Friday, January 5: - 1Chronicles 5- .

The writer continues telling the story of Israel through the lineage of the 12 tribes. And today we read, regarding some of the tribes that they were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors and prostituted themselves to the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria), who took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile.… (25-26).

As Israel remembers her history, she remembers the bad as well as the good.

The Old Testament, which traces the story of God’s people Israel through millennia, doesn’t shy away from telling the seedy and sorted parts of their history. They remember the things that they as a people did wrong as well as what they did right.

It is shocking at times to read the Old Testament because of the stories of Israel’s failures. How can these people be God’s people? But they were.

Israel falls often and the Lord, who is patient and kind, would send a prophet or someone in an attempt bring them back to the truth. And when judgment was required God sent the hard judgment as He did by sending Tiglath-Pileser.

This is a reminder to me that so day, on a day of God choosing, He will again judge. But the coming judgment will not only be for His people, it will be for all people.

Unrepented sin will be judged.

I don’t like to think about this or face the fact that sin has consequences. I don’t think anyone does. We want to skate by and slip in. And many, if not most of us, think the ‘other guy’ is worse than we are so when life is graded on a curve we will be ‘ok’.

But, sadly, that is not the story of the Bible. Scripture reminds us over and over again that sin carries a penalty that we will all have to pay.

Unfortunately, we cannot pay our penalty… it is too costly. Thankfully Jesus paid the penalty for everyone who puts their trust and faith in Him. 

So even as I consider the weight of my sin, I can also rejoice in the forgiveness and salvation faith in Jesus has brought to me.

Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus, for Your gift of mercy and salvation. Thank You for opening my eyes to Your truth and for giving me the faith to believe… I praise You, Lord. What else could I do for the one who loves and saves me?

In Your name Jesus, I pray. Amen.