Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 9 before reading the devotional below.
When I was a teenager, I agreed to cut my neighbor’s lawn every other week for $20. Most of the lawn was easy to mow, and I did it. One section, however, was on a hill, and it was very difficult to mow properly. During that first summer, there were several times I didn’t mow the hill even though I had agreed to. One day when I went to get paid, my neighbor brought me outside and showed me the unmowed hill. “That’s not done right,” he said. I tried to give him the money back, but he refused to take it. I knew I hadn’t earned it, but he still gave it to me.
As Moses continues to teach the Israelites, God is communicating a similar message. Most of the chapter is about the failure of the Israelites and the anger of God, but don’t miss the setup. The point of the chapter is not that God gets angry at sinners. The point is that God didn’t pick the Israelites because they were good – because they weren’t. Moses tells all the stories about Israel’s failures to reinforce this point: they didn’t deserve God’s love. Before the Israelites go into their promised land, God wants this truth firmly implanted in their minds. It will bring them a humility that wars against entitlement; a gratitude that undermines selfishness and self-dependence.
As one of my favorite teachers always says, “You can’t get any better until you realized that God loves you even if you never get any better.” Just like the Israelites, God didn’t invite you into a relationship with Him because you were somehow uniquely qualified. He invited you because he made a choice to love you. That means you can’t possibly do anything to lose his love. You can’t do anything to jeopardize his love. The love of God is the surest, solidest most trustworthy thing in all the world.