Recovery Devotional 339 Open Rebuke and Hidden Love

JMD Devotional 339 Judges 10:9-16 Open Rebuke and Hidden Love

And the Ammonites passed over the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was sorely distressed. And the Israelites cried to the Lord, saying, We have sinned against You, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.

And the Lord said to the Israelites, Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, and the Philistines? Also when the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed and crushed you, you cried to Me, and I delivered you out of their hands. Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will deliver you no more. Go, cry to the gods you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress. And the Israelites said to the Lord, We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to You; only deliver us, we pray You, this day. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and His heart became impatient over the misery of Israel.

Proverbs 27:5 Open rebuke is better than love that is hidden.

God loved Israel, but in times of disobedience, that love remained mostly hidden. What part of that love that broke through to the surface was in the form of an open rebuke. In their state of rebellion, traditional loving words would have only fueled greater apostasy: the medicine they needed was a sharp rebuke. That rebuke led them to repentance, and into a posture of submission so it was now fitting for God to rescue them.

Dear God,

When we are in trouble, oppressed and hurting, we yearn for words of comfort. Sadly, the truth is, we are often responsible for our own predicaments: our bad choices, our lack of diligence, our sin, our shortsightedness, our rebellion. You love us like no other ever could love us; but our sin conceals much of that love. Medicine is unpleasant but necessary for the sick soul. Do not abandon us: if rebuke is the only part of Your love that can show---rebuke us! Correct us. Lead us to repentance. Heal and restore us. Then, when we submit to You, may Your love be made manifest in our obedience. May we do what ever is necessary now to ensure that we ultimately witness the full measure of Your hidden love toward us. Lash us, if necessary, with Your love.

Amen

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*New International Version (NIV)

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**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

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