(Audio)
The LORD wants us to understand with what special favor he has loved us, and to respond in turn with our own love and obedience.
Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them
as to choose you, their descendants,
in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done.
His love for us proves he does not have ulterior motives. It ought to free us from any doubt or hesitation preventing us from loving him in return.
The LORD, your God, shall you fear, and him shall you serve;
hold fast to him and swear by his name.
He is your glory, he, your God,
who has done for you those great and terrible things
which your own eyes have seen.
Through supernatural means Jesus pays the temple tax for himself and for Peter even though, as Son, he is exempt. In the same way, though not a sinner, he is handed over, killed, and raised on the third day to pay our debt and purchase us back for God.
for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (see First Corinthians 6:20).
The LORD chose Abraham and his children, he set them free from Egypt, and led them into the promised land because they were meant to be a people peculiarly his own. If the people of Israel were meant to be as numerous as the stars of the sky how much more is his Church, the Israel of God (see Galatians 6:16), meant to bring his salvation to the ends of the earth. Let us meditate on this fact that we are chosen and set apart.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (see First Peter 2:9)
The Israelites were called to love befriend aliens because they themselves were once aliens. We are called to love all of those who stand in need of God's deliverance because we too would be lost without it and still ourselves need his grace day by day.
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
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