“Nevertheless they flattered Him with their tongue;
And they lied to Him with their mouth;
For their heart was not steadfast with Him,
Nor were they faithful in His convenient.
But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity,
And did not destroy them.” (Psalm 78:36-38a)
God has a temper and sometimes we provoke Him to anger, just as the Hebrews did in the times of Moses and the Judges.
I am a parent. I love my child immeasurably. Sometimes he is affectionate and obedient. Sometimes just affectionate. As I read the passage above, I think of my son: sometimes flattering but full of deceit — the deceit of human pride and wilfulness. Sometimes I have to be very firm with my son and when he complies that’s the end of the matter. But when he does not, eventually, he can provoke me to anger.
I think this is the way God was with the Hebrews sometimes. I think we need to realise that sometimes He must be this way with us. Sometimes we provoke Him to anger.
As a follow-up from the first Are you Following Jesus post, I need do say to us all,
We need to be ready for Jesus’ return and that includes that we need to be faithful, respectful and reverent to the Father. We must not take Him for granted, not cause Him to grit His teeth, or mourn, for us. We must love Him in deed, not only in word, and behave toward Him as a child adoring his Father, in awe of His power and presence, and grateful that He is our Father.
I have a burden, that the body is not in awe and in love with the Father. We need to be.
“Let us rejoice and be glad, for the marriage of the lamb has come and the bride has made herself ready.”
May the words of the above song ring true in your life, and in mine.
Let us rejoice because the Creator God has adopted us, and be grateful because He is our Father. Let us remember that He is the all-powerful One, who has taken us in, holds us in the palm of His hand, not because we are worthy but because He put in us the Faith to believe in His sacrificial son, so that we could be close to Him.
