Day 176
Deuteronomy 7:9
"Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.
What a comfort to know we have a God we can trust fully. His Word is eternally dependable.
Deuteronomy 7:9 shows us that God's mercy can be extended to someone a thousand years after His Word has been spoken. That explains His mercy and favor upon the modern descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, despite the fact that many of them are not serving Him. Proverbs 11:21 says the seed of the righteous shall be delivered. No matter how Satan has tried to wipe out Israel, it has been impossible, because of a covenant God made with their forefathers thousands of years ago. The suffering they have experienced is a result of their own wrongdoing, but the mighty deliverance that has come to them is not to their credit. The supernatural has taken place to bring them victory, all because of a faithful God.
Sometimes we look at people and wonder why they are still alive, or why they seem to have so many chances. We think maybe someone is praying for them. That is possible. It is also possible that they are reaping the rewards of a great great great great grandparent who had a covenant relationship with God.
David once searched for a descendant of his deceased friend, Jonathan, to show favor to because of a covenant they had between each other. When he found Jonathan's descendant, he did not check to see if he was good enough. The only qualification the man had was that he was a descendant of Jonathan. That caused David to show him special favor. That gives us insight into the power of a covenant, the way God's people understood it.
We can experience divine favor through utterly no credit of our own. (We can also establish a flow of divine favor for our descendants, because of our relationship with God.) Apart from our natural blood line, we have a spiritual blood line that constantly causes us favor. The Bible says in Galatians 3 that we are Abraham's seed through Jesus Christ. Romans 8 says we are children of God and therefore heirs and joint-heirs with Christ.
That should bring us to a point of great humility. If we have ever thought we must be all right because God has shown us favor, we may want to think again. We may need to correct many areas, but we can still experience the favor of God, because of His faithfulness.
I humble myself before God, who has shown me undeserved favor. I am more thankful for His grace. I will endeavor to live in such a way that my children will also be blessed through my obedience.