Our Compassionate God

​“For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.” Deuteronomy 4:29-31

The Lord loved the children of Israel and promised to give them the land of Canaan. He, through Moses, was preparing them for entrance into the land, as well as instructions for dwelling in the land. The Lord desired that Israel know Him intimately and have a full awareness of their need for Him.
 
The Lord was gracious enough to make Israel aware of their sinful tendency to gravitate towards idolatry and warned that when they sinned, He would be provoked to anger and they would quickly perish from the land. He would scatter them among the peoples and where they were driven, they would be few in number. In disobedience, they would then serve gods and in their latter days while in distress, they would return to the Lord and listen to His voice. If the Israelites would seek the Lord and search for Him with all of their heart and soul, they would find Him.

​The Israelites were told what would happen if they were to sin against the Lord. The Lord would discipline them, drive them out of the land, and they would experience great oppression and significant loss. Even though the Lord would be found, if the Israelites whole-heartedly searched for Him, this was not an invitation to proactively sin and later ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. The Israelites were not to presume upon the Lord’s grace. There was also a promise that the Israelites would experience great anguish and devastating life-altering consequences from turning away from the Lord. By warning the Israelites, the Lord made a way for them not to sin against Him and to avoid suffering the penalty of sin against Him (Deuteronomy 4:40). If they sinned against Him, the Lord made it known that if they turned to Him in repentance, He would demonstrate compassion towards them, and He would not fail nor forget His covenant that was sworn with their fathers.
 
Think of your life. Think of how the Lord provided multiple ways for you to obey Him and repeatedly warned of the consequences for disobeying Him. Think of how He received you and forgave you when you came to true repentance and turn away from the sin that you gave into. He did not want you to sin against Him nor to experience the distressful consequences of sin, so He forewarned you of the consequences of sin. The Lord is holy, compassionate, and just. He must punish everyone who sins against Him. One of the amazing qualities of our heavenly Father is that He is also infinitely compassionate. Just as the Lord remembered the covenant sworn to the Israelite fathers, our compassionate Father will always remember the willful, sacrificial, and substitutionary finished work of Christ when we come to Him in genuine repentance.