Deuteronomy 4:25-40: a reflection

25When you father children and children’s children, and you have been long in the land, and then corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the LORD your God’s sight to provoke him to anger, 26I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. 27The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will lead you away. 28There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29But from there you shall seek the LORD your God, and you will find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to the LORD your God and listen to his voice. 31For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them. 32For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as great as this thing is, or has been heard like it? 33Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35It was shown to you so that you might know that the LORD is God. There is no one else besides him. 36Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire. 37Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt; 38to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that the LORD himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else. 40You shall keep his statutes and his commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD your God gives you for all time.

Moses warns Israel that if they turn to idols they will be scattered from the land; but even into that warning he weaves a promise of grace. From there, he says, from exile, from the consequences of your sin, you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget his covenant. Even after failure and scattering, the way back to God remains open to those who seek him wholeheartedly.

Notice the promise: you will find him, if you seek him with all your heart. God does not make himself impossible to find, even to a people who have failed and been scattered by their own sin; he remains findable to those who seek him wholeheartedly. And the ground of the promise is God's own character: he is a merciful God, who does not abandon his people or forget his covenant. The way back is open because God is merciful.

That is a promise of hope for anyone who has wandered from God, even far, even through failure. God is not lost to those who seek him; he is found by those who search after him with all their heart. This is not a half-hearted seeking, but a wholehearted turning, a searching with all our heart and soul; and to such seeking, God promises himself. If you have wandered from God, do not think the way back is closed. Seek him with all your heart, and you will find him, for he is a merciful God who does not abandon his own. The God who promised Israel that they would find him if they sought him wholeheartedly makes the same promise to you; seek him with all your heart, and he will be found.

Lord, even in warning Israel of the consequences of turning to idols, you wove in a promise of grace: that from there they would seek you and find you, if they searched after you with all their heart and soul, for you are a merciful God who does not abandon your people or forget your covenant. Give me hope from that promise. You do not make yourself impossible to find, even to those who have failed and wandered by their own sin; you remain findable to those who seek you wholeheartedly. If I have wandered from you, even far, even through failure, keep me from thinking the way back is closed. Help me seek you not half-heartedly, but with all my heart and soul, a wholehearted turning; and to such seeking, you promise yourself. Help me seek you with all my heart, and find you, for you are a merciful God who does not abandon your own. You made this promise to Israel, and you make it to me; help me seek you wholeheartedly, and be found by you.