Our reading today illustrates that when we think we have God’s motives figured out we don’t. Israel thought that because they knew they were going to conquer the Promised Land, it was a reward for their righteousness. God corrects this and states that conquering the land was in spite of their wickedness. They would conquer because God was using them to achieve a greater end, namely, to fulfill the promise to Abraham.

Israel needed to learn the lesson we still need to learn: that the righteous aren’t always rewarded on earth today, neither are the wicked always punished today. God has higher motives for His works among men than we can understand. We accept the works of God by faith, knowing that God has His own reasons for doing what He does. And these reasons do not always make sense to us.

But we do understand that even in the midst of war and sin, man can hope for salvation from God. And in the midst of world confusion, God’s will will be done. Over and above all else, for the Christian, God’s grace helps us to see that salvation, rather than being earned, is His free gift through Christ.