Allah Isn't Generous

“I am Jehovah your God...” (Exodus 20:2)

In the Islamic religion, Muslims believe that their god Allah owns everything, to him belongs all power and authority. But Allah is not a generous god. He does not give. Jehovah, however, is a generous God. He is generous with His gifts, and He is generous with Himself. He freely gives Himself to His people, “I am YOUR God.” And everything Jehovah says on Mount Sinai comes out of that self-giving.

Unlike Allah who imposes commandments as an extension of His domination and raw cold power, when Jehovah gives His Law, He is giving Himself. He gives out of love. And that’s why Paul said that love fulfills the law, because love looks through the law to the law-giver. Jehovah is the God who shows love in covenant, which means He makes binding promises to sinners to be their God before they’ve ever done a thing. He hasn’t even given the law yet and He’s identified Himself as Israel’s God.

Before the Law was given, before any obedience was rendered, independent of Israel’s merits, He covenantally bound Himself to this little nation of ex-slaves.

Deuteronomy 7:7–8, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that Jehovah set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because Jehovah loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that Jehovah has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

Jehovah saves, but not because the people themselves are worth saving, He has saved you because He loves you and is keeping the covenantal oath He made to Abraham. God signed His name thousands of years ago, and you are the heir of those covenantal promises.

The kingdom of darkness will always pretend to be a kingdom of light, it will always try to mimic God, both in His power and in His benevolence. This is why Muslims claim that Allah is merciful, yet their religion is devoid of mercy. Remember that Pharaoh justified the murder of Israelite babies as a way to protect Egyptian interests, much like how child murder today is called “health care”. And when governments or false religions try to mimic God, laws multiply like beetles.

In order to mimic omnipotence and omnipresence, the state must swell to a massive size, and encode its sovereign will in its legal system. But because sin and idolatry are the driving force, the legal system will end up hopelessly complex and convoluted. For example, in America, there are at least four thousand federal laws, and tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, regulations and codes. Nobody is able to actually keep track of how many laws there are because it’s so complicated.

Compare that to God’s Law at Sinai. There are 10 commandments. And those 10 can be summarized in two. Love Jehovah your God with all of your mind, all of your heart, and all of your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Man’s law enslaves us to hundreds of thousands of regulations, but God brings us out of the land of Egypt, and out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son.

And His commandments are not burdensome, they are our soul’s delight.

Galatians 5:13–14, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”