Prayer: Father, when I know what is wrong and do it anyway, it is sin. Help me always do what is right. Amen.
Reading: 2 Samuel 24 key: vs. 10 “But David’s heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David prayed to Adonai, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done! But now, Adonai, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” TLV
Attention: Have you ever done something which you knew was wrong and like David, your heart or conscience troubled you till you confessed it to God? Of course, He already knew, but confession and repentance are necessary.
I recently watched an episode of Leave It to Beaver, a television show I watched when I was a young boy. I never realized the show had as much moral basis as God was spoken of and they showed Beaver and his family walking out of church. In this show, Beaver had gone somewhere he was told not to go, nor was he to play in his good suit clothes. With a friend who coaxed him into going to a worksite location to play, he opted to go without changing his clothes. Of course, a nail snags his good suit pants and Beaver has done two things which he knew he shouldn’t have done. Beaver is disciplined by sending him to his room for the day.
In today’s chapter, David is haunted by having numbered the nation of Israel. He knew that God was not pleased with his actions, even though verse one tells us, God “incited David” to his actions. After a prayer of confession and repentance, God sends a seer prophet who gives David God’s word of proposition. He gives David three choices from which David is to choose his discipline, seven years of famine, three months of an adversary chasing him, or three days of pestilence.
We have just experienced a pestilence or virus plaguing our planet. Collectively, millions of people died. Did we experience a judgement like David? Perhaps. Judgement comes for correction, and I believe there are many who have made spiritual corrections because of the pestilence.
As Adonai relented and withdrew the pestilence from Jerusalem, David hastened to worship and make sacrifice to Adonai. David knew to make his sacrifice sacrificial, something which cost him. Not a cheap act, but one which included costly contrition. It is recorded in the final verse of chapter 24, “So Adonai was moved by prayer of entreaty for the land, and restrained the plague from Israel.”
Much corrective action is taking place in our nation and world. Is evil still present? Yes. However, people are rising up against evil. I know that prayer has increased. Repentance over complacency, indifference, not speaking up, or standing up for Adonai and what is right.
Action: I choose today to confess and repent of my sins to Adonai.
Yield: I choose to surrender to the Lord of my life.
Engage: I choose to engage in the corrective action of repentance and confession.
Relationship: I choose to live in intimate, holy relationship with Adonai.
Prayer: Father, David’s confession came quick and caused you to “restrain” the plague. You send or allow corrective action to come into our lives. May we like David, be quick to repent and turn from our wicked ways, so that you can heal us and our land. Amen.
Memory Verse: 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 “If I shut up heaven that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, when My people, 0ver whom My Name is called, humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” TLV
Music Video: Steve Green—I Repent https://youtu.be/HO5nWZD8Tt0?si=3Pa3c5sYu9HuJJiY
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”