This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Deuteronomy 30:19-20, TNIV)
As I ponder the heritage of faith – the Judaic-Christian hope of Creator-god – I am humbled by the way the Lord has remained faithful his people, for every generation. He has remained true to his word to Abraham and his offspring, which by faith include us.
The only reason any generation of Israel actually got to cross into the Promised Land was because of God’s mercy. As we read the Torah, we find that God found guilty each generation of the same sins. Each generation failed to learn the lessons of the previous generation, and it still goes on today, even within our own lives.
I used to feel as though the OT promises of God were not necessarily to be taken as promises to his people today, simply because they weren’t directed toward us today (or for some other reason). But as I find that if God’s faithfulness is dependent solely on his promises to bless Abraham and his offspring, through Christ (his Offspring), then we are to take to heart promises in the same lineage. Of course, the laws themselves may not directly apply, but the promises to follow his instructions (however they may be shaped for us in today’s culture) do apply.
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