Bible Readings for June 3rd
Deuteronomy 7 | Psalm 90 | Isaiah 35 | Revelation 5
Deuteronomy 7 features the second-best circular logic in the Bible. Let me explain what I mean by pointing out Deuteronomy 7:6, where Moses reminds Israel that “you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
At this point, Moses pauses to ask himself a question: Why does the LORD love Israel? This question seems to be what Moses is addressing in the next verse: “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples” (Deut. 7:7). Bigger would typically be considered better, but Israel’s size was not the reason that the LORD loves Israel, since Israel was not a large nation.
Why, then, does the LORD love Israel?
The answer comes in Deuteronomy 7:8: “…but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
Did you catch the reason why the LORD loves Israel? “It is because the LORD loves you.” God loves his people because he loves them. The reason has nothing to do with the people and everything to do with God’s rich, free, gracious love that he pours out on us. Yahweh’s love is based on magnificent circular logic.
Compare Deuteronomy 7 to the most beautiful circular logic in the Bible, which is found in Ephesians 2. There, Paul begins his letter by cataloging the lavish grace that God has poured out upon his people: “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Eph. 1:4b–5).
But why? Why did God bless us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3) or choose us from before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4) or redeem us through the blood of Jesus (Eph. 1:7) or seal to us the down-payment of our inheritance with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13–14)? Why did God make us alive together with Christ, raising us up to be seated with him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:5–6)?
The answer is simple: God did it all “because of the great love with which he loved us” (Eph. 2:4). In other words, he lavished his love upon us because he loved us.
You did not earn God’s love, and you could not earn God’s love. Give thanks to God today for the fact that he loves you because he loves you.
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Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
