Saturday, October 26: Deuteronomy 5- Our first-person God .

I have been slightly confused the last couple of days. Moses is speaking to the Israelites before they enter the Promised Land, but he has been speaking to them as if they have all seen the wonders of God who brought Israel out of Egypt. Problem is the generation, who lived in Egypt and saw first hand all God did, died during the 40 years of the desert wanderings because of their faithlessness. How could those standing before Moses have first hand knowledge of all God did?  Thus my confusion.

As chapter 5 opened, I saw an answer to my confusion in verse 3. It was not with our fathers that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.

God stands above and beyond time. God created time and although He understands time and chooses to enter time for us and for our sake God nonetheless is beyond time and not confined by time.

This allows God to be always present with those of us who are alive and also allows God’s covenants to be ever present with those who are alive.

Technically, according to calendars and clocks, God did make His covenant with Israel’s forefathers.  However, since God is beyond time, He also made that same covenant with all of His people throughout time. So as they stood on the plains overlooking the Promised Land, God could speak to them in the present tense as if they were there when the miracles and covenants were made because for God they were… It [the covenant] was … with us, with all of us who are alive here today.

This same ‘beyond time-ness’ of God is evident in the celebration of the Passover, which is always celebrated –even by Jews today- in the present tense as if the present-celebrants were liberated from Egypt.

Anyway, I am awed by God, our God, the one and only God, who is beyond time yet chooses, for our sake, to step into time to rescue and save us.

I hope you can shout ‘Amen’ to this…

Lord God Almighty, maker of time and space, I praise You. I praise You for the wonder of who You are. Beyond time, yet mindful of me (us) and that we are confined by time. You enter my time (our time) to reveal Yourself to us, to save us, to love us and to invite us into Your eternal reality through faith in Jesus Christ. [HP1] 

Alleluia. Praise be to You, Lord God Almighty! Amen

 

 

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 [HP1] I figured this out, so ignore it….just make corrections in it.