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The promise of love 3 - Deuteronomy 10,28
In the Book of Hebrews, the writer warns his readers not to give up on God. There are lots of positive blessings we gain by remaining faithful to God, but in chapter 10, we hear another reason to persevere.
- Read Hebrews 10: 28-31. What does this passage tell us about:
- the seriousness of sin
- the character of God.
- How does this passage fit in with your idea of God? You might also want to read verse 39 – this teaching on sin and judgement was an encouragement to continue firm in the faith.
- As they stood on the brink of the Promised Land the people of Israel needed to be reminded that ‘it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’.
- Read Deuteronomy 28:1-7. What picture of the Promised Land do you get from these verses?
- Read Deuteronomy 28: 15-25. This is the first section on the consequences of disobeying God. From these verses, how far do we see God will go to show his justice?
- What do these two passages in Deuteronomy tell you about God?
4.
- The Book of Hebrews says ‘The Lord will judge his people’. How do you think that works out for Christians today?
- How do you react to this idea of God judging his people?
- Does this motivate you at all to persevere in remaining faithful to God and receiving his blessings?
Notes for this study
This is a pretty heavy Bible study – especially for us today where the concept of God’s love is nearly so overwhelming that there is not much room for his justice. It will be helpful to consider whether there can be real love without justice, ie. just a ready acceptance of any actions at all where there are no consequences.
It will be an interesting study to see whether we are willing to allow God to be the God of the Bible or whether we feel he really should fit into how we think he should be.
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