Rocky Relationships-Leviticus 25:47-27:13; Psalm 45; Proverbs 10:22

If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands,…

But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands,…

But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers--their treachery against me and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies--then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. – Leviticus 26:3, 14, 40-42

 

No human relationship is perfect. No human is perfect, and so as we live together and work side-by-side, inevitably we step on each other’s toes. Even in a covenanted marriage relationship (perhaps especially!), we find ourselves from time to time at odds with each other. And we gripe. We argue. We may even yell and scream at each other. Sometimes our relationships never get beyond the harm we have done to one another. Such relationships result in murders, betrayals, divorces, court battles, kidnappings, and of course, enmity.

 

God made us. He knows how incapable we are of having a perfectly peaceful relationship. But rather than destroying us, He enters into covenant relationships with us. In Israel, that relationship was based on His laws. Today that relationship is based on Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. The amazing thing is that in this relationship, part of God’s covenant with us is that forgiveness and reconciliation are always available to us if we confess our sins against Him.

 

Father, thank You that You do not give up on Your people who humble themselves before You. Despite our failures, You accept our apologies and forgive our sins. You would be justified to reject us entirely. But You are good to us. And You are faithful to Your own goodness. So Your love never fails. Thank You!!!