As a matter of fact, you are the smallest

One challenge to faithful living is the statistics of it all. Compared to the sheer numbers of people out there who do not have faith in Christ, how can the faith that is in me be accurate? How can it be dependable? Is my Christianity, after all, just a bunch of good stories to make me feel better in an existence that is really nothing more than random atoms bumping against each other?

This morning I read what God said to the people of Israel: “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you – for you were the fewest of all peoples.”

That made my heart leap. God cannot be understood by majority rule. In fact he seems to take pleasure in chances, as it were, that are stacked against him.

I hear John Wesley’s well-known words in a new light this morning:

“And can it be that I should gain / An interest in the savior’s blood … / Amazing love! How can it be / That thou, my God, shouldst die for me!”

Then back to what God said: “… for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you …”

Indeed, how can it be? In terms of pure chance, it is the biggest shot in the dark: that God, the Creator of the Universe, the maker of the snow-covered fields and trees I see out my window as I write this … this God loves me precisely because I am, in fact, among the very few. How can it be?

But if it can’t be, I am indeed of all men most to be pitied.

Logos2Go

Deuteronomy 7.7-8a It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you – for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you…

And Can It Be (John Wesley): And can it be that I should gain / An interest in the Savior’s blood? / Died he for me who caused his pain / For me, who him to death pursued? / Amazing love! How can it be / That thou, my God, shouldst die for me? / Amazing love! How can it be / That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

1 Corinthians 15.19 If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.