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And the children of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray.” 16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.
Thought for the day: Well, my little girl, Siara, started school yesterday. She reports that she had a great time, thank the Lord. We went to an open house on Monday so we could all meet her teachers and she could get an idea of how the class would work. It was a great time until I realized that most of the other parents in the room were just about the right age to be my grandchildren. Now that took some wind out of our sails, I can tell you. So, what has this to do with our scripture for the day? Absolutely nothing; I just thought you might be interested.
If you get a chance, go back and read the verses just prior to the ones we’ve copied for today. Israel, as was her habit, had abandoned the God who had brought her up from Egypt, out of bondage. Following this particular time, they came back to the Lord, seeking relief from their troubles, just as they had so many times before (and would many more times in the future). God, contrary to their expectations, reminded them of his great act of deliverance against the Egyptians, and then said, “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you.” What a shock that must have been! What happened to the God of mercy they’d come to expect? Where was the God who forgives all our transgressions? Why did He abandon His people at just the time they needed him most?
And isn’t the attitude of the Israelites eerily like our own? We tend to cry out to Him when we’re in trouble and ignore Him the rest of the time. We have no problem expressing our humility and repentance when we are in dire need but, when the Lord has provided for us and all around our world is at peace, our tendency has always been to move from reliance upon Him to reliance upon ourselves.
Now look at what happened when the children of Israel were rebuffed by the Lord God, the Sovereign they thought they could rely on to get them out of the mess they’d created. “Wait! Wait! That’s not how this thing is supposed to work. Lord, don’t you remember; we drift away from you, You let us get into trouble, and then, when we cry out in helplessness, You step in at the last minute and rescue us from our enemies. Don’t you remember all those other times when we’ve done exactly the same thing?”
Stand by; here comes the lesson. “They put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord.” Real repentance is always accompanied by a change in attitude and action, not so that we can get the Lord to do something He is reluctant to do but as an outward manifestation of a change that has taken place on the inside. Real repentance always moves the God of heaven and earth to provide for our every need. This is what Paul was speaking of when he said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” And to the Corinthians he said, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! (2 Corinthians 7:10-11).
When things are hard, we love to share 2 Chronicles 7:14 – “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” We tend to forget, however, the requirement that we repent and turn from our wicked ways.
Now go take on your world. - Bill