The scripture for today, December 29, is Deuteronomy 12:29 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess.”
Why would a good God drive people (the Amorite nations) from their own land so that other people (the Jews) could live there? Way back in Genesis 15, God promised Abraham that his descendants would possess the land he lived in as a wanderer, but first they would be enslaved in a foreign country some 400 years. During that time they would multiply. Indeed, they did grow from 70 of Abraham’s grandchildren to over three million.
Then it would be time for his descendants to possess the land. Why so long in the future? Verse 16 explains it: “For the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” God always gives people plenty of time to repent and change.
The Jews did finally possess the Promised Land, but God warned them, “If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (Leviticus 18:28). Indeed, they did eventually defile the land with their own sins, so several centuries later, they were dispossessed and forced to go to Assyria and Babylon by their conquerors.
Yes, God keeps his promises ~ to both good and bad. Today, regardless of the condition of the nation we live in on earth, let us look ahead to that even better promise of an even better land ~ that spiritual Promised Land ~ heaven. And it will be forever good.