By Rony Kozman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University
GOD IS FAITHFUL
Deuteronomy 7:6–16
God is faithful to His people. (6–8)
In Deuteronomy 7, Moses warns the people of Israel what they must not do when they enter into the promised land. Israel had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years until the disobedient generation that refused to enter the land was killed in the wilderness.
Now, Israel is on the precipice of entering the promised land, and Moses renews with the current generation the covenant that God had made with their forefathers. He reminds them that they must be faithful to the Lord with whom they are in covenant. When they enter the land, they must not worship the gods of the people who inhabit the land of Canaan.
They must destroy the idols and the altars so they do not turn from the Lord and prove to be unfaithful to Him as they worship other gods.
They belong to God. They are a people holy (consecrated) to the Lord. God chose them to be His treasured possession, and in return they must be faithful to the Lord.
Israel must be loyal to the Lord because God has been faithful to them and to their ancestors. In other words, we must be faithful to God because God has been faithful to us.
The Lord loved Israel and rescued Israel out of Egypt because of His loyalty to their ancestors. Recall that in Genesis 15:13–16, God promised Abraham that his descendants would become slaves in a foreign land and then God would rescue them and bring them to the land He promised to Abraham’s descendants.
Here in Deuteronomy 7, we read that God rescued Israel out of Egypt out of faithfulness to the covenant He made with Israel’s ancestors.
God is faithful to His covenant. (9–11)
God will remain faithful with this current generation of Israelites who are entering the promised land. The same God who was faithful to their ancestors will be faithful to them also because He is loyal to the covenant and promises He has made.
But they are also participants in this covenant, and they must keep their part of the covenant. To put this in terms of the new covenant, Jesus is faithful and trustworthy, and we must persevere in our faithfulness and loyalty to Him.
We are to respond to God’s faithfulness with obedience. (12–16)
God’s people are called to be faithful to the Lord by keeping His commands. God promised Israel that they would receive the blessings of the covenant — bountiful wombs, flocks, grain and wine — on the condition that they are faithful to God.
As we learn later in Deuteronomy, Israel will prove faithless. They will forsake the Lord and transgress the covenant (31:16), and in return God will forsake them (31:17).
But Deuteronomy is not without hope, for Moses promises God will transform His people: “God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and all your soul, so that you will live … Then you will again obey Him and follow all His commands I am commanding you today” (30:6, 8).
The Lord promises He will transform His people, and He will change their hearts so they are faithful to Him.
This good news is that God will secure the loyalty of His people.
EDITOR’S NOTE — The Sunday School lesson outlines are provided by Lifeway.
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