40 Or 400 Years, God Is Faithful
BRD REFLECTIONS:
Deuteronomy 2 and Psalm 111 (NIV)
(Benedict Tay, Associate Pastoral Team Member (Youth Ministry))
READ:
Deuteronomy 2
v5: Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own.
v7: The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.
v9: Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.”
OBSERVE:
At first glance, Deuteronomy 2 seems to be a simple summary of how God brought the Israelites through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. However, on closer look, we see that Deuteronomy 2 speaks about God’s faithfulness, whether it is over 40 or 400 years.
God reminds the Israelites that He has been faithful for the past 40 years. Though it had been a penalty for the rebellion of the first generation, God never short-changed them (v7). Rather, He had been with them every step of the way, providing everything that they had needed.
Now that the 40 years are up,, God brings them out of the wilderness, through the land of their forefathers. Through the hill country of Seir (v5) and the wilderness of Ar (v9), God reminds His people that He is faithful and He keeps His promises. It’s been over 400 years since Esau and Lot, yet God remembers His promises to them, that the land has been given to them by God.
Whether it is 40 or 400 years, God has, is and will be faithful.
APPLY:
I find that I am a forgetful person. If you were to ask me what I ate four days ago, I would probably take a couple of minutes to remember what had happened. If you were to ask me what happened four years ago, I would also struggle to recall the details, especially since it was the time just before COVID-19.
However, as I read Deuteronomy 2, I take heart that our God remembers and is faithful. Whether it is four days, four years, 40 years or 400 hundred years, God remembers His promises. Even in times of hardship, or in times in the wilderness, we can always take heart that “the Lord [our] God has been with [us]. [We] have lacked nothing (Deut 2:7).”
DO:
- I will take time to reflect on the past week, how God has been faithful to me.
- As 2023 closes, I will take time to reflect, recount and write about God’s faithfulness in 2023.
PRAY:
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for Your faithfulness. Just as You have been faithful to the Israelites, You have been faithful to me. Open the eyes of my heart, that I may see and recognize Your faithfulness in my life today. Lord, teach me Your ways so that I will always tell of Your faithfulness. Holy Spirit, empower me to be obedient to You so that I can be faithful to You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
