Main news for 12 January 2026

Characterizing the people of God from the very beginning of their history, the author of the book of Deuteronomy puts very harsh words into Moses' mouth about this people. Of course, while reading them one can recall much: the unbelief in success that the people showed already in Egypt, the story with the golden calf, and the refusal, immediately after the Exodus, to conquer the land promised by God, although that was quite possible.

And also that constant grumbling and dissatisfaction, that constant desire to turn back to Egypt, which accompanied the people throughout their whole journey from Egypt to Transjordan. And later history, the history of life on the land promised by God and conquered by the people with God's help, was by no means rich either in faithfulness to God or in obedience to Him.

In essence, throughout the whole pre-exilic period the faithful among the people of God formed not the majority, but a minority. One has to admit that the whole history of the people really confirms the words of the Torah cited here. But then a natural question arises: why, with all this, does the Jewish people still remain the people of God? And why, if they are the people of God, did their spiritual path turn out to be so winding?

Of course, from the very beginning God wanted to see His people as a community of the faithful. But achieving this proved not easy: a historical remelting in the Babylonian furnace was required in order to reach the goal.

And yet the Jewish people remained the people of God throughout their whole history, because the covenant-union that God made with them remained unbreakable, at least on God's side. And among the people there was always preserved, to use the language of the prophets, a remnant that kept faithfulness to God even when, speaking in human terms, there was no sense in doing so. Acting otherwise was impossible.

Of course, at any moment God could have started everything over. At any moment He could have begun a new history of another union with another people. But there are no guarantees that this other history would have been better than the one we know: this takes place in a fallen world, and there is nothing to be done about that, unless one sets the goal of not saving the world that exists, but creating the world anew. So God can only act as He does act, carrying out His plan with the people who are there. And along the way He prepares His people for the tasks that await them ahead.