May the mumbling commence!
Admit it: sometimes we wander away from God. And sometimes God must use extreme measures to get our attention. Sometimes God has to show a longsuffering patience. I wonder how God puts up with us. I wonder how God puts up with me. But the Lord does.
Though we are unfaithful, God is ever faithful. Read from Leviticus chapter twenty-six:
"And for those of you who survive, I will demoralize you in the land of your enemies far away. You will live there in such constant fear that the sound of a leaf driven by the wind will send you fleeing. You will run as though chased by a warrior with a sword, and you will fall even when no one is pursuing you. Yes, though no one is chasing you, you will stumble over each other in flight, as though fleeing in battle. You will have no power to stand before your enemies. You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies. Those still left alive will rot away in enemy lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.
But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me. Finally, when I have given full expression to my hostility and have brought them to the land of their enemies, then at last their disobedient hearts will be humbled, and they will pay for their sins. Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, with Isaac, and with Abraham, and I will remember the land. And the land will enjoy its years of Sabbath rest as it lies deserted. At last the people will receive the due punishment for their sins, for they rejected my regulations and despised my laws.
But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out. I, the Lord, am their God. I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of Egypt while all the nations watched. I, the Lord, am their God." (Verses 36-45)
Though we wander and wander, as soon as we return to the Lord – confessing our sins and embracing what the Lord wants us to do – God is there. God was there all the time – waiting for us to turn, to repent. God will allow us to suffer the consequences of our actions with the hope that the consequences will turn us back.
And God cannot renege on his covenant with us. It is the same process working in the last days that Jesus talks about in Mark chapter thirteen:
"The time will come when you will see the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing where it should not be" – reader, pay attention! "Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. A person outside the house must not go back into the house to pack. A person in the field must not return even to get a coat. How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for mothers nursing their babies in those days. And pray that your flight will not be in winter. For those will be days of greater horror than at any time since God created the world. And it will never happen again. In fact, unless the Lord shortens that time of calamity, the entire human race will be destroyed. But for the sake of his chosen ones he has shortened those days.” (Verses 14-20)
Shorten the days of our wandering. Help us to recognize your call to us to come back. May we never delay.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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