The Sixtieth Day

Today is the 60th day that I've emailed my sweet girls, the 60th day only by the grace of God, for I never would have hung in there this long without His aid. So many days, when I've come home from a long day of clinicals or class and drop onto the couch, practically asleep--He has helped me pull out my laptop, open His word, and listen to His voice. And He's given me something to tell the girls every day for sixty days.

Tonight, a passage from 1 Samuel chapter 7 is on my heart. Here is what the prophet Samuel says to the children of Israel:

 “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.

It sounds so wonderful, as if the Israelites were quick to repent and remain ever faithful to their God, but we know the rest of the story--not only how Israel rebelled time and time again in future years, but also how in this same stretch of Scripture it is recorded that these same people who "served the LORD only," just a few verses later they change their minds and demand a king so they can look like their pagan neighbors. When Samuel is grieved and consults God, what does the LORD say to him? "It is not you they have rejected, but Me."

It is not you they have rejected, but Me. Doesn't that make your heart grieve too?

Oh, but we are so quick to judge: Those Israelites, what wicked people. How foolish! How could they be so dumb as to stray from God again?! They must have been pretty dense. I would never have done that . . . said the one with a plank in her own eye.

Understand this, sweet loves: but for the grace of God, there go I--and you. We are all rebels at heart, lusting after worldliness just like those Israelites who lived so long ago. Of course, you and I don't want an earthly king (absurd), and we don't have Baals or Ashtaroths or other household idols decorating our homes (eeek!). But we have secret gods. Hidden idolatrous desires. Attitudes. Affections. Ambitions. And, these are just as offensive, just as sick, just as evil and depraved and grievous to God as the atrocities of ancient idolatry. Do not be deceived. The age of grace is not a license to sin. It has not made God more lenient, it hasn't changed his pure and righteous and timeless judgments. He is unchanged and his holy standard remains the same.

The Israelites locked themselves in a vicious cycle of apostasy, oppression, repentance, and deliverance . . . over and over and over. Learn from them, and renew your reverence, gratitude, and utter delight in following the paths of our God. His ways are peace and life and joy to all who follow them. This salvation, this sanctification, is not earned by us but worked out in fear and trembling and complete, dependent trust in Him to do all he has promised. Keep your heart quiet and pure before him; it is already transparent to his all-seeing eye. Ask. Seek. Knock. To the one who asks, it will be given. The one who seeks shall find. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Good night; sweet dreams and blessed rest to all~
B