Category Archives: Bible Insights

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The Consequences of Selective Obedience

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

While God offers mercy for the sin and pardon for the transgressor—thankfully—the fruit of sinful living is often reaped along the way as we live out the rest of our lives, and worse yet, in the lives of the generations that follow us. If King David could speak to us today, I am quite sure that he would say, “do what you must to kill sin in your lives. Believe me, if you don’t, it will inflict untold pain upon you and your children.” Sounds ominous, but sin is a fact with which all of us must contend. The point being, deal with your weaknesses and temptations now—ruthlessly—and commit to 100% obedience to God. You will never regret your harsh treatment of personal sin. And if you have sinned, pray for a crop failure!

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 3:1-3

These are the sons of David who were born in Hebron: The oldest was Amnon, whose mother was Ahinoam from Jezreel. The second was Daniel, whose mother was Abigail from Carmel. The third was Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. The fourth was Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith. The fifth was Shephatiah, whose mother was Abital. The sixth was Ithream, whose mother was Eglah, David’s wife.

First of all, let’s recognize that David was arguably the greatest king Israel ever knew. He was not perfect, yet he had an incredibly tender heart toward the Lord. He sinned—early and often, bigly and with flair—but he always humbled himself before God in repentance after both his private and public missteps. Incredibly flawed, David was, yet God himself declared David to be a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22). God found David’s trust so enchanting that he declared through his lineage would come the greatest king of all, much greater than even David: the Son of David, Jesus the Christ.

Having said that, we also have to acknowledge David’s very public shortcomings. When you are king of a nation, everything about you is public: the good that you do, the power and authority that you wield, and yes, the gaffs, missteps and moral failures that you commit. One of David’s greatest failures was that he married many wives. Perhaps it was simply the custom of ancient Middle Eastern kings to have many wives that David embraced, or maybe there was a part of David that allowed kingly power to go to his head—the power to have whatever he wanted, including multiple wives, or maybe David had a woman-problem, that is, he liked the ladies a little too much.

Whatever the case, he took to himself seven wives while he was king in Hebron. That’s right: seven. Not included in this list was Michal, the daughter of Saul who was given to David, then taken away, only to be taken back again once David became king over all Israel. (It’s a long story, but you can read about it in 2 Samuel 3). In addition to these seven, he then took additional wives when he reigned over the unified kingdom from Jerusalem. But anything more than one wife was a direct violation of Moses’ command to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 17:14-17.

You are about to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take it over and settle there, you may think, “We should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us.” If this happens, be sure to select as king the man the Lord your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner. The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, “You must never return to Egypt.” The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.

“Taking many wives for himself”—it was this very thing that led to untold tragedy in David’s life as it played out over the next fifty years until his death. Yes, he was a man after God’s heart. Yes, his lineage produced some incredible kings, and ultimately the King of kings. But his selective obedience in this area of moral weakness opened the door to adultery, conspiracy to murder, murder, cover-up, rebellion in his family, open warfare with his son, and the death of several of his children as they attempted to usurp his throne.

The thing is, sin has consequences. Of course, God offers mercy for the sin and pardon for the transgressor, but the fruit of sinful living is often reaped along the way as we live out the rest of our lives, and worse yet, in the lives of the generations that follow us. If David could speak to us today, I am quite sure that he would say, “do what you must to kill sin in your lives. Believe me, if you don’t, it will inflict untold pain upon you and your children.”

Sounds ominous, I know, and not too worthy of being devotional material. But it is a fact with which all of us must contend. The point being, deal with your weaknesses and temptations now—ruthlessly—and commit to 100% obedience to God. You will never regret your harsh treatment of personal sin.

And if you have sinned, pray for a crop failure!

Going Deeper With God:Memorize 1 John 1:9 today—and lean into it hard: “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

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Man’s Last Choice Is Often God’s First Choice

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

If it seems like God has no big plans for you, don’t let your station in life fool you. God is no respecter of persons and he is not swayed by your less than desirable circumstances. He will accomplish his purposes—and that includes some very good things for you. Others may see you as the last choice for the team, but God may very well select you as the first choice for his starting lineup. Just be patient—and ready—and watch what God will do over the course of your life.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 2:13-15

Jesse’s first son was Eliab, his second was Abinadab, his third was Shimea, his fourth was Nethanel, his fifth was Raddai, his sixth was Ozem, and his seventh was David.

Welcome back to the genealogies! And just a heads up: we are going to be here for another six chapters. So promise me that you will hang in there and not skip over or read them with your mind in neutral, because I promise you, in between the lines of what seems likes endless lists of names are nuggets of eternal encouragements for you.

So what wonderful spiritual application is in this particular genealogical account of the tribe of Judah here in 1 Chronicles 2? Well, for starters, remember who comes from this tribe: King David, the most famous and loved king in Israel’s history. But even better, from this flawed line (yes, there is quite a bit of drama, and even sin, that produces some of the children born into Judah’s lineage) comes the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Jesus the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world.

Now in those two facts alone is enough encouraging material to keep us full of gratitude to God for days to come. Take David for instance. He was God’s choice to replace King Saul as the new monarch of Israel. Saul started with such promise, but quickly went off the rails by abandoning his singular trust in God to provide for his success. So God rejected Saul and selected David, of whom he later says, “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” (Acts 13:32)

But David was not the people’s first choice to be king. We read in the selected text that he was the seventh son of Jesse, and basically his father’s afterthought for kingly consideration. You remember the story: the prophet Samuel came to Bethlehem under the Lord’s direction to anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be the next king. And from the oldest to the youngest, six brothers were paraded in front of the grizzled old prophet, who one by one, exclaimed, “Nope, not that one! Next.”

In fact, David wasn’t even present for the line up. After all six brothers had been examined, and rejected, Samuel had to ask if there were any other sons. He knew that God had told him to anoint one of Jesse’s sons, but none of the six fit the prophet’s qualifications. That is when—reluctantly, it seems—the family admitted there was one other, but Samuel shouldn’t bother with that one. He was just a no account brother out shepherding the family flocks. Yet when he was finally brought in, the prophet jumped to his feet and shouted, “that is the one!”

What a reminder to you and me that what man discounts as no account is often what God counts as perfect for his plan. It doesn’t matter if you are the seventh choice—seven in scripture has a sense of finality, which in this case implies the last choice—God can make you his first choice. So as it relates to your life, keep your heart pure before God and your hope to play a grand purpose in his plan intact, because God will elevate you if and when he chooses. That is up to him, but just remember, your station in life has nothing to do with God’s willingness to use you.

One other thing about this lineage of Judah: While Jesus was born into it way down the road, don’t forget that it was a flawed heritage full of prostitution, adultery, intrigue and murder. So not only can God use the least likely of man’s choice, he can use people who come from highly disadvantaged and dysfunction backgrounds. And not just squeeze them into his divine lineup, God can makes them superstars on his team. From the flawed seed of Judah came many amazing kings and one Messiah of the world.

All that to say, if it seems like God has no big plans for you, don’t let your station in life fool you. God is no respecter of persons and he is not swayed by negative circumstances. He will accomplish his purposes—and that includes some very good things for you.

Going Deeper With God: If you are frustrated with who you are and where you are in life, take it to Jesus. Put your negative circumstances, your flawed heritage, and your limited personality in his hands, and as you patiently trust and obey him, watch what he will do over the course of your life.

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Divine DNA: I Am A Child Of God

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

You’ve got God’s DNA, which makes you anything but unimportant. Your life is not meaningless and insignificant. You are not without a great purpose in this world. You are connected to an eternal story that is much bigger, far more important than you realize. You have a royal past and a prophetic future, which means you can, and should, live powerfully in the present. Your name is recorded in the most valuable genealogy of all—God’s! Yes, you are Abba’s child. So go out today and live like it!

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 1:1-4

Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. The sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Why should you take the time to read 1 Chronicles 1? Or for that matter, why should you bother with any of the genealogies and lists that appear in several places throughout scripture? After all, there is about as much devotional value in them as you would find in reading from the phone book.

Here is the simple answer—and it is a compelling one: Because it was God who included this chapter, and all the other genealogies, in his book, the Bible. And given that God is wiser than we are, he must have had a great reason for what we are tempted to see as endless, mind-numbing lists of ancient names, most of whom are not familiar to us. God wanted those names recorded in his eternal record book for a reason, and that ought to be good enough for us.

Given that, then how can we read them in a way that offers at least a little bit of inspiration? I will offer three things to keep in mind as you, in an act of faith and worship, slow down to read each name as it appears in your devotional reading—including today’s, which you now may want to go back and re-read the right way.

First, this connects you to the original readers. So put yourself in their sandals. These names represented their ancestors, and each name told a story that made up a chapter in the fabric of the biographical account of their lives. Each chapter revealed who they were, how they got to where they were, what their God-ordained rights and privileges were, and why they were so important to God. Just like you are most likely interested in your family history, in a sense, this chapter is your family history as well, since you, like me, are a literal descendant of Adam and a spiritual descendant of Abraham. This connects you to history.

Second, since that is true, this connects you to something bigger than yourself. Your current existence is a part of a grander historical scheme. You are a part of God’s story—and it is a big one. One of the curses of our age is a sense of meaninglessness and purposelessness. That is why, at least in part, depression, dysfunction, debauchery, and despair are so rampant in our world today. People are not connected to anything bigger than what they self-perceive as their own measly, meaningless life. They have no meaningful past and no purposeful future. But when you take the time to read the genealogies in scripture, you are reminded of a vital connection to an amazing, excited, meaningful drama that is still being played out.

Third, and most importantly, this connects you to God. When you trace the names back to the progenitor of the human race, you connect to Adam. And Adam’s father, we are told in another genealogy, one found in Luke 3, was none other than God himself:

Jesus was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph… the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. (Luke 3:23,38)

The Bible calls Adam the son of God, and you are the son or daughter of Adam. You can trace your line back to the original, which connects you to the Great Original, Almighty God. Yes, that is pretty exciting news. Not only spiritually, but in every dimension of reality, you are connected directly to God. You have the DNA of Almighty God. Do you realize how amazing—and important—that is?

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)

That is what you are—a child of God—which makes you anything but unimportant. Your life is not meaningless and insignificant. You are not without a great purpose in this world. You are connected to a story that is much bigger, far more important, and thoroughly eternal. You have a royal past and a prophetic future, which means you can, and should, live powerfully in the present.

Your name is recorded in the most valuable genealogy of all—God’s! Yes, you are a child of God. So go out today and live like it!

Going Deeper With God:Re-read 1 Chronicles 1 again, and at the end of it, rejoice before God that you are connected to him. What a privileged existence you have!

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Plant Today—Harvest Tomorrow

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

The law of sowing and reaping is an unstoppable law of creation, as certain as the law of gravity. What that means for you is that what you put into the soil of your life will be produced in kind. Today, in the many and various things that you will do, you will be planting seeds—whether you are conscious of it or not. So learn to stop and think about what you later want to harvest, and make sure the seeds match.

Going Deep // Focus: 2 Kings 25:21

So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.

My dad was a great father. He was a hard worker, a good provider, was always there for us—he was dependable. Unlike some fathers today, he was involved in the lives of his children. Whether it was sports, or academics, or music, he encouraged us to be our best and to reach for the stars—and he was there to make sure we did. He was a great Christian man.

We knew he loved us, that was never in doubt. He was kind, compas­sionate and patient. But there was a limit to his patience, and we experienced that from time to time. And on a few occasions (okay, many occasions) I found myself on the business end of my father’s commitment to justice.

As we come to the end of 2 Kings, we find that the infinite patience of God has run out with Israel. After hundreds of years of rebellion, corrupted worship, comprised morality, and flat out rebellion against God’s ownership, Israel has pushed God over the limit. After scores of prophets had warned them and called them to national repentance—to no avail—the nation of Judah will now face the consequences of sin.

Years ago I came across two different sermon titles that aptly describe this sad part of Israel’s history. Charles Swindoll called it, When God Says, ‘That’s Enough.’ Likewise, the well known Baptist preacher, R. G. Lee was spot on in his sermon title “Payday Someday!” Either of those would be apt titles for 2 Kings 25.

The wrath of God is not a pleasant fact, but it is an undeniable reality. There is an end to God’s patience and a time when judgment is not only appropriate, but to withhold it would be for God to impugn his own character, emasculate his grace and empty his love of any real power. Judah had reached that point because of their continued wickedness—so God allowed their city to be destroyed, along with their cherished temple, and the children of God were sent into exile among the godless Babylonians.

There are some pretty sobering reminders in Judah’s story for us. For one, we need to be reminded that absolutely nothing escapes the watchful eye of God. Galatians 6:7 tells us, “Don’t be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” In other words, there will be a payday, someday. And we need to take that very seriously, because God does. He is a holy God who cannot tolerate sin. He won’t tolerate it in sinners, nor in saints. Murder, adultery, lying, cheating—God will deal with those “big” sins. Likewise God will not let us get away with the “little” sins either—anger, gossip, critical spirits, un-forgiveness. We need to be very sensitive in allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us of those things that are displeasing to God—and repent of them quickly.

Another reminder from Judah’s fall is that sin deafens us to God’s loving warnings. Judah didn’t see that the line-up of imprecatory prophets were really their friends, calling them back from the brink of disaster. You see that sometimes in rebellious teenagers rejecting the discipline of their parents or in people leaving their churches because their pastor has confronted them on some tough issues. Proverbs 27:6 reminds us, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are profuse.” The next time you hear a warning from a friend, or a tough message in church, open your ears—and your heart. It is really a message of love.

In reality, do we take God’s demand for holiness all that seriously? He never winks at sins—either big ones or little ones. “You will always harvest what you plant.” (Galatians 6:7) So the next time you have a difficult conversation about this with a friend, or hear a solemn message about sin in church, open your ears—and your heart. It’s really God sending you a message of love.

Finally, Judah’s fall reminds us that God is always rich in mercy, abounding in grace, and he relents from sending calamity. King David, after his fall, said “a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17) Ultimately the Jews humbled themselves and returned to God. God always responds to sincere humility, and we would do well to cultivate it.

The law of sowing and reaping is an unstoppable law of creation, as certain as the law of gravity. What that means for you is that what you put into the soil of your life will be produced in kind. Today, in the many and various things that you will do, you will be planting seeds—whether you are conscious of it or not. So learn to stop and think about what you later want to harvest, and make sure the seeds match.

Going Deeper With God: Take a moment to reflect on James 4:10—then do it: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

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God is Merciful AND Just

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

The biblical idea of God’s judgment is an inconvenient truth in our modern culture, but there is a cumulative corporate sin that God must judge if he is to be God. There is a time coming for judgment of systems, businesses, conglomerates and nations for the sheer wickedness that they have either surreptitiously or blatantly perpetuated: poverty that could have been alleviated, starvation that could have been prevented, the sex trafficking of children, abuse, wars and genocide that could have been stopped. How could the merciful God not call a halt to human evil with the final judgment of which his prophets have warned for millennia? I don’t know how God will bring justice to bear on non-human entities, but he will.

Going Deep // Focus: 2 Kings 24:1-4

During Jehoiakim’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land of Judah. Jehoiakim surrendered and paid him tribute for three years but then rebelled. Then the Lord sent bands of Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Judah to destroy it, just as the Lord had promised through his prophets. These disasters happened to Judah because of the Lord’s command. He had decided to banish Judah from his presence because of the many sins of Manasseh, who had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. The Lord would not forgive this.

God is both merciful and just. He is not one or the other. He is not one without being the other. God is the perfect blend of loving kindness and divine justice. He wouldn’t be God if he weren’t, and when we step back and really think about it, we would not want it any other way. Now personally, when we are under his hand of judgment, we might wish that he were all mercy. And when we are under the cruelty of man, we might wish that God were all justice. But objectively speaking, God by definition must be both/and: perfect justice and perfect mercy.

In this chapter, after a few centuries of Judah’s back-and-forth flirtation with sin—mostly flirtation, if not full on dating—God’s patience has run out. Prophet after prophet has warned the nation by pointing out their sin, calling them to repentance, then giving them reprieve when they renounced their evil and returned to God. But the sin that occurred under Manasseh was beyond forgiveness.

Really? Beyond forgiveness, doesn’t God’s Word say otherwise? Haven’t you heard that no one is beyond God’s reach in previous chapters? Yes I have. In this case, God forgave wicked King Manasseh when he humbled himself in a Babylonian prison and begged the Lord to pardon his many transgressions. God did, and even returned Manasseh back to his throne in Jerusalem to finish out his life making up for some of the evil that had been inflicted during his reign. So yes, God can and will forgive the repentant heart of the most evil.

But there is a cumulative corporate sin that God must judge. The blood of innocent people cries out from the earth for God’s justice; blood that men and women in power have shed, or stood by and allowed to be shed when it was in their power to stop it. There is a time coming for judgment of systems, businesses, conglomerates and nations for the sheer wickedness that they have either surreptitiously or blatantly perpetuated. I don’t know how God will bring justice to bear on non-human entities, but he will.

Such was the case with Judah at this point in their history. There had been a brief reprieve under the repentant Manasseh, but the sons that followed him were thoroughly steeped in evil. And because the cumulative reservoir of sin from the last few generations was now spilling over the dam of God’s mercy, swift and sure judgment came at the hands of the Babylonians. End of story for Judah!

Do you suppose that will happen on a worldwide scale sometime soon? Do you get the feeling that the cumulative evil that has been inflicted on humanity for the past several hundred years, especially in the past century, will be called to account in the presence of Almighty God? When you think of the poverty that could have been alleviated, the starvation that could have been prevented, the sex trafficking of children, abuse, wars and genocide that could have been ended, how could the merciful God not call a halt with the final judgment of which his prophets have warned for millennia?

Yes, he will forgive the truly repentant—so stay in that camp—but the build up of evil he will tolerate only for so long. And we would not want it any other way.

Going Deeper With God: Judgment is coming, and rightly so. But that ought to lead us to pray more than ever, especially for those we know and love who are outside the camp of God’s mercy. For whom is God prompting you to pray? Do it without delay.

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Actions Speak Louder Than Words

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

If we want spiritual awakening in our land, revival in our churches, and renewal in our hearts, our actions must align with our desires. We must ruthlessly eliminate all the things that dishonor God, or even detract in the mildest way, from our full devotion to him. Does that sound a little fanatical to you? Isn’t that going just a bit overboard? Isn’t that calling for spiritual extremism? Yes! Yes! Yes! What else could the Scripture mean by a fully devoted heart? We must become rigorous in our refusal to allow people, places and things to get between us and our radical devotion to God. Perhaps then God will revive us again.

Going Deep // Focus: 2 Kings 23:3, 25

King Josiah took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in the Lord’s presence. He pledged to obey the Lord by keeping all his commands, laws, and decrees with all his heart and soul. In this way, he confirmed all the terms of the covenant that were written in the scroll, and all the people pledged themselves to the covenant…Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since.

King Josiah truly loved the Lord God with all his heart, mind and strength. He offered his full devotion to God and his passionate commitment to God’s Word like no other king of Israel or Judah, except for King David. And not even for a moment, at least that we know about, did he drift from his pure love and obedience from the Lord as David did in the sordid affair with Bathsheba. Josiah reformed the nation of Judah at a time when it had drifted morally and spiritually the farthest it had ever been from God. But under this God-following king’s reign, revival happened!

In Josiah, God finally found that man with a fully committed heart, as we are told in 2 Chronicles 16:9, that he desperately scoured the earth to find,

For the eyes of the LORD search back and forth across the whole earth, looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him, so he can show his great power in helping them.

In modern times, we often speak of the need for revival in our personal lives, renewal in our churches, and spiritual awakening in our desperately drifting nation. We long for it and sometimes we pray for it, though probably not nearly, consistently and urgently enough. We pine for the days when God will light the flames of our waning passion, bring the backslidden home and inexorably draw the godless to his heart. And several times in our nation’s history, there have been significant seasons of spiritual awakening when the sovereign hand of God intersected the repentant hearts of people, and revival happened.

That brings us to the two critical conditions of a spiritual awakening: the sovereign timing of God and the humble, determined, repentant heart of man. For revival and reform to take place, our part must be a desperate determination to align our lives to the will and ways of God. We must come to the point where we are ready to offer actions that back up our cries for revival.

That is what King Josiah did, and that is why God sent a season of refreshing to Judah. No less than thirty times in 2 Kings 23 do we read words that demonstrate the king’s ruthless commitment to purge his kingdom of sin. Thirty times we read of the king smashing pagan altars, destroying idolatrous shrines, removing false priests, burning implements used in godless rituals, tearing down, grinding, executing, scattering, desecrating, defiling and carrying away anything that had to do with the spiritual unfaithfulness and moral filth that had been taking place in Judah over the years.

Josiah didn’t just talk about revival. He didn’t just pray for it. He did something about it. He put his money where his mouth was and he took action. And he became one of the greatest kings in the history of God’s people because his actions spoke louder than his words. He proved the full devotion of his heart by the passionate commitment of his hands to do away with anything and everything that violated the covenant that God established with Israel under Moses.

The point to all of this is obvious: If we want spiritual awakening in our land, revival in our churches, and renewal in our hearts, our actions must align with our desires. Like Josiah, we too, must ruthlessly eliminate things that dishonor God, or even detract in the mildest way, from our full devotion to him. Does that sound a little fanatical to you? Do you think I am going just a bit overboard with this, perhaps a tad legalistic?

Yes! Yes! Yes! What else could the Scripture mean by a fully devoted heart? I am not sure we need to become legalistic in the same sense of the Pharisees of Jesus’s day, but we must become rigorous in our refusal to allow people, places and things to get between us and our devotion to God and his Lordship over us.

There must come a time when our actions speak louder than our words, and then, perhaps God will revive us again.

Going Deeper With God: Grasping onto God means getting rid of things that trip us up in our walk with him. What do you need to get rid of in order for renewal to flow into your life? Whatever it is, do it with urgency and passion.

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Hit Reset

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

God’s merciful gift of repentance should cause us to offer continually grateful lives to him. He is a God who loves to forgive us, and has made it possible to reset our wayward lives before we come under his much deserved judgment for our sin. He doesn’t have to, but he does, and the fact that he gives us opportunity to repent should create a passionate desire to live uprightly before him, and when we discover that we haven’t, to quickly come before him in heartfelt and humble repentance. Thank God for this divine reset. We should hit it as often as we need.

Going Deep // Focus: 2 Kings 22:10-13

Shaphan also told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” So Shaphan read it to the King Josiah. When the king heard what was written in the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes in despair. Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king’s personal adviser: “Go to the Temple and speak to the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah. Inquire about the words written in this scroll that has been found. For the Lord’s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll. We have not been doing everything it says we must do.”

Josiah became king when he was only eight-years-old, and he loved God as not too many kings of Israel and Judah had. We are not entirely sure of his upbringing, but some godly person exerted a powerful influence upon the boy. His father has been and done evil in the Lord’s sight, and his grandfather, King Manasseh, although he repented in the latter years of his long reign, had been one of the most brutal and vile kings ever. But Josiah loved the Lord with all his heart. He passionately pursued the welfare of both God and Judah, and became known as the reformer king. King Josiah was a jewel.

He was incredibly sensitive to the Lord, and responsive when he discovered that the nation, both past and present, had violated the law of God. On the occasion of the discovery of a prophetic scroll condemning the nation for its systemic pattern of sin, he humbled himself and wept before the Lord. He brought his spiritual advisors around him and sought their wisdom on how to right Judah’s listing ship. And through his heartfelt repentance, God promised to delay the much-deserved judgment that he would one day bring upon his sinful people.

Thank God for repentance. It is truly his life-saving gift to the human race. Repentance is the divine reset button for mankind. In his mercy and by his grace, God made provision for fallen human beings, both individually and collectively, to realign their wayward lives to his Word through the act of repentance—acknowledging their sin, humbling themselves before God, seeking his forgiveness, then turning for their wicked ways to follow the path of righteousness.

If God had not provided us the opportunity to acknowledge sin, seek forgiveness and make restitution where called for, the human race would be helplessly under the righteous judgment of Almighty God. The fact of the matter is, without this gift from God, I would not be writing this devotional, you would not be reading it, and none of us would even be taking in oxygen right now. We would have been destroyed as a race millennia ago. The prophet Jeremiah summed up this whole idea of grace and mercy in one of my favorite verses, where he wrote these words:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22)

Now from Josiah and Jeremiah, here is a critical truth we should understand about God: He is not a God who loves to visit trouble on his people. That is not his character. He is not a God of judgment first, but of love and compassion first.

Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:13)

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgressions of the remnant? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. (Micah 7:18)

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

Now the hard truth is, unless we take God up on his gift of repentance, his wrath will be poured out upon us. 2 Peter 3:10 goes on to say, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” Of course, Peter is speaking of the final judgment to come upon the earth. And that looming reality ought to lead us to live soberly and righteously before the Lord.

But it should also cause us to live gratefully before him as well. He is a God who loves to forgive, and has made it possible to reset our wayward lives before we come under his judgment. The fact that he gave us that gift from his gracious and merciful heart should create a passionate desire to live uprightly before him, like Josiah. And when we discover that we haven’t, to quickly come before him in heartfelt and humble repentance.

Thank God for the divine reset. Hit it as often as you need.

Going Deeper With God: Allow the Lord to reveal areas of your life for which you should repent. Then do it. Humble yourself before God, seek his face, ask for forgiveness, and then begin to walk in a way that pleases him. There is no greater living than in a lifestyle of repentance.