Deuteronomy 28:68

And the LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

As a Once Saved Always Saved (OSAS) believer, for most of my life of faith, I would appeal to the teaching that if God promised eternal life, and if it turned out to not be eternal, then God is a LIAR! Therefore OSAS must be true, and don’t even consider any other teaching – it will only confuse you.

That is so logical, it kept me at bay for decades.

This passage somewhat addresses this approach of locking in a promise, without the possibility of provided.

Note that God “.. promised that you should never make again” a trip back to Egypt in ships, even as He speaks of bringing the people of Israel back to Egypt.

What type of double speak is going on here? Might it be that due to continual and obstinate sin against the Lord, other factors need to be considered?

Although I started this post trying to explain in heavenly thoughts, it is a situation that may have a parrallel experience my wife and I are going through even this week.

Story time

My wife and I are building an addition to our home and my wife loves a patio. So we hired a contractor a friend sugessted to put a steel roof on the patio. We came up with a scope of work for him to complete, and negotiated an agreed upon price, and let him know we are looking for completion in the next couple weeks.

That was eight weeks ago, and after multiple excuses, (family troubles, brother getting out of jail, too wet out, too hot, sick, doctors appointments, more family troubles), construction errors (he is not that great of a builder it seems), and his faithful avoidance to pick up the phone or communicate, it seems that though I promised him a sum of money, I have the right to refrain from a final payment.

It seems reasonable to consider the option to cut our losses and move on to another contractor. We have provided him funds for materials that have not shown up on site, and by his actions understand that he is not serious about fulfilling his promise to complete my wife’s roof.

Yes, I promised him a certain amount, but in that promise, there were certain conditions. Build my wife a roof for her patio.

So my question, or at least my resolution to our passage’s assumed double speak when it comes to the promise of God is to check if there are conditions both parties are required to keep.

For the people of Israel, it is obvious in Deuteronomy that if they did not keep the covenant they entered into at Sinai, judgement would fall, and they would “be sent back to Egypt”.

But consider the patience and loving mercy of the Lord, in that at the very moment when the law was given, the new nation immediately broke it, and though at times Israel made a valiant effort to keep the law, it was, at the best of times tainted with sin and set up for failure. After all, we but dust, prone to wander and willing to depart.

Yet the Lord is patient and shows each of us tremendous mercy. But the option to cut His losses seems to be a right He has.

I think I’m going try to work with this contractor a bit more!

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