4th Quarter: Present Truth in Deuteronomy.
Lesson 4: To Love the Lord Your God
Tuesday: He First Loved Us
Text: [Deu 4:37] BSB
Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,
Message
But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8) Though there were several laws given to Israel, one that superseded, and motivated all the other laws was the command to Love God. God wanted his chosen people to love him, but He didn’t do this forcefully. He gave them a reason why they should love him – because he first loved them. How did he show this love to the Israelites? Through his mighty acts. Despite their shortcomings, God always acted in their favour throughout their generations.
These mighty acts of God were important because as fallen beings, we need reasons to love. This is true in all social relationships and so God dealt with them in a language they well understood. ⁷The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples,… ⁸But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand… (Deu 7:7,8). If there was any reason for Israel to love God, it was because He first loved them.
How about us today? Do we need a reason to love God? Fortunately, we already have enough reasons. The good news is that we don’t need to wait for what God will do for us before we love him, looking at what He has already done is enough. In other words, should God decide not to do anything good again in your life, you still have enough reasons to love Him. The cross is more than enough to express God’s love. The problem is, very few really understand what the cross means. God is Love, and we must love!
Reflection
Instead of being love, what if God were hate or if God were indifferent? What kind of world would this be? Why is the revelation of God’s love for us something that we, indeed, should rejoice about?
