2020: Week 8

This week’s personal Bible reading ended Leviticus and started Numbers, so it focused more on the law and the census. In my small group, we studied Hebrews 4:14-5, which discusses Jesus being a better high priest. I studied the laws for the high priest at the same time I studied Jesus being a better one. It shouldn’t amaze me when God lines up my studies, but it does sometimes.

Much of my focus this week has been on God’s faithfulness to His promises and His mercy for my weaknesses.

In the ’90s, Steve Green released a children’s album with songs that came from the Psalms. It was probably my favorite CD as a kid. I still listen to that album through Apple Music, and one of the songs is “The Lord is Faithful.” The lyrics come from Psalm 145, and the song opens with this verse: “The Lord is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made.”

God made a promise to Abraham that He would make Abraham’s family a great nation. After a detour in Egypt, the Israelites received the law from God given to Moses. At the end of it, God lays out the blessings and curses associated with it. The curses are intense, but God tells them that if they repent, He will remember them and the land. He says He will remember the covenant He made long ago.

He has mercy and grace for them, even when they rebelled. He rescued them over and over again, keeping His promise, and I’m going to be digging into those rescue stories in the coming months as I keep reading through chronologically.

It’s easy for me to get frustrated with the Israelites, but one reason they frustrate me is that I see myself in them. I fail in my walk with God so many times as they did, but He has never thrown up His hands and walked away. When I’ve confessed my failures and asked for strength to overcome temptation or sin, God has always answered with a “yes.” Sometimes His consequences are painful, but I know they’re an act of love. He cares too much about my heart to allow me to continue down a dark road.

I used to be afraid to admit my sin to God — as if He doesn’t already know it. But I found great comfort in Hebrews where it says that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are. That means Jesus knows. He knows the weight of temptation, and He knows how to overcome it. And because Christ is my better high priest, I can pray for help to the one who understands me and makes my requests known.

There is no sin I’ll ever commit that is too big for God to help me overcome. None of it surprises Him, and that makes turning to Him easier. He offers mercy and grace, and His love never ends, regardless of my mess-ups. That’s a great God.