Have you ever been able to hold onto your peace while being yelled at or disrespected? Do you feel that justice is best served by silence or non-action? “Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for His wrath. For it is written: Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:19. God Almighty created justice, and it is His justified penalty for all crimes that we are challenged to accept. God operates in a faithful way to always uphold His proclaimed due process and issue equity fairly. Understanding the blameworthy, deceitful heart of man “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable – who can understand it?” Jer 17:9. “No one who acts deceitfully will live in my palace.” Psalm 101:7. It is God alone who understands and knows the complete contents of our hearts.
Therefore, in God’s court of law He ordered a perfect payment, a blood Sacrifice. His vengeance was once and for all applied so that we, the unholy can live in His palace, in the holy Presence of the Lord eternally. The willingness of Jesus to leave heaven to come down to earth, to suffer rejection, slander, mockery and then be brutally beaten and suffocate to death on a cross – this demonstrates the unwavering obedience of Christ, to serve the justice system of God. “Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming 
obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:5. God’s love for every seed that He, the Sower scatters is marvelous to behold and understand. “Consider the Sower who went out to sow.” Matt 13:3-13. Some seed fell along the path…some on rocky ground…some seed fell among the thorns…and some seed fell on good soil and produced a crop…anyone with ears should listen! Jesus scatters us, the seeds among all sorts for His purpose. “The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man (Jesus);
the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the sons of the Kingdom.” The weeds in the field, or in the world – are sown by the Devil. We are called to trust God and all His ways. At the end of the age, God will send His angels to harvest the two crops growing. The weeds will be gathered and justifiably burned in fire. God demands justice. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deut 6:5. The truth is that we all have dishonored God’s decree. While we prefer other things over Him, we foolishly enjoy relishing in the pleasures of the world above God. Therefore the Bible states “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Rom 3:23
We choose to glorify, to celebrate, to talk about that which we enjoy most. Sports, cars, food, politics etc. What we passionately pursue and desire most of our hours is NOT God. Such sin is serious — as it insults the Word of God. The King of kings is worthy of our most relished thought, our devoted love, and our respect. Our failure to love God above all else is not trivial, it is in fact treasonous! We discredit what Jesus accomplished on the cross, we dishonor our Father’s heart wrenching sacrifice, and blacken the robes of righteousness He gave us to wear as His chosen Ambassadors. The Lord God is just and He cannot, and will not sweep our crimes under the rug of our self-serving choices. His holy wrath against our sin is justified by His authority to punish. What was king David’s sin in this scenario? 1 Chron 21:1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.” 3 But Joab replied, “May the LORD multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?” 
David’s sin was choosing fear over faith when attacked by Satan. “For the wages of sin is death” Rm 6:23. King David feared that he did not have enough troops so he called for his men to be counted. David did not trust in God’s sufficiency to win the battle regardless of how many soldiers the king had. 1 Chron 21: 10 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. A) Three years without food. B) Or 3 months of being beaten by your enemies. C) Or 3 days of the sword of the LORD—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the LORD ravaging every part of Israel.’ King David’s fear was contagious, and so is ours. As the leader of Israel he was spreading doubt, fear and a mistrust in God! What are we leading people into? Fear or Faith in God? We will all give account to God!
Wisdom knocked hard on David’s heart! Three years without food and David’s army would be dead. Three months losing in battle and David’s army would be reduced in numbers by death. David wisely chose the punishment of three days of death. 13 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.” 14 So the LORD sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.” God’s holy curse is charged against all treasonous acts or the best of our worry filled self defense. Not to punish the offenders of God’s law would be unjust. Through David’s admission of sin, he turned around God’s wrath and he personally PAID for his sin by purchasing the land where the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem sits today! 1 Chron 21:15 And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” 16 David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown. 17 David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd, have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? LORD my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.” … 22 David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”
Our Father is faithful, He listens to our cries and responds with mercy, however, when we are tempted by Satan (and we will be) to fear what others think, to fear that God loves us not, to fear that we must save every penny, to fear that God has abandoned us, to fear this His way will not work in our personal situation…is to trust in our own schemes, devices, or ideas. His way, is that we CHOOSE to have FAITH in God over any FEAR incited by the evil one. Fear is the exact opposite of Faith, when tempted to fear, stop and determine what voice you are listening to. “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law.” Gal 3:10. The GOOD NEWS is that the Absorber of all of God’s wrath is Jesus. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.” Gal 3:13. The word propitiation is the due process of God which includes the one and only get-out-of-hell card. It is available to ALL who choose to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior! Jesus alone atones, He alone can and will satisfy the debt of our sin. The blood of Jesus cancels God’s justified wrath as He absorbs it and diverts it to Himself. God’s wrath was dispersed upon Jesus, not withdrawn. We can never stand in admiration and reverent astonishment of the purpose of God’s judgement until we come to appreciate His unmatched love. The willing sacrifice of God’s Son Jesus. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11 Which is exactly what king David did when he asked God to punish him, the shepherd of his people in Jerusalem. “You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.” Proverbs 28:13 MSG – Psalm 36 David writes out a lesson about God’s unfailing love and mercy when we blunder! Psalm 36 “The God-rebel tunes in to sedition—all ears, eager to sin. He has no regard for God, he stands insolent before him. He has smooth-talked himself into believing that his evil will never be noticed.
Words gutter from his mouth, dishwater dirty.
Can’t remember when he did anything decent.
Every time he goes to bed, he fathers another evil plot.
When he’s loose on the streets, nobody’s safe.
He plays with fire and doesn’t care who gets burned.
5-6 God’s love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks.
7-9 How exquisite your love, O God!
How eager we are to run under your wings,
To eat our fill at the banquet you spread
as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.
You’re a fountain of cascading light,
and you open our eyes to light.
10-12 Keep on loving your friends;
do your work in welcoming hearts.
Don’t let the bullies kick me around,
the moral midgets slap me down.
Send the upstarts sprawling
flat on their faces in the mud.” The Message
Living Abroad 
What a great message! Some days I can hold my peace when confronted, others, not so much. With God’s help, I start fresh each morning.
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God’s grace is sufficient, and the prick of the Holy Spirit allows me to confess and be refreshed and restored. AMEN
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You are a continued blessing in my life
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Jimmy DeYoung devotional “Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
For further study – II Kings 17:1-23
The year is 722 BC, the location is what is today northern Israel, and the situation is Assyria, led by King Shalmaneser, is taking the ten northern tribes, known as Israel, into captivity. Remember, after the death of King Solomon, I Kings 11, the twelve tribes of Israel had divided.
Jeroboam had taken ten tribes out of Jerusalem to the north and established “Israel” with these ten tribes. Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, remained in the south with two tribes. These two tribes, Benjamin and Judah, became known as “Judah”.
A number of years later, the Assyrians came and took captive Israel, these ten northern tribes. The author of II Kings, who is unknown, but a man writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, II Timothy 3:16, reveals the sins of Israel, the reason for their capture.
Verse 7 says it all in the statement that “Israel had sinned against the Lord their God”. The manifestation of that indictment was that the ten tribes had feared other gods more so than the Lord their God, verse 7. They also did secret things against the Lord, verse 9. They were involved with idol worship, verse 12. In reality, the bottom line was that they would not listen to the Lord and they hardened their necks against Him, verse 14.
The Lord had warned these ten tribes, Israel, as He always did, by the prophets that this would happen. The Jews failed to repent and return in obedience unto the Lord so He followed through on His warning and allowed their enemies to capture them taking them out of their promised land into Assyria.
By the way, the last three words of verse 23, “unto this day”, refers to the time of the writing of II Kings, not until our day. I bring that to your attention because these ten tribes are not the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel” as some try to say.
The Assyrians took the ten tribes, Israel, into captivity. But remember, the Babylonians defeated the Assyrians and took under its Kingdom all of the people of Assyria including these ten tribes.
These tribes are not lost – they were under the Kingdom of Babylon and representatives of these ten tribes returned to Jerusalem after the Medo-Persian Empire came to place and Cyrus allowed almost 50,000 Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
Ezra, chapters 2 and 6, records that all of Israel, all twelve tribes or at least a family or two from these tribes returned to Israel. This is key, in light of the prophecy of Ezekiel 37:15-23, when once again the twelve tribes will be divided into two Jewish states, Israel and Judah.
The truth be known, the Jewish state of Israel today is so divided that Ezekiel’s prophecy could happen in the near future. Our reading today helps us to see the background for the future fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Help me, Lord, to not sin against you and have to face Your chastisement.
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Enjoying Ezra, a great writer who retold a familiar story with a new slant! A brief summary of a book that chronicles name after name as it calls attention to the strength and weakness of man. Our copious genealogy of holy history, is certainly woven together by ordinary people that we can all relate to. Chronicles erects a solid defense against an impersonal God. It provides an important narrative backbone for the building of the first Temple in Jerusalem. The role of king David, who is described as a man after God’s own heart, and how God turned his failure of faith into the Temple Mount that Michael and I saw in Israel. Love my BSF study of 1 Sam and my daily reading of the Word.
Based on Sunday sermon – not picking and choosing scriptures
to suit our taste. David and the Temple Mount.
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