You see, Moses had been instrumental in bringing God's people out of slavery in Egypt and journeying with them to the new land that God had promised them. They had come so close to entering and possessing the land, but unbelief caused them to be unfaithful to God and forfeit the opportunity He was giving them.
Have you ever messed up badly and felt that you missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime? That's what happened with these guys; they failed to enter the Promised Land at the time God had originally planned, and so Moses continued to travel with them through forty long, challenging years in the desert. Most of them lived and died in that wilderness, and a new generation grew up to take their place.
Now, they are once again presented with the opportunity to claim the blessing God wants for them. They're standing on the east side of the Jordan, a couple of million of them, and they can actually see the promised land on the other side of the river. Imagine the scene: they stand there, from the youngest to the oldest, and Moses stands in front of them for the very last time. He's old, he knows he's soon going to die and that he won't cross the river with the rest of the people. These are his final words to the people He has travelled with for the past four decades.
After reminding this new generation of all that had happened, Moses zoomed in on the most important thing that they needed to know and remember for all generations (Deut 7: 9):
"Know that the Lord (Yahweh) your God (Elohim) is the Faithful God (El Aman) who keeps his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments."
El Aman. It's made up of the common name for God and the Hebrew verb aman, meaning to be faithful and trustworthy. (It's the same verb that gives us the word Amen, which literally means to be certain and true.) In modern Hebrew the name is more commonly expressed as El Hanne'eman - the Faithful God. Moses wanted the people to know that however much they had messed up in the past, God had always been and always would be completely faithful in every way.
In the New Testament, Paul expressed the same understanding when he wrote to Timothy that, even if we are unfaithful, God will still remain faithful because He cannot be untrue to who He inherently is. (2 Timothy 2: 13) That gives us incredible security because we know that God's faithfulness doesn't depend on who we are, but rather on the unchanging certainty of who He is.
One of my favourite worship songs that our KKI outreach teams used to sing a few decades ago, expresses this well: no matter what we're feeling or thinking, God will always be as faithful as the sun, the moon, the seasons... He is the One who holds our hearts in perfect peace.
Click on the image below to watch the video I made today; the photos are from countries where I've lived over a lifetime of experiencing God's faithfulness.
