Lev 26:45, 'But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.'" 
	In this morning’s reading we have the encouragement of God to His people in detailing the blessings that would fully be theirs if they honored and obeyed God. He also detailed, with very specific particulars what would be the result of their disobedience in their breaking of His covenant. The Lord never hid the truth, but made it very clear and precise for His people as a means of showing them exactly what would happen as their hearts chose to seek after the ways of this world rather than the ways of the Lord.
	One of the key aspects of this precision from God is that truth that we, as humanity, are so prone to forget God in our times of prosperity. When everything is flowing forward without issues, when we are prosperous, when the troubles and the problems are at bay, we tend to congratulate ourselves and exalt our efforts and our hard work and our superior intellectual processes as the means of why we are on top of the world, so to speak. Then, when everything falls apart and crashes around us, we turn again to God, first blaming Him for what has happened and then crying out for Him to save us. This pattern plays out time and time again in us, and this is one of the reasons that God was so specific with this outline of what was ahead for His people in their apostasy. 
	His people could never come back to Him and state that they had no clue as to what they were getting themselves into. He made it very clear and concise, from the very beginning of their walk with Him how everything would function and develop and turn out, both positively and negatively with regard to how they chose to conduct themselves before their God. 
	What is so wonderful is the fact that despite the insincerity and the faithlessness and the adulterousness of His Chosen People, God maintained His commitment, His covenant with His nation. He is the One who constantly remembered and reminded the people of His love for them with His continual care and keeping of them. Even when they were in the direst of situations, He was their God and He was ruling and overruling according to the promise that He made all those so many centuries earlier in Gen 12:1-3, as we should remind ourselves. 
	Gen 12:1-3, Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
	Then in Gen 17:5-8, the Lord reinforced this covenant as He changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Gen 17:5-8, "No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. "And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." 
    	It was always God Who kept this covenant promise before the manner of His working power, even when it seemed that the Children of Israel had been abandoned to the slavery of Egypt. It was there, as announced in Ex 2:23-25, that God planned to show them just how much they meant to Him. He remembered His promise as He is surely faithful. 
Ex 2:23-25, Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them. 
	After the Lord delivered His people from their slavery to Egypt, He cared for them and led them in the wilderness and reaffirmed His covenant with them through Moses, as recounted in Ex 19:3-6. Ex 19:3-6, And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel." 
      God continuously reminded His people of the fact that He was the One Who had released them from their slavery to Egypt. He was the One Who chose them and made them His people. He was the One Who blessed them and protected them and went before them into battle. He was the One Who had made the covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and had done everything to maintain that covenant. He was the One who remembered that covenant and worked to fulfill all that it required, even when they were unfaithful and forgot to Whom they belonged. 'But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.
	No matter how they acted, God would work to bring them back to Himself because He knew the course that had to be followed in order to bring forth His salvation, not just to the nation of His choosing, but to all humanity who would be so blessed through His work in their midst. As contained in the warning given by Moses in Deut 4:25-31, God reassured His people that, even when they turned away from Him and forsook Him and suffered the consequences of that vile and adulterous behavior, He would not forget His covenant with them. 
Deut 4:25-31, "When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you shall surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but shall be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where the Lord shall drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them. 
  	God knew exactly how His people would act and that they would turn away from His goodness and His grace and His provision and seek to make their own way in this realm. They would choose to be just like the other nations surrounding them. 
It is the same way that we each try to deal with the issues of life through our own means and methods. We turn our backs on God with faithlessness and avarice until we are brought face to face with who we are in our vile humanity. It is as God works to bring us into a living relationship with Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit in us, that we turn back to Him with all our hearts and minds and beings. It is all by the working love and ministry and effort of God Himself, that we are brought through the worst of this age, our own selves, and made partakers of His Divine life. 
	The Prophet Ezekiel had much to say concerning the way that God would faithfully deal with His people, with even such as us. Please turn, first of all, to Ezek 16:60-63, where we can rejoice together in the expressed truthfulness and compassion of God’s Word to His people, including you and me today. 
Ezek 16:60-63, "Nevertheless, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. "Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. "Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, in order that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done," the Lord God declares. 
	The Lord, through the prophet, promised not only that God would maintain the covenant, but that He would make His people also remember it. It would be done in a manner in which His forgiveness would bring about humility and repentance in His people. They would be ashamed of the way that they treated God and would know their humiliation was of their own doing. They would also recognize that despite their adulterous behavior, God had forgiven and brought forth His magnificent honor and glory. This is all ours in Jesus Christ as the means of that perfect forgiveness and redemption.
	Now please turn to Ezek 20:8-22, as we will read this lengthy passage detailing exactly how the testimony of the Lord was foremost in the heart of God for the sake of His name in the midst of all the nations of the earth. It was not just Israel for whom He would work. This is a foreshadowing of the truth that God had far more in mind than just the salvation of one nation of people. His heart was after all humanity and would not allow that one nation to ruin His plan to bring forth the redemption of those in every tribe and people. 
	Ezek 20:8-22, "But they rebelled against Me and were not willing to listen to Me; they did not cast away the detestable things of their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. "But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made Myself known to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. "So I took them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. "And I gave them My statutes and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live. "And also I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. "But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes, and they rejected My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; and My sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them. "But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, before whose sight I had brought them out. "And also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, because they rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they did not walk in them; they even profaned My sabbaths, for their heart continually went after their idols. "Yet My eye spared them rather than destroying them, and I did not cause their annihilation in the wilderness. "And I said to their children in the wilderness, 'Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, or keep their ordinances, or defile yourselves with their idols. 'I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances, and observe them. 'And sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.' "But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, nor were they careful to observe My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; they profaned My sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness. "But I withdrew My hand and acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. 
    	Throughout all His dealings with this stubborn and prideful people, God was the One who honored His Name’s sake in their midst. In Deut 9:5+6, Moses directly told them this before they entered the Promised Land. 
Deut 9:5+6, It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people. 
	Everything was centered in the work that God was doing. This Chosen nation, as we will consider next week, was the example of exactly why humanity could never save himself. Man needed a Redeemer as evidenced in the wickedness of a people that was so blessed in every measure by the Lord God Almighty, and yet could not honor Him with obedience and fidelity. It was always God Who had to remind them of His covenant promise to them. So be it! 
'But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.'" 

This morning’s benediction is Deut 32:3+4. "For I proclaim the name of the Lord; Ascribe greatness to our God! "The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He. Amen.