Week 34 Devotions

August 20 - - Our God is a just and a fair God (Psalm 7:11;11:7; 33:5). He has all the facts before Him. He knows what we think. He knows what we will say before we say it (Psalm 139:1-4). And because of His knowledge, God does not make mistakes when it comes to His judgment. He is always right and He is always just. When God said that He would “punish the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 20:5), He was not suggesting that one person will receive the penalty for another person’s sin. He was reminding us that some people will end up suffering the consequences of other people’s actions, sometimes for three and four generations. This is further defined for us in Ezekiel 18. “All people are mine to judge - - both parents and children alike. And this is my rule: ‘The person who sins will be the one who dies’” (vs.4). “The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins” (vs.20). God does not take delight in seeing anyone perish (vs.23; II Peter 3:9; I Timothy 2:4). His desire is that everyone turn from their wickedness and follow Him. If a father loves God and obeys God, but has a son who does all kinds of evil, the son will perish because of his own sins and not because of anything the father has done wrong. The son will have no one to blame but himself. Likewise, the father will not be punished for his son’s sins (vss.5-13). On the other hand, if a son sees the wickedness of his father and determines not to follow in his father’s footsteps, he will live because he has done the right thing when he follows God (vss.14-18). “The one who sins is the one who dies. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own goodness, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness. And if wicked people turn from all their sins and begin to obey my laws and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. All their past sins will be forgotten, and they will live because of the righteous things they have done” (vss.20-22). The bottom line is this: it does us absolutely no good to try and point the finger of blame for something we have done or for the way we have lived, at anyone else. The One who knows everything cannot be fooled by our lies. The sooner we accept responsibility for our actions, the quicker we can overcome them and change. August 23 - - God works through the lives of unbelievers, as well as believers. He also uses unbelieving rulers, as well as believing rulers; and pagan nations, as well as godly nations to accomplish His purposes. “From one man God created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand which should rise and fall, and He determined their boundaries” (Acts 17:26). The Babylonian nation was a world power for a long time. One of Babylon’s greatest kings was Nebuchadnezzar. When Nebuchadnezzar conquered a nation, he allowed it’s people to retain their gods and idols. Since none of these gods were real, they were no threat to Nebuchadnezzar or to Babylon. But, when God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to conquer Judah, the king soon discovered that Jehovah was not just a wooden idol. Nebuchadnezzar found out first hand the power of God. When Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, he looked for anyone who could not only interpret the dream, but someone who could actually tell him what his dream had been. Only Daniel was able to do this, and he gave credit for his ability to God (Daniel 2:17-23). When Nebuchadnezzar built a ninety foot golden statute and demanded that everyone bow down and worship it, three Hebrew men refused to do so. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace and came out alive without even so much as a single hair singed from the heat, the king once again saw the power of God and gave praise to God (Daniel 3:19-30). But, the lessons the Babylonian king learned were soon forgotten. Pride is a spiritual cancer and when Nebuchadnezzar gloated on all he had done and all he had accumulated, God taught him a valuable lesson. For seven years, Nebuchadnezzar was forced to live like an animal, having “the mind of an animal instead of a human” (4:16). Only when he turned to God did Nebuchadnezzar regain his sanity (4:34). “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All His acts are just and true, and He is able to humble those who are proud” (4:37). What is true of individuals is also true of nations. Those nations which ignored God and afflicted God’s people were eventually punished and humbled by God. Even Judah was spared from God’s judgment for a long time. But, whether it be Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, or even Judah and Israel, God’s mercy will eventually give way to God’s justice. Nations, like individual people, who pat themselves on their own back for the prosperity and power they have accumulated, will eventually find themselves living in the cesspool of their sins and their pride (Luke 15:11-19).