Episode 2259 - Lesson 1 - Sunday Dec. 29 - Beyond Reasonable Expectations

God not only asks us, “Do you love Me,” but God Himself loves each person, and does so freely. Indeed, He freely loves you and me and every other person more than we could possibly imagine. And we know this love by the way He has acted in the history of His people. Read Exodus 33:15–22 and consider the context of these verses and the narrative in which they appear. What does this passage, especially verse 19, reveal about God’s will and love? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ All seemed lost. Not long after God’s amazing deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt, the people of Israel had rebelled against God and worshiped a golden calf. When Moses came down from the mountain, he saw what they had done, and he threw down the tablets containing the Ten Commandments and shattered them. Though the people had forfeited any right to the covenant privileges and blessings that God had freely bestowed on them, God freely chose to continue with them in covenant relationship anyway—despite their unworthiness for the covenant blessings. The words of Exodus 33:19, “ ‘I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion’ ” (NKJV), are often misunderstood to mean that God arbitrarily chooses to be compassionate and gracious to some, but not others. However, in context, God is not stating here that He will arbitrarily be gracious and compassionate to some and not to others. That is not how God works, contrary to some popular theology in which God predestines some to be lost and to face eternal condemnation. What, then, is God proclaiming here? Essentially, God is proclaiming that, as the Creator of all, He has the right and authority to grant grace and compassion freely to even the most undeserving of people. And He is doing so in this situation, even after the golden calf rebellion, by granting mercy to His people, Israel, even if they didn’t deserve it. This is one of many instances in which God manifests His love and does so beyond any reasonable expectations. Good news for us all, is it not? In what ways has God continued to reveal and manifest His love to you—even beyond any reasonable expectations? _________________________________________