Deuteronomy 31:8
On the divine promise
A kind former colleague, reflecting on my year, offered Deuteronomy 31:8:
And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. (KJV)
This is difficult to absorb. I’m not writing from experience of personal consolation; I wish this were one of those inspirational notes, but it isn’t. I have more often wondered why God should tempt His followers to despair. The folk proverb ‘God never sends more than you can handle’ seems flat wrong; or, if it isn’t, the suicide is to be greeted by God with the words sorry, you could have handled it if only you had more faith in me! Hell is that way, mind the step…
On occasion, I have pictured God as a sort-of Wall St speculator after a crash: yes, I got you into this mess but I’m the only one who knows how to get you out. The rules are His; there is no higher Court of Appeal (which would only kick the question further down the line, anyway).
To be fair, the Bible makes no promise that life will be sunshine and roses for those who do God’s will. Quite the opposite, in fact. This always struck me as negative evidence for the God of the Bible, given that any religion seeking to make quick recruits would have a much better message. If anything, the Good News is a Lack-of-Prosperity Gospel.
Of course, it is equally the case that no God means no ultimate deliverance from the despair. In his book Unapologetic, Francis Spufford gives divine consolation as a reason for belief to those who are oppressed, suffering, outcast: you may be of no concern to life, but you are of inexpressible concern to God.
The position of the innocent is one thing and perhaps for another time, but one happy consequence - felix culpa! - of failing, i.e. to bring suffering upon oneself, is to be brought up against the promise of Deuteronomy 31:8. God will not pluck you from your misery, but He will undergird your misery. In recent translations, ‘dismayed’ is rendered as ‘discouraged’; to put it another way, fear not and be en-couraged. Whatever you may have done, take heart: you will not - cannot - be abandoned.
For non-believers, I suspect this is a promise of jam tomorrow. For lukewarm believers like me, those who do not feel the assurance of this verse’s application, it at least provides a source of hope. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce, keep faith and what had seemed to be Hell will turn out to have been Purgatory.