Beloved,
I wonder how often you consider what a tremendous privilege it is to be a Christian. How easy it is to grow cold and accustomed to the fact that, through Christ, we have been reconciled to God. God belongs to us, and we belong to Him in a loving communion bond that nothing can sever—not even death itself! If we ever become anything less than amazed by such gospel grace, then we have reason to repent.
I found myself doing just that this morning as I came to the end of Deuteronomy in my Bible reading. After concluding his final sermon, Moses leads Israel in a final song (ch. 32) and pronounces a final benediction (ch. 33). The hymn and the blessing are more bleak than we might expect. But after declaring God’s rather dark blessing upon all twelve tribes, Moses suddenly breaks out in joyful praise in verses 26–29 of Deuteronomy 33. In fact, this outburst of praise comprises the final recorded words of Moses before he breathes his last and returns to the dust.
As we would expect, the praise is directed at Yahweh: “There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty” (v. 26). Truly, the God of Israel is incomparable. There is nothing and no one like Him. Combine the entirety of the finite created order, and it is like dust on the scales beside His infinite, uncreated majesty. This is Moses’s deathbed boast!
But he doesn’t stop there. His vertical praise, directed toward the God of heaven, suddenly and surprisingly turns horizontal: “Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph!” It is precisely because there is none like Yahweh that there is none like Israel. For Israel has been redeemed to bear His incomparable name and to be His treasured possession.
Recently, I’ve seen a number of clips of Elon Musk in the President’s office holding one of his children. Here is one of the world’s richest and most influential men standing beside arguably the most powerful human on the planet. Among the billions of pipsqueak humans, there are none like these men. And here is this little boy, who has no idea what the Department of Government Efficiency is—nor does he care to learn. Yet he is given the astounding privilege of being in Musk’s arms and in Trump’s presence, all because of a filial relationship.
Similarly, Israel had been drawn into a filial, father-son relationship with God. To be the people of the incomparable God is the most astounding privilege imaginable. Nothing compares! And when we consider that Israel’s status was but a shadow or a spark in comparison to the bright and fiery privilege that is ours as the adopted children of God in Jesus Christ, we cannot help but praise: “Happy are you, O Church! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD for the LORD!”
You see, it is not possible to be taken up with the glory of God in Christ without also delighting in the glory of His people in Christ—even with all their warts and weaknesses (just read of Israel’s throughout the entirety of Deuteronomy). The healthy believer has a heart united in the fear of the incomparable God, thrills in the fact that he has been reunited to this God through the gospel, and takes great pleasure in the incomparable people of God, of whom he has become a small part.
That has been my meditation this morning, and it is birthing within me a great eagerness to gather with you this coming Lord’s Day. I can’t wait!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick