NOTES for Deu 4:31

The Torah often says that God's covenant with His people remains unbreakable in any case, that God will never leave His people and will not forget the covenant once concluded, which, however, by no means guarantees the people of God against punishment in case of violating the Torah as the condition of this covenant. What is this: special treatment for favorites? Indulgence? And does such an attitude mean that God is ready to close His eyes to the sins of His people merely because they are His people? Surely not. The matter, as is evident, is different.

In what, then? Perhaps in the very essence of the covenant? Indeed, a covenant is not simply a contract, like those business agreements we make among ourselves in our fallen world, where everything is simple: you have concluded a contract, so keep it; if you cannot or do not want to, pay the penalty and you may forget about the contract. You have violated it and are no longer bound by it, and no one owes you anything anymore. For God, the covenant is not a formal contract, but a union presupposing deep and stable relationships. More than that: with this union God has connected an entire plan, presupposing both the coming of the Messiah and the salvation of all humanity, its liberation from the power of that evil into whose captivity the world fell after the fall.

And if one looks more broadly, one can see an even more grandiose plan: the complete transformation of all creation, a qualitative change in the nature of the universe with its own participation, in which the decisive role belongs to humanity. Then everything falls into place. Indeed, if God has connected so large-scale a plan with the covenant, He will of course do everything possible to preserve this covenant at any cost.

Of course, He will take measures to correct His people, and His measures can be very, very severe. But to destroy His people and break the union once concluded would mean the collapse of God's whole plan, and this, of course, God cannot and does not want to allow. Besides, the situation in the fallen world is such that even if God decided to stop carrying out His plan in its present form and begin everything anew, there are no guarantees that His new people would be better than the present one. To change the situation radically, the world would simply have to be recreated anew. But that would already be another story of another world and another humanity.