Reading
SAA Notes
Times of prosperity are times for serving the Lord joyfully and gladly. (v.47) When you read verses 58-63, remember that the public hygiene regulations of Leviticus preserves life today wherever their principles are practiced. The Base Hospital signs asking visitors to wash their hands under running water before and after visiting a ward have a real public health purpose that we disregard because of ignorance. We don’t think it matters!
SJA Notes
* God of justice and mercy, arise O Lord, lift up Your hand, forget not the afflicted!
“And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other,”
A bitter truth of Israel’s history is that the curses _did_ fall upon them. They were broken, destroyed, made the fail, besieged and taken into slavery. All the terrible outcomes, the curses, came upon Israel.
In Psalm 44 we read,
“You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations.”
This words comes to us, and we need to wrestle and struggle with it.
A faithful believer, one of God’s people in truth, cries out to God,
“Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do you reject us forever!”
The reality of our sin is such that we are at fault. We are broken without remedy from any human fix, solution, patch, update.
We can find it hard to know how to cry out to God, as the psalmist does,
“Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way;”
How can this be said truthfully from the lips of a believer?
Because of Jesus.
We come back to Jesus. He is the key.
In Christ we are able to find rescue and comfort, we are able to wrestle with death and despair, turmoil and hardship – as they impact us in our lives.
In Christ we are able to walk in obedience, as was such for those like the believer who was carried along by the Holy Spirit in writing Psalm 44.
These words are hard, and perhaps we will never understand them to a level of satisfaction that we desire.
What do we do when we come to a passage in God’s word that we do not understand?
I trust that God is wiser than I, and that He will show me everything that He has for me to know.
In Colossians 3 we are comforted, as we wrestle through these things,
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,”
* Dear God,
Thank You, praise You!
That You have made an everlasting covenant with us in Jesus – One that is founded not on our ability to obey, not on the measure of our obedience or disobedience, but on Jesus, His righteousness! His perfect life!
Hallelujah!
Amen.