And thou shalt know that Jehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with them that love him and keep his commandments;
Moses tells Israel to know something about the God who chose them. He is faithful. He keeps covenant, and His reach runs to a thousand generations. The chapter is about staying separate from the nations around them. This verse answers the question every chosen people asks: what holds the bond together — our record, or His character?
Just before this verse, Moses removes every reason Israel might give for their own standing. They were the smallest nation, not the largest. The explanation had to lie somewhere else.
Moses reminded Israel that the Lord did not set His love on them or choose them because they were more in number than any people. They were the fewest of all peoples. He chose them because the Lord loved them (Deut. 7:7-8). He could give no reason except what God was in Himself. This is a great comfort, for it puts the love of God on a basis that can never break down.
The command to know also looks backwards. Israel had to remember where their standing came from.
They were to remember that they owed all their dignity, all their privileges, all their blessings, not to anything in themselves, their own goodness or their own greatness. They owed it simply to this: the Lord had identified Himself with them, in His infinite goodness and sovereign grace, and He had made a covenant with their fathers — "a covenant ordered in all things and sure." This gave them a divine antidote against self-satisfaction and self-confidence, and at the same time formed the solid basis of their happiness and their moral security.
The title "the faithful God" is not vague praise. The word carries a definite sense, and it shares a root with the word for faith.
In both the Old Testament and the New Testament this word comes from the same root as "faith." It means being true to oneself, to one's nature, to any promise given, and to any trust committed. It is often applied to God Himself. Deut. 7:9; Isa. 49:7; 1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Thess. 5:24; Heb. 10:23; 1 John 1:9.
Faithfulness like this calls for trust.
The faithfulness of God! What a glorious fact this is, and how little we have grasped it. He must always be faithful to all that He is, and to all that He has said. He cannot deny Himself, nor can He deny the one who stakes everything upon Him and the truth of His Word. If our souls really hold to the faithfulness of God, we see that He is wholly true, and therefore He is to be wholly trusted.
The verse measures the covenant in generations — a thousand of them. That number is a figure of speech, not a countdown.
He has commanded it to a thousand generations — a round number, it seems, for as many as there may be (compare Deut. 7:9). He made it with Abraham. With an oath to Isaac, He confirmed it to Jacob as an unalterable decree, and to Israel as an everlasting covenant.
That reach has a personal side.
All this rests, as far as its blessing to me goes, on the unchangeableness of His nature. I can be sure that I will find Him to be the same God for myself that He has been to others. If He were changeable, unpredictable, limited, I could argue nothing and find comfort in nothing... How I can rejoice, then, that Abraham's God is mine.
The verse links His covenant and steadfast love to those who love Him and keep His commandments. Some read that as a price to be paid.
Is there anything of the legal element in this? Not a trace. Love and legality have nothing in common; they are as far apart as the poles... Suppose it were taught that we must earn by our obedience the high position and relationship of children of God. Then the solemn charge of legality would be fair. But to attach that label to Christian obedience is, we repeat, a serious moral mistake. Obedience could never come before sonship. But sonship should always lead to obedience.
The same faithfulness works both ways. The next verse carries a warning.
Israel was to recognise that God is completely faithful. He is perfectly dependable in keeping the covenant He had made, however many generations would follow. If Israel would keep God's commandments they would find Him true to His Word in blessing them (v.9). But if they refused to obey, they would also find Him true to His Word. He would repay their wrongdoing by destroying them (v.10).
- Chosen — Israel was the fewest, not the greatest. The reason for the choice lay in God Himself, so His love rests on a basis that cannot break down.
- Faithful — the word shares a root with "faith." It means being true to one's own nature, to every promise given, and to every trust committed.
- Forever — "a thousand generations" is a round number for as many as there may be. His covenant outlasts them all.
- Obedient — loving Him and keeping His commandments is the fruit of the relationship, not its price. Obedience follows sonship; it never comes first.
- Both ways — the same faithfulness makes His blessing certain and His warning certain. A dependable God is dependable in all He has said.
and repayeth them that hate him [each] to his face, to cause them to perish he delayeth not with him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
God keeps His covenant, and this verse shows the other side of that faithfulness: He repays those who hate Him. Two questions follow — what does it mean that God is not "slack," and who counts as a hater of God?
Verses 9 and 10 are not two different Gods. They are one dependable God met from two directions.
Israel was to fully recognise that God is absolutely faithful. He is perfectly dependable in keeping the covenant He had made, however many generations would follow. If Israel would keep God's commandments they would find Him true to His Word in blessing them (v.9). But if they refused to obey, they would also find Him true to His Word. He would repay their wrongdoing by destroying them (v.10). Therefore, it was only wisdom to fully observe God's commandments, statutes and judgments.
The same truth comforts one person and warns another.
We have two weighty facts set before us here. One is full of rich consolation and comfort to every true lover of God. The other is full of deep solemnity for every hater of God. All who really love God and His commandments may count on His unfailing faithfulness and tender mercy. They may count on it at all times and in all circumstances.
Being "not slack" means God will not go easy. That is the point people most want to soften.
God declares here that "He will not be slack with one who hates Him." This is a most solemn truth. We ought to press it far more on everyone it concerns. Men do not like to hear it; many pretend and profess not to believe it. They want to persuade themselves, and others too, that God is too good, too kind, too merciful, too generous to deal in stern judgment with His creatures. They forget that God's ways in government are as perfect as His ways in grace. They imagine that the government of God will pass over evil and evildoers, or deal lightly with them.
Few people would use that label of themselves. The verse leaves no third category.
Only think, reader, of anyone being a hater of such a One as God; and we know that all who are not lovers must be haters. People may not see this. Very few would be willing to admit they are outright haters of God. But there is no neutral ground in this great question. We must either be for Him or against Him, and in fact people are not slow to show their colours. Often the heart's deep-seated hostility to God comes out as hatred of His people, His word, His worship, His service. How often we hear such things as, "I hate religious people" — "I hate all that talk" — "I hate preachers." The truth is, it is God Himself they hate. Deep down in every heart that has not turned to God there lies a very real hostility toward Him. Every person, in his natural state, hates God.
The repayment is not distant or impersonal. It is a meeting.
There is a time coming when God will deal personally — face to face — with His enemies. How awful the thought that anyone should hate God! He is the One who is said to be, and who is, "Light" and "Love" — the very fountain of goodness, the Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift, the Father of lights. His generous hand supplies the need of every living thing. He is the perfectly holy God, and the One who has power to destroy both soul and body in hell.
The clearest measure of God's hatred of sin is not this verse. It is the cross.
Do we want a right sense of the awful reality of the government of God, His wrath against sin, and the true character of His holiness? Then we must gaze at the cross… The cross is the measure of God's hatred of sin, as it is the measure of His love to the sinner. It is the imperishable foundation of the throne of grace. It is the divinely righteous ground on which God can pardon our sins and make us perfectly righteous in a risen and glorified Christ.
Verse 9 ties blessing to keeping His commandments, which some hear as earning God's favour.
Is there anything of the legal element in this? Not a trace. Love and legality have nothing in common… If it were taught that we must earn by our obedience the high position and relationship of children of God, then indeed the serious charge of legality might justly be brought. But to pin that label on Christian obedience is, we repeat, a grave moral mistake. Obedience could never come before sonship; but sonship should always be followed by obedience.
- One God — the same faithfulness that blesses those who obey also repays those who hate Him. Israel would find Him true to His word either way.
- Not slack — God's ways in government are as perfect as His ways in grace. He will not pass over evil or treat it lightly.
- No neutral ground — all who are not lovers of God are haters of Him. That hostility often shows itself against His people, His word and His worship.
- To his face — the repayment is personal and face to face, and a time for it is coming.
- The cross — it measures both God's hatred of sin and His love for the sinner. There God pardons sin and makes the believer perfectly righteous in a risen Christ.