“Please, Adonai, great and fearsome God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe his mitzvot! 5 We have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled and turned away from your mitzvot and rulings. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our leaders, our ancestors and to all the people of the land.
7 “To you, Adonai, belongs righteousness; but to us today belongs shame — to us, the men of Y’hudah, the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and all Isra’el, including those nearby and those far away, throughout all the countries where you have driven them; because they broke faith with you. 8 Yes, Adonai, shame falls on us, our kings, our leaders and our ancestors; because we sinned against you. 9 It is for Adonai our God to show compassion and forgiveness, because we rebelled against him. 10 We didn’t listen to the voice of Adonai our God, so that we could live by his laws, which he presented to us through his servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Isra’el flouted your Torah and turned away, unwilling to listen to your voice. Therefore the curse and oath written in the Torah of Moshe the servant of God was poured out on us, because we sinned against him. 12 He carried out the threats he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us disaster so great that under all of heaven, nothing has been done like what has been done to Yerushalayim. 13 As written in the Torah of Moshe, this whole disaster came upon us. Yet we did not appease Adonai our God by renouncing our wrongdoing and discerning your truth. 14 So Adonai watched for the right moment to bring this disaster upon us, for Adonai our God was just in everything he did, yet we didn’t listen when he spoke.
RG AUDIO 050715
"Mercy Through Repentance" by Author: Maureen McClain
In Numbers 16, we read the story of Korah’s rebellion. Moses said this rebellion was against God, and offered Korah opportunities to repent. When Korah refused, the ground opened and he and his followers were swallowed alive, followed by fire that consumed 250 more men. How can we read a story like this and say that God is merciful and forgiving? But He is!
He gave Korah the opportunity to repent, which Korah refused. We are told in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins.” However, first we have to confess (implying repentance). Without that confession, He cannot forgive us.
Rebellion is the act of resisting authority. The Israelites repeatedly rebelled against God, refusing to obey Him. Korah challenged Moses’ authority from God.
God is merciful and will forgive us our disobedience, when we repent.
Hymn for Today: "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" by Text: Robert Robinson, 1735-1790
1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.
2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
3. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment