"Know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love God and keep God's commandments, to a thousand generations." (Deut 7:9). Our God loves us with an unfailing love, and will never turn away from supporting us and being at our side. What a promise, echoed through the ages!
And yet people cannot resist reading on to the next verse. God "requites to their face those who hate God, by destroying them. God will not be slack with those who hate, but will requite them to their face." (Deut 7:10) The God who is always ready to love, they tell themselves, is also quick to punish. If we do not earn that love by doing as God commands, then God will cast us out. What nonsense!
Too often we think of love as a duty, as something we are commanded to do, and if we fail, then punishment lurks round the corner. In the Old Testament, this idea is sometimes present in the background. It is a very human idea, one that echoes our lack of confidence, our uncertainty. How can we insignificant and worthless beings earn God's approval and escape God's judgement?
But the prophets make it plain that God's ultimate aim is not to punish, but to redeem and save. "Fear not, for I am with you." (Is 43:5). "Then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them gladness for sorrow." (Jer 31:13). In Jeremiah's vision, "they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest; for I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more." (31:33).
For we are not insignificant, and we are not worthless. We are God's people. God has entrusted us with free will. We are able to weigh up our actions, to know what is right and what is wrong.
We are not worthless, but we may be weak. God knows our weakness, and far from waiting with a big fire to annihilate us when we deviate from the straight and narrow path of obedience, God is always ready to pick us up and let us start again - to forgive us, to save us from our sins. This is the message of the prophets. This is the message of Jesus. "I will remember their sin no more."
In Jesus, God shows that humanity is capable of love - love of God and love of neighbour, love "to the end" (John 13:1). We were made to love, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit, who pours the gift of love into our hearts, we can fulfil the role for which we were created.
Jesus turns the commandment in Deuteronomy on its head. "If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:14-15). It is no longer a question of earning God's love by keeping commandments. For Jesus, keeping commandments is a result of love, a way of showing it forth. All we need is the confidence to ask and to show our love, and God will stand with us, helping us in anything we ask, and enabling us to follow in the way of salvation.
And even if we do not have the confidence to ask anything from God, God is still there, waiting. Like the lukewarm Laodiceans, we may need time to make up our minds. In John's vision in the book of Revelation, the fault of the Laodiceans is complacency - the belief that they have got all the answers. God patiently gives them time. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me." (Rev 3:20) So let us relax, and let God come in and fill our hearts and souls!
HD