Deuteronomy 7:9

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).