Joel M Bradshaw

6“For 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. 7It 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, 8but 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. 9Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.–Deuteronomy 7

1. The Father’s love CHOOSES. God chose the Israelites. They are called holy (uniquely special) to him and his treasured possession. One spouse could ask another, “Why do you love me?” At some level, that love is linked to choice. You most likely weren’t pressured into getting married, but chose to love. God’s love is also linked to his choice. He is sovereign and makes his own choices that are not influenced by anyone or anything else. When God loves it is because God has chosen to love. Therefore, it is linked to his choice to be in a covenant with someone. Spouses, you chose your covenant partner. God did too. Thus, when we later read (Malachi 1 and Romans 9) about loving Jacob and hating Esau, we can think of it as covenant choice. God chose to covenant with Jacob in a way he didn’t with Esau.
2. The Father’s love KEEPS. When God makes a covenant he keeps it. He is always as good as his word. He is always faithful and trustworthy. When God expects people to keep their covenant through obedience he modeled covenant faithfulness with his perfect keeping. Sometimes children are disobedient to their parents and ‘get on their last nerve’. But a good mom or dad keeps. A parent’s love for their children isn’t dependent upon how they feel in the moment, but something more lasting and enduring. God’s love is a keeping kind of love. A faithful love. A maintaining love. A faithful, steadfast love. The God who expects the one he has chosen to keep the covenant also keeps the covenant.

Yes, I know these words were written to Israel, but they were preserved for us. We get to read them and know the kind of God we also have covenanted with through Jesus Christ. You exist in this relationship with God because God has chosen you. He is sovereign and you are one of his sovereign choices. His relationship with you is intentional, and if you can believe it, was planned before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). God keeps his promises. God is always faithful to his word. The Father who keeps is the one who doesn’t grow tired and push away. His love for you in Christ endures. And now because of the New Covenant, Christians are also called God’s chosen and holy and a special possession (1 Peter 2:9). The Father’s love is wonderful.–JMB