I will give up whole nations to save your life, because you are precious to me and because I love you and give you honour. Isaiah 43:4, GNT

 

In the Old Testament, we find a different view of how God loves people compared to the New Testament. These two different views make up the sum of God’s love for us. We cannot really understand God’s love if we do not compare and combine the two views.

 

In the Old Testament, the emphasis is more on God’s love as a covenant love for his chosen people, while in the New Testament, we read more about his love for us as individuals. One rarely finds places where we read about God’s love for individuals in the Old Testament. One such place is in 2 Samuel 12:24c: “The Lord loved the boy (Solomon).” Mostly, God’s love is always shown as love for Israel, as can be seen from our verse for today.

 

This all-encompassing love for his people should not be viewed as impersonal. It is deeply personal, as can be seen from Isaiah 49:15: “Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you.”

 

God compares his love for his chosen people to what is surely the strongest bond of love in the world – the love of a mother for her baby. As we often see in the news, even the strongest bond can sometimes be violated by a mother. God said he will never violate his love for his people. In Ezra 3:11, the people of God are singing his praises and then end the song with the refrain, “the Lord is good, and his love for Israel is eternal”.

 

Today, God’s all-embracing love remains as strong as ever, but now it encompasses believers from all peoples, languages and races as we are now the chosen people of God. He will never forget us or leave us uncared for.

 

Prayer: We sing your praises, Lord, who have loved your people from ancient times and will continue to love us until eternity. Amen