Him. There is no shortcoming in Him. In Him, there is mercy and grace
to help in time of need. See Hebrews 4:16.
When we feel low and tired because of the sin and downfalling in our lives, the
Lord God Almighty says, "Come to me." When we fail in our
attempts to serve Him, the Lord God Almighty says, "Come to me."
When we sin and know we are guilty, the Lord God Almighty says,
"Come to me." Does He say that because we are worthy of those
words? The answer is an emphatic, "No!" He says those
words to us because of a covenant that was made before we were ever born.
Notice verse 27 of our text today: "Remember thy servants, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob." Why does He mention those names? It was to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that the covenant of Israel was made hundreds of
years before this time. God is faithful to His promises.
You and I are beneficiaries of a promise that was made even before the
foundation of the world. That promise was made between God the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. We neither earned, nor merited, the privilege of the benefits of
that promise of grace and mercy. How could we? The promise was made
before Adam was created. The promise was made before "Genesis
1:1". The promise was made in the annals of eternity past. How
can we know God is faithful to that promise? Because when "the
fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman".
(Galatians 4:4) Why did He send His Son? Jesus came into this
world to save us from our sins, our failures, our shortcomings. Jesus
came into this world as Saviour of His people! He came to seek and save
that which was lost and praise God, He did just that!