For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Deuteronomy 4:31 (ESV Strong's)
For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
Subject: The Attributes of God
Within a span of just a couple of verses we are told the character of God in two distinct ways. In one verse we are told God is a "consuming fire, a jealous God." This term is truly speaking of God's wrath and God's judgement on those who put other things before Him. In the second verse (31) we are told that God is merciful and a God of remarkable promise. We are being told, in this verse, the glory of God's forgiveness and grace and about the promises He made and will fulfill. As believers we can get on the end of either one of these Divine Attributes. We can grow in our relationship with Him thinking He is an angry God, full of wrath and be fearful of Him (like the Israelites who wanted to hide from Him). Or, we can bend to the attribute of His mercy and think that God will always forgive, forget and forever love us. It is true He forgives and forgets. He is THE God of great mercy. To know that truth is to have no more fear, shame or guilt. Yet, these two attributes are not in conflict with one another but are in perfect harmony in Christ and the story of the Cross. On the Cross Jesus suffered the Father's judgement, jealousy and consuming fire so that we could take full blessing in His mercy. These two attributes live in perfect harmony in the Son. We can rejoice in the truth taught that God is both a God of judgment and wrath and mercy and grace. Never in conflict, always in harmony in the Son.
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