Monday 03 September 2018

Psalm: Psalm 130

Background

Jericho has fallen. After a siege and Joshua’s army marching around the walls, the trumpet blast announces the victory, the walls fall and in they go. It’s not easy reading about the destruction of Jericho, including virtually all its inhabitants, with only the wealth of the city, and Rahab and her family spared. But in the midst of this victory, God’s people get it wrong. Instead of all the wealth going into the treasury, a small number of individuals took part of the wealth for themselves, and because of this “the anger of the Lord burned against the Israelites” (v. 1).

The consequence? Where Joshua’s soldiers were previously winning great victories, they were now being defeated. They had lost the Lord’s favour through their disobedience and this could only be regained through repentance.

It’s a recurrent theme among the people of Israel. They walk with God, and experience blessing. They take this for granted and assume this will continue irrespective of how they follow God. They drift, they sin, they allow secondary things to become more important than their devotion to God. And they suffer. And God calls the people to repentance, sometimes through a prophet, or a defeat, or even exile. Eventually the people recognise their sin and return to God, and a measure of blessing is restored. And then the cycle begins again.

To Ponder

• Do we ever allow less important things to take first place in our lives? How?
• How does the cross enable us to escape from the cycle of neglect, sin and repentance?
• How do we understand today parts of Scripture where God’s people are waging war against others?