And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” (Judges 6:9,10 ESV)
Reading Reality
God’s People are delightfully unique. Because our God is unique. He IS the Lord our God.
It is easy to misunderstand that… to water it down… to miss the profound strength of it.
When the Israelites were not listening to THEIR GOD’S voice, they did not stop being His People.
Their relationship with God was completely due to HIS love of them. And their disobedience did not change that relationship.
Their disobedience did cause God to react. He sent enemy nations against them. He sent them famines. He sent them troubles. He sent them pain.
NOT because He had stopped loving them. NOT because they had been so terrible that they drove Him away. NOT because He was no longer their God.
But because He DID love them God pushed them, taught them, troubled them, guided them, discouraged and encouraged them, and when they were foolish they might have misinterpreted reality.
But the really real reality was that God was their God.
And Christians today are in the same situation. When we disobey God, ignore God, misunderstand God, and even when we blame God… He does not stop loving His people.
He died for us. He redeemed us. He loves us.
The battles we are involved in are never God against us.
They might be us against Him. They might be us against what we truly know. They might be us against our poor decisions. They might be us against what we can really know.
But do not forget, or doubt, or fear, that God, through His Son, Jesus Christ… is your God.