All this has come upon us; but we have not forgotten You, nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way; but You have severely broken us in the place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a foreign god, would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Psalm 44: 17-22, NKJV.
Our LORD and our God, we need You in our lives to open our eyes, that we might see ourselves as we really are, undeserving of the least of Your favor. So please lead us into all truth as we study today. We pray in the blessed name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Yesterday we observed how our attitude actually prepares the terrain for us to become victors or victims. Today we will see some other by-products of a complaining spirit. In today’s Scripture God’s people do not only see themselves as victims, but also as martyrs! From studying the history of the Israelites, two things are obvious 1) Their stiff-neckedness was usually the cause of their suffering. 2) In spite of their sinfulness, whenever they repented, God was always willing to forgive them and take them back. We will look at these two issues separately.
1) Israel’s stiff-neckedness was usually the cause of their suffering. “And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the Baals” (1 Kings 18: 18). This is a page taken from the history of the Israelites when Ahab and Jezebel were ruling in Israel. That, in a nutshell is the history of Israel. Forsaking YHWH and serving other gods was the story of their lives. Yet our Scripture for today states, “All this has come upon us; but we have not forgotten You, nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.”
Sin definitely makes us blind! They had the boldness to say that even though God had dealt so severely with them (all the things that they accused Him of in yesterday’s devotional), they had not “forgotten [Him], nor . . . dealt falsely with [His] covenant.” If that is not the very essence of presumption, then I have never seen presumption in action! Sin blinds us to the part we play in bringing calamities upon ourselves. Someone lives a life of promiscuity, and contracts a life-threatening illness, and asks the question: How could this happen to me? Why has God allowed this to happen?
In the story of Ahab, this evil king had the nerve to accuse the prophet Elijah of being the cause of the drought that was upon the land, “Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel” (1 Kings 18: 17)? History will repeat itself. As we look around us and see all the calamities that have befallen the land, we realize that humanity’s greed, selfishness, and injustice, have caused the whole of nature to be reeling out of control. Yet the time will come, when those who have brought these calamities upon the earth, will accuse others of being at fault. Yes indeed, sin makes us blind to our faults!
2) In spite of their sinfulness, whenever they repented, God was always willing to forgive them and take them back. I say thank God, for being the God that He is! Because like Israel of old, I stand in need of that “mercy” which “endures forever!” A few weeks ago we studied about God’s everlasting covenant, and we saw that it was He who kept His part of the covenant, in spite of Israel’s rebellion and disobedience.
They were right in saying that God “knows the secrets of the heart.” Yet in spite of what He knew about them He loved them just the same! That is where His grace comes in. Even though He knew that when they said, “Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way,” they were doing just the opposite, He loved them, and forgave them, anyway. Israel of old did not deserve to be forgiven again and again, and neither do we; but because of who God is, He provided grace! Hallelujah! “. . . But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5: 20b). We are just as rebellious as was Israel of old; because, unfortunate as that is – it is the story of humanity. Thank God our sins cannot out-do His grace.
But the other side of the story is, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.” (Psalm 103: 8, 9). Because He knows the secrets of our heart – Today, He is striving with us in an effort to get us to turn from our evil ways and live. Today, He is holding back the winds of strife so that we might have an opportunity to respond to His grace. Tomorrow, He will say of those, who resist His grace, “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still;” [and to those who have responded to His grace He will say,] he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”
What secrets will your heart reveal? Today is the day to decide!