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Know that Yahweh your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commands. But He directly pays back and destroys those who hate Him. He will not hesitate to directly pay back the one who hates Him. So keep the command--the statutes and ordinances--that I am giving you to follow today. "If you listen to and are careful to keep these ordinances, the LORD your God will keep His covenant loyalty with you, as He swore to your fathers. - Deuteronomy 7:9-12 HCSB

God is extremely loyal. His loyalty crosses generational lines.[1] In fact, God considers our personal loyalty to Him the supreme religious act.[2] Hashem rebukes humans, not for their lack of religiosity, but when they fail to fully realize and lean on a mutually loyal relationship; to fulfill their vows; to depend on God’s protection; to honor Him. Instead we lie, malign and slander – all acts we instinctively identify as disloyal.[3]

We must choose. We cannot be loyal to two masters. We cannot waver between two loyalties.[4]Split loyalty is no loyalty at all. Those who try to worship at the feet of materialism and throw God a weekly bone will end up serving their Baal whole-heartedly. Those who place their families above Him will not only fail to serve Hashem but will, in the end, lose their families too.[5] Those whose primary loyalty is towards Yahweh will discover that all those things that are precious to them become precious to Him as well.[6]

God actively opposes those who are disloyal to Him.[7]Sheba led the people of Israel into an act of disloyalty. However, all the people of Judah remained loyal to their king.[9]Israel was later divorced by the Lord God and only Judah remained.[10] It is interesting that King Saul, in his disloyalty towards Hashem, disobeyed His commands and as a result, lost a kingdom.[8] A Benjamite named

God loves and protects those who are loyal to Him.[11]Joshua and Caleb were both loyal to God and were rewarded with land and power.[13] David counted on God’s reward of loyalty to establish his throne.[12]

Solomon, the wisest man ever and who learned loyalty on his father David’s knee, understood the value of loyalty. He taught, “Never let loyalty and faithfulness leave you. Tie them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will find favor and high regard in the sight of God and man.”[14]

As David taught Solomon to maintain familial loyalties and to prosecute the unfaithful, so God wants parents to teach their children to be loyal to Him.[15]kingdom of God."[17] Loving loyalty is so essential that it underpins every law of God.[16] In fact, it was not until a scribe paraphrased Hosea 6:6 as the summary of the law that Jesus responded, "You are not far from the

[1] Deuteronomy 7:12; 2 Samuel 22:51; Psalm 18:50; Micah 7:20

[2] Hosea 6:6; Mark 12:28-33

[3] Psalm 50:8,14-15,19-20

[4] Joshua 24:14-15; Zephaniah 1:4-6; Matthew 6:24

[5] Matthew 10:32-39; Luke 14:26

[6] 2 Chronicles 16:9a; Matthew 6:33

[7] Hosea 6:4-6; Zephaniah 1:4-6

[8] 1 Samuel 13:13-14

[9] 2 Samuel 20:1-2

[10] Isaiah 50:1; Jeremiah 3:8

[11] Psalm 31:23; Proverbs 2:7-8

[12] 1 Samuel 26:23-24; 2 Chronicles 6:42

[13] Joshua 14:8-9,14

[14] Proverbs 3:3-4; 19:22

[15] Psalm 78:5-8

[16] Mark 12:28-33

[17] Mark 12:34

"The Way" from Kevin Pauley

A World of One