SEEN, YET NOT SEEN. Deuteronomy 29 The people God made His covenant with included men, women, children, and foreigners who had joined the Israelites. It also encompassed those who would be born in future generations. Reflecting on their response to the covenant made years earlier and renewing their understanding of its terms and their commitment would prompt each person to consider their personal relationship with God. The core terms of the covenant promised them the land before them and prosperity as long as they obeyed God. They needed to be dedicated to walking in God's ways. “Righteousness exalts a nation.”
The learning process takes a lot of time because man's natural heart is very self-centered and independent. The experiences of God's people have often been shared and reviewed over time, but each generation tends to believe that the events that happened to others will never happen to them. Examples of God's dealings with Israel are recorded in the Bible so we can learn from them and avoid making the same mistakes. However, many who should know better, having been taught God's truth from their youth, will say, "The Old Testament is not for us. That was for those who lived before Christ came. I am not going to waste my time reading the Old Testament." That attitude is common among those with a mistaken understanding of God.
God is revealed to us in many significant and powerful ways in the Old Testament, and it benefits us to review these often so we do not sin against Him. The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament. He is the same, and His character and judgments remain unchanged. Fortunately, we live in an era when the Gospel of God's grace is being preached worldwide. In Old Testament times, just as today, "In every nation, he that fears God and worketh righteousness, is accepted by Him." God has always had those who believe in Him by faith "without the works of the law." These are those who have trusted in Him and come to Him by faith, based on the light He has given them.
Strangely, many people who have been blessed and favored, like the Israelites, have taken God for granted or formed their own ideas about who He is and what He is like. The children of Israel saw evidence of God's work when the plagues struck the Egyptians, and they were freed after 400 years of slavery. They crossed the Red Sea on dry land, ate manna from heaven, and had water flowing from a rock to quench their thirst. They experienced miraculous victories over their enemies, and their shoes and clothes never wore out. Despite such blessings, they repeatedly disobeyed God, and yet He remained gracious and continued to bless them.
The new generations had heard these stories from those who experienced the events, but for some reason, they did not always connect with them. They had seen the consequences of disobedience when they buried their parents in the wilderness. They had not seen God physically because they would have died before His holiness, but they had experienced God's presence with them every day.
It is a terrible position to be in if someone has once known the way of the Lord and then turns to follow a path of disobedience and rebellion. It causes heartbreak for those who stay faithful to God, and it creates a hardness of heart against God and His word in those who disobey. That hardness and rejection of divine truth will eventually affect a larger group of people, leading to their eternal loss. Despite all we have experienced and tried to pass on to our children and their children, we cannot make it truly real to them. For some reason, almost always, they believe they must discover everything for themselves that we have taught them. The learning process repeats itself, and each generation goes through the same struggles as the one before it.
How often have we seen God working for us in our daily lives and in the work we've been involved in! How many times have we thanked Him for His grace and long-suffering toward us! Yet even among us who know Him personally, there is a tendency to take all His blessings for granted. "O that men would praise Him; for His wonderful works to the children of men!" The children of Israel had been warned about the horrors of idol worship and what would happen to their own children if they became entangled with the world system, but they did not learn. As a result, the evils of the world entered right into their own families. The problems still persist: what is seen seems more important to most people than what is unseen. Physical eyesight has drawn the attention of those who knew the blessings of living by faith but were never willing to have their eyes anointed with heavenly "eye salve." The result is, and will continue to be, that future generations will drift further away from God, and the influence of godliness will diminish more and more.
Tolerance of evil, idolatry, and paganism has a negative effect on the entire community connected to us. Those who once followed God's word but then shifted to be like the world will be remembered as untrustworthy in their instructions. The truths God revealed to us and that we teach our children and others remain reliable when they are based on the Bible. If those truths are altered by our opinions or “wandering minds,” they become false. God's revelation to us is found in the proven words of Scripture, not in the changing opinions of those who believe they know better than the Holy Spirit-inspired writers of God's word.
When people focus only on what is visible and tangible and lack faith in God, they begin to face the challenges that God warned would come from unbelief. Their attention is directed toward what can be seen, which often seems more important than acts of faith in God. They overlook eternal qualities like truth, holiness, love, grace, and mercy, replacing them with money, possessions, physical pleasures, worldly attractions, and even religious buildings and symbols that substitute for God in people's hearts and minds.
The fact that God means what He says often escapes them until they experience physical pain, and someone cries out in the middle of the night, "O God, help me!" If the pain lessens by morning, few people take the time to thank God or respond with worship and faith. They claim success in business because they were "shrewd" in dealing with others. As their wealth grows, their focus shifts to accumulating more, until everything is lost, and then they blame God for the wars and events that cause them to lose what they thought they had.
When a person begins to take God, His will, and His Word for granted and ignores the truths they have been taught, they start to think, "Not to worry. God, if there is one, is merciful. He wouldn't dare make anything bad happen to me." They forget or overlook the warnings given by those who taught them: God does what He says. They haven't personally experienced what happens when God turns away from His own people or steps in to discipline them to change their behavior. Even though others have experienced the "Chastening hand of the Lord," they do not believe it will ever happen to them. It is difficult for parents and spiritual fathers to see what happens to disobedient children. But we have to entrust them to God, who knows who they are and what needs to be done to correct their behavior. "Whom the Lord loveth He chastens," and we must accept that, even though it is hard to watch.
Perhaps one of life’s greatest deceptions, if not the greatest, is to say, “I shall have peace if I do what I want” [v.19]. No wonder the predictions of God’s judgment and Israel’s failure follow that statement. Sad consequences occur when treaties and covenants between nations and individuals are violated or broken. This was true regarding the covenant the Lord God made with Israel. The Jewish people today live under the consequences of that broken covenant. There are prophecies concerning the future restoration of the people of Israel to the Lord.
We teach those we love and seek to help along in their spiritual life that there are serious, lasting consequences when a person chooses to go their own way. This happened to the nation of Israel, and they became the focus of attention from other nations because of their great fall from God's favor. For hundreds of years, that nation has been hunted and haunted because of their disobedience to God. He still loves them in a special way, but that does not exempt them from His discipline.
The principle still stands: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." We don't give up on our wandering children because of evidence of their disobedience. We don't stop loving them even though we hate what they are doing. All we can do for those who ignore, resist, and reject what they have been taught is to pray as intercessors for them and trust a righteous, loving, and gracious God who knows what is best for them.
We who are members connected with the New Testament (Covenant) can live with a sense of expectation about the future. We don’t know everything about what’s ahead, but “we know who holds the future.” When we obey what God has revealed in His word, we can enjoy today and trust that the future will be very good. God’s everlasting love for Israel and His ongoing concern for them have been shown to the world. The covenant He made with them has allowed them to be a recognized force in the world even though Israel is a small nation and few in number. When God allowed them to act independently and sin against Him willfully, He grew a line where His mercy would not be shown. Their sin endangered their very existence as a recognizable nation. Yet, despite all the opposition to the Jews, they still exist as a powerful force in the world today.
It is often shocking and upsetting for God's people to see what unbelievers say and do to them. Because believers do not follow the popular trends of the time, they often become targets of ridicule initially. Then comes mockery, opposition, and persecution. When God's saints refuse to accept laws made by man as having higher authority than God's laws, human government may turn against them.
Some attitudes are already present in religious groups that reject the Bible as authoritative. When it comes to truth, they will attack Christians to try to stop the power of the Gospel. We may never understand why God allows difficulties to happen to His people because "the secret things belong to God." However, the things He has revealed must be passed on to our children so they will do what is right by repenting and believing the Gospel. Then, we should encourage them to follow the Lord and help them yield to God's Word and please Him by living in faith.