From the First Lesson for this day - Isaiah 16
I don't deserve God's mercy, but I take advantage of it every day.
In today's lesson, Isaiah is talking with a similar group of people, the Moabites.
The Moabites were related to the Israelites through Abraham and Lot and Joseph the Patriarch. They were sometime friends and sometime enemies of the Israelites. Ruth, whose book is one of the most beautiful in the Old Testament, was a Moabitess and she finds herself in the Lord's genealogy.
The Moabites were polytheistic pagans who flouted the One True God of Israel. They traded with Judah and Israel and they traded with their enemies. The Moabites harbored King David's parents in his struggle against King Saul and they helped lead the way home from Babylon after the captivity. However, they were proud and haughty and turned on their neighbors as often as they shook their hands.
If there ever were a group of people who needed God's mercy, it was the Moabites.
How often I am like the Moabites. I am unreliable in my discipline. I make alliances with those who are to my advantage and not necessarily those who are good or Godly. I'm not polytheistic, or am I? Money, things, books, my computer, the TV, my VW, my self-interests... aren't these idols? How often do I bow at these altars without having spent a minute before God's throne!
In Isaiah 16, God promises mercy on those wandering Moabites, even though it will be small and feeble. May God have enough mercy on a sinner like me to allow me to be part of that small, feeble,remnant.
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