Why Is It?

And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 29:2-3,5-6

• Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.  Deuteronomy 29:4    

Why is it… that we can, and will remember all the events, things, people, promises, which leave us with the taste of bitterness? 

Why is it???… that we can, but won’t remember the moments of the miraculous that we certainly never deserved but desperately needed.

I wonder if it is because, both take an act of (freely) chosen will and we all (everyone of us!) greedily demand our way or the highway.

Our thank you’s (our gratitude) are all boxed and wrapped in happy, healthy, wealthy and wise pretty papers of judgement, and any that don’t measure up are deleted and thrown in the could’ve, would’ve should’ve trash bin.

You have seen… Yet to this day you have no idea of the great signs’ and wonders done JUST FOR YOU. And… yet… Lord has not given you – MADE YOU – know that He is the Lord your God and force you to CHOOSE to honor Him for your very life.

Why is it?

WHY, does the God of the Universe, not only allow these petulant creatures to continue in our selfish splendor, but continue to pursue us?

I gotta tell you, I personally don’t do well with ingratitude! If someone (even those closest to me) speak to me and of me with disdain for all I do, then judges me as worth little or no value to them, I would definitely react fast and furiously! I may do whatever, passively aggressively, but I can honestly say it would not be for their good nor would it be out of love for them (love for myself and protection for my heart, maybe). 

So, for God to love and want me for His child, even in the midst of my multiple daily hissy fits, He truly is the God of the miraculous. He truly is my Father who will never abandon nor forsake me!

Why is it?

Because God IS love!

Not our brand of love which always seeks conditional payment.

God is UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Love that is not founded on what He desires (though His every desire for His children is perfect in every way) but on WHO HE IS.

As parents, we sometimes threaten our children with the wrath of Dad (or yes, even the wrath of Mom). “Wait until your father gets home!”  or “Keep it up and I’ll give you something to cry about!” Ours is a fear-based brand of love… make me happy, healthy, wealthy and wise… OR ELSE!

Maybe this is why we approach God in the way we do. Maybe we attempt to make Him more like us, so that we do not have to change our brand of love. Or maybe it’s the childishness inside of us that refuses to submit to anyone outside of ourselves.

Maybe this is fear-based also. Maybe we KNOW we should not be left to our own devices. Maybe we KNOW our selfishness is a deadly weapon!

There is no fear in love; but PERFECT LOVE casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  1 John 4:18

We don’t know love because we refuse to submit to God’s perfect love.

We (can only) love, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19 

For God so loved us all, He gave!

He had to… because of who He is… and… because of who we are not!

“ Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, (you do know, right, we are grafted into Israel if we are in covenant through Jesus)  not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “ I will put My law within them and on their heart (with the words of Jesus, abiding there) I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  Jeremiah 31:31-33

And such we are… if we have made the covenant with God!

And if we have, then WHY IS IT we still remember the negative of not getting when we are breathing the breath of God as we live today.

WHY IS IT we refuse to know in our Savior redeemed heart…  refuse to see with our spiritual unblinded eyes… we refuse to hear with our ears filled with the songs of the Holy Spirit?

Why is it?

We still have God’s gift, given to us at creation – free will. And we still have within our OLD nature, the whisper of sin, which is consistently tempted, by our enemy to revert. We have both the ability and responsibility to… “Choose you this day whom you will serve.” 

“You stand today, all of you, before the Lord your God: your chiefs, your tribes, your elders and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the alien who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, that you may enter into the covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath which the Lord your God is making with you today, in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Deuteronomy 29:10-13

“You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes – those great signs and wonders” 

You KNOW!

And if you don’t… O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!  Psalm 34:8

Why? Because THIS IS THE DAY the Lord has made; 

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!!!!

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.