THE GOD WHO NEVER DIMINSHES US

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery,” Exodus 20:2

God was about to give His people the Ten Commandments, which were His basic instructions for living the best kind of life. Before He told them how He wanted them to live, there was something important He had to tell them which would help them to understand why He wanted them to live this way.

When they were slaves in Egypt, their slave masters treated them like property. The Egyptians could do what they liked to them because they were slaves. They had no dignity and no rights as human beings. They could steal their belongings, steal their wives and children, and even take their lives if they wanted to. The Israelites were beaten and abused, and they could do nothing about it. This was something God hated. He made us in His image, and He wants us all to treat each other with respect and dignity because that is how He treats us.

Most of the Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language. When God said, “I am the Lord your God,” in the Hebrew it means, “Because I am your God, your authority will increase in the protection of praise and submission.” David put it this way in Psalm 23: 1, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (or be diminished).” When we choose God as our God and love and trust Him and stay loyal and obedient to Him, He promises us that we will always increase.

God is not a thief. The devil is a thief. God loves to bless us and to increase us. Even when we give to God by being generous to people, He always gives back much more than we can ever give to Him.

All the false gods that people worship make demands. They want sacrifices of food and animals. They keep people in bondage to them through fear. They are not givers. They are takers. That helps us to understand that idols are only ways in which the devil can control us and keep us in slavery to him.

God is a giver. He loved the world so much that He gave us His Son. This is what the Apostle Paul said about Him, “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32.

God asks us to give Him our lives and, when we do, He fills us with so much blessing that it overflows to the people around us. Everybody serves a god. Those who choose to serve idols or any other god than the God of the Bible will slowly lose their lives. Those who choose to serve the living God, the God of the Bible, will keep on enjoying God’s blessing because of and in Jesus. The most precious gift is everlasting life with Him.