(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)
“Moab has been at ease from his youth,
and he has settled on his dregs,
and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
neither has he gone into captivity;
therefore his taste remains in him,
and his scent is not changed.
Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh,
“that I will send to him those who pour off,
and they will pour him off;
and they will empty his vessels,
and break their containers in pieces.
Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh,
as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.”
(Jeremiah 48:11-13)
“I lift up my eyes to you,
you who sit in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to Yahweh, our God,
until he has mercy on us.
Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us,
for we have endured much contempt.
Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease,
with the contempt of the proud.”
(Psalm 123)
If God was willing to judge His people because of unrighteousness, He was willing to judge the nations around them. He wasn’t picking favourites. God is a just God. Judgment is waiting for unrighteousness. Period. He was dealing with His children first, not because they were the worst, but because He wanted to correct them. He didn’t want to destroy them. He was offering them mercy. But they didn’t take it. The majority of them rebelled to the last. So He judged them. And then He turned to the other nations and judged them. They trusted in their idols to save them, but that trust was misplaced. They would not escape. They had the example of God’s children to follow. God was not ignoring the nations around them. They had been warned – like Jonah when he went to Nineveh (Jonah 3). It was up to them what to do. Sadly, the vast majority kept from the Lord and leaned into their own strength and their own idols to the last.
God is a merciful God. We should be running to Him when there is trouble. When we step wrong. We should throw ourselves on His mercy. Not to get away with something, but because we realise how wrong we were. Because we realise we need to get right with Him. Because we know that He will give us what we need so that we can choose Him, change our thinking, change our behaviour, and avoid that mistake in the future. God isn’t going to smite us. He will correct us. He will help us. He will walk with us through the fallout of our decisions. But He will not abandon us. He will empower us through our repentance. He will be our strength. He will be our guide and teacher. He will be our correcter. Because He is our Father, our God, and our Lord.
Summary
We are human beings. We will miss it. Guaranteed in some way at some time. This doesn’t have to be the end of the world. It doesn’t even need to be the end of our day. God is merciful and He WILL show mercy to us. We need to be honest. We need not to give excuses. We need to accept responsibility, admit our wrongdoings and mistakes, and listen to Him about what we should have done, what we should do, and how to walk out the path forward. This is repentance. This is taking His mercy and applying it to our lives. In big ways and small ways. This is the journey of salvation. Repent of where you step wrong. Repent and get right with Him. He is MERCIFUL. He is GOOD. He is our FATHER. Lean into His mercy and follow His leading. Do it every time. Never stop aligning yourself with Him. Humbly submit to what you find in the Word. Every time.
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