TRUST WORTHY God’s Faithfulness: God has a covenant with his people

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;

for the Lord has spoken:

“Children have I reared and brought up,

but they have rebelled against me.

and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place. DEU 1:31

John Gill

And in the wilderness—Where he had fed them with manna, brought water out of rocks for them, protected them from every hurtful creature, had fought their battles for them, and given them victory over Amalek, Sihon, and Og:

Where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son—In his arms, in his bosom, with great care and tenderness:

All the way that you went until you came to this place—Supplying their wants, supporting their persons, subduing their enemies, and preserving them from everything hurtful to them; and therefore having God on their side, as appeared by so many instances, of his favour to them, they had nothing to dread or fear from the Canaanites, though ever so mighty.

7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?

8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

John Gill

And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous—Founded in justice and equity, and so agreeable to right reason, and so well calculated and adapted to lead persons in the ways of righteousness and truth, and keep them from doing any injury to each other’s persons and properties, and to maintain good order, peace, and concord among them:

As all this law that I set before you today—Which he then repeated, afresh declared, explained and instructed them in; for otherwise it had been delivered to them near forty years ago. Now there was not any nation then in being, nor any since, to be compared with the nation of the Jews, for the wise and wholesome laws given to them; no, not the more cultivated and civilized nations, as the Grecians and Romans, who had the advantage of such wise lawgivers as they were accounted, as Solon, Lycurgus, Numa, and others; and indeed the best laws that they had seem to be borrowed from the Jews.

26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. DEU 4:7-8, 26

John Gill

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today—Should they be guilty of such a sin, since they were so strongly and publicly cautioned against it; and even the heaven and the earth were called upon as witnesses of the law being set before them, which so expressly forbids it (Deu 30:19),

That you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess—Though they were now about to go over Jordan and inherit the land of Canaan, yet they would not enjoy it long, but be taken and carried captive out of it; as the ten tribes were by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, and the two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and both for their idolatry and other crimes.

4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.

John Gill

They are Israelites—Which were their national name, as descended from Jacob, whose name was Israel; and it was accounted a very honourable one; see 2Co 11:22; Php 3:5; and the very name they bore gave the apostle some concern that they should be cut off; and then he proceeds to enumerate the several distinguishing favours and privileges they had been partakers of:

To them belong the adoption—Not that special adoption, which springs from eternal predestination, is a blessing of the covenant of grace, comes through the redemption of Christ, and is received and enjoyed only by believers in him; for all that were Israelites, were not in this sense the children of God; but national adoption is here meant, by which the whole body of the people, as nation, were the sons of God, his firstborn:

The glory—Either the ark of the covenant, which is so called in Psa 63:2, according to Kimchi; or the clouds in the tabernacle and temple, which were called the glory of the Lord, and were symbols of his presence,

The covenants—Not the two Testaments, Old and New, but the covenant of circumcision, made with Abraham their father, and the covenant at Sinai they entered into with the Lord; some copies, and the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions, read, “the covenant”:

The giving of the law—A way of speaking theJews make use of when they take notice of this privilege; for it was peculiarly given to them with great solemnity by God himself, through the disposition of angels into the hands of Moses the mediator, and by him to them; and on account of this, they reckoned themselves more beloved of God than the rest of mankind

The worship—So the Jews are used to call it, “the worship”; and false worship is called by them “strange worship,” which is the title of one of their Misnic tracts; and here it signifies the whole worship of God, in the whole compass of it, sacrifices, prayer, praise daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly:

And the promises—Both temporal and spiritual, especially such as related to the Messiah, and which now had their accomplishment.

5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. ROM 9:4-5

John Gill

To them belong the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for, according to the Jewish writers,

“they call none in Israel, ‘fathers,’ but three, and they are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and they call none ‘mothers’ but four, and they are, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah”:

their descent from these fathers was a privilege, though they valued themselves too highly upon it; but what was the crown and glory of all, and which they took the least, though the apostle took the most notice of, is,

And from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ—That is, either of the fathers, or of the Israelites, from whom Christ, according to his human nature, sprung; being a son of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of David, and the son of Mary; hence the Messiah is called, “the Messiah or Christ of Israel”:

Who is described as

God—Truly and properly God,

Over all—Angels and men, being the creator, upholder, and governor of them; and as having another nature, a divine one, being

Blessed for evermore—In himself, and to be blessed and praised by all creatures. The apostle alludes to that well known periphrastic name of God so much used by the Jews, “the holy, blessed God”; to which, by way of assent and confirmation, the apostle puts his

Amen—Now all these particular privileges are mentioned by him, as what heightened his concern for these people; it filled him with heaviness and sorrow of heart, when he considered, that persons who had been partakers of such favours, and especially the last, that the Messiah should spring from them, be born of them, and among them, and yet that they should be given up to ruin and destruction.

3 The ox knows its owner,

and the donkey its master’s crib,

but Israel does not know,

my people do not understand.” ISA 1:2-3

John Gill

The ox knows its owner—Knows his voice, when he calls him, and follows him where he leads him, whether to plough in the field, or feed in the meadows;

And the donkey its masters crib—Or “manger”; where he is fed, and to which he goes when he wants food, and at the usual times. Gussetius interprets the words; the donkey knows the floor where he treads out the corn, and willingly goes to it, though it is to labour, as well as to eat; and so puts Israel to shame, who were weary of the worship of God in the temple, where spiritual food was provided for them, but chose not to go for it, because of labour there.

But Israel does not know—His Maker and Owner, his King, Lord, and Master, his Father, Saviour, and Redeemer; he does not own and acknowledge him, but rejects him; see Joh 1:10-11.

My people do not understand—The Jews, who were the people of God by profession, did not stir themselves up to consider, nor make use of means of knowing and understanding, divine and spiritual things, as the word used signifies; they would not attend to the word and ordinances, which answer to the crib or manger; they would not hear nor regard the ministry of the word by Christ and his apostles, nor suffer others, but hindered them as much as in them lay; see Mat 23:13, 37; Act 13:45-46. The Targum is,

“Israel does not learn to know my fear, my people do not understand to turn to my law.”

In like manner the more than brutal stupidity of this people is exposed in Jer 8:7.

They have lyre and harp,

tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,

but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,

or see the work of his hands. ISA 5:12

John Gill

They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute—Instruments of music; some struck with a bow or quill, or touched with the fingers; and others blown with the mouth:

And wine at their feasts—So that they lived jovially and merrily, like sons of Bacchus, more than like the people of God:

But they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands—Meaning not the law, as the Targum and Kimchi, which was the work of the Lord, and the writing of his hands; rather, as Aben Ezra, the punishment inflicted on the ten tribes being carried into captivity; or else the works of creation and providence, and the daily mercies of life; or, best of all, the great work of redemption by Christ, and the conversion of sinners, both among Jews and Gentiles, by the preaching of his gospel; for this refers to the Jews in the times of Christ and his apostles, which immediately preceded their utter destruction; and those sins here mentioned were the cause of it. See Psa 28:5.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ROM 1:28

John Gill

And since they did not see fit—This accounts for the justness of the divine procedure in leaving them to commit such scandalous iniquities; that since they had some knowledge of God by the light of nature, and yet did not care

To acknowledge God—Or to own him as God, to worship and glorify him as such; but took every method to erase this knowledge out of their minds, and keep it from others:

God gave them up to a debased mind—A vain empty mind, worthless, good for nothing devoid of all true knowledge and judgment; incapable of approving what is truly good, or of disapproving that which is evil; a mind that has lost all conscience of things, and is disapproved of by God, and all good men:

To do what ought not to be done—Which are neither agreeably to the light of nature, nor convenient to, or becoming the honour of human nature; things which the brutes themselves, who are destitute of reason, do not do.

A covenant is an agreement made between two parties. One example of this is a marriage covenant, where two people vow to love each other for the rest of their lives. Any covenant demands faithfulness. God intentionally began a committed relationship with Israel, and Scripture reveals that God is continuously faithful to the people he loves. He initiated bringing them into a covenant relationship and has continued to shower them with his care and love. How have you seen God’s love expressed toward you? How has he pursued you?