and the moral of the story.....

I have been reading thru the Old Testament since January on my way to reading thru the Bible this year.  I’ve attempted this many times in the past, but as with most disciplines, like dieting and exercise, I have given up by about Mid-March.  It’s mid April and I’m still going.  I’ll take that as a “surprise”. 

Over the last week or so, I’ve been so convicted and amazed at the patience and complete willingness to forgive that God has for His people.  If I’ve read once, I’ve read a thousand times, “and the people turned away from God and did what was right in their own eyes.”  But God….every time they prayed to him and asked for His help, He gave it.  Every time they said, “I’m sorry.  I promise not to worship other idols again.”  He forgave and granted their request.  He never said, “Nope, too late.  That was the last straw.”  Did He allow consequences to their sin?  Yes.  Did He allow them to go their own way? Yes.  He is not a dictator.   He is a father, who though He loves His children, will not force them to love Him back. 

While reading all of those stories of rebellion and repentance, I thought, how stupid can the Children of Israel be?  Can’t they see that when they worship the one true God, things go better and when they worship idols or allow their people to worship idols things go down hill fast. 

Then I thought about my own life.   How many times has God wooed me back to himself only to find me 2 months later back to worrying over a situation, wondering how we’re going to get thru this one; thinking those “if only “thoughts.  If only we had a better job.  If only we had a better house.  If only my kids were perfect.  If only I had more time.  If only my husband would pay more attention to me.  If only I had more money, more friends, more stuff, more, more.  Aren’t those the same as idols? 

Any time we take our eyes off of God and His provision we are looking at an idol.  Not saying we don’t have to work or provide for our family or even be concerned over a particular situation.  It’s when we let those things consume our every waking moment.  Many times it’s late in the game before we look up and say, “Oh yeah.  I have a heavenly Father, who already knows this outcome.  He already has a plan for me.”  Sometimes, because we wait so late to come to that realization, we have suffered many consequences that could have been avoided.   Just like the children of Israel. 

I’m learning that God’s word is not just a storybook.  It is a lesson book for us….TODAY.  Sometimes we can hear or read those Old Testament stories so much that they just seem like something from Grimm’s Fairy Tales with a moral at the end.  These are not fairy tales and it’s more than a moral at the end.  The point of these lessons is that God is still God and people are still free to love Him or not.  But we have the truth in writing in every one of our homes to remind us of the limitless power of our Father.