Really, People?

           A good portion of the old testament is written in regards to the Israelite people and how they have messed up once again. Here is how it usually plays out. Israel sins, Gods sends a prophet to proclaim to the people that they need to repent and turn from their wicked ways, and sometimes, they make a clean sweep of the nation and for a time, they are back on track. Then all of a sudden, idolatry, lust, and pride sneaks its way back into the camp, and before the people even realize what has happened, its already too late. Even though Israel is the nation God chose as his people, that nation alone is not just the one God wants to save. The cool thing about scripture is that it shows that God is a loving, compassionate, just God who wants ALL nations to be saved. We find examples of this in several book including Daniel and Jeremiah along with many others. The book of Jonah is one of these examples of repentance for another nation. God tells Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to proclaim that, because of their wickedness, He is going to wipe them off the face of the earth. After some resistance on Jonah's part, he finally relents and tells the people of Nineveh that if they don't repent, they will be destroyed. The king of Nineveh was so  willing to turn, that he proclaimed a nation wide fast and made a decree that everyone would wear sackcloth on their heads, hoping that God would see they act of repentance and spare them. And guess what, because God is merciful and loving above all else, he holds back his wrath and does not destroy them. We then flip over a few books down to the bock of Nahum, which takes place just about 100 years after Jonah. In the book of Nahum, we see that they people have already forgotten how God saved them and they have returned to their ways of old.God had the ability to wipe them out in the blink of an eye, yet he held back because he saw that they asked for forgiveness, yet a century later, it seems as though it never happened.

           After all the Israelites had been through where they saw things that could have come from God, being rescued after 400 years in Egyptian slavery, the splitting of the Red Sea, and manna from heaven even though their 40 years in the desert; pagan rituals and idolatry always took center stage.   The people were so stubborn that they could be rescues from on trial, yet they managed to complain about how life was better in captivity. People can get so stuck in their prison better known as sin, that God can come in and swing open the door of their cell, but they don't come out because the sin is comfortable and change is always hard. Following God's command can sometime make us look silly of make us uncomfortable. Many times, people will follow for awhile, but as soon as things get hard, they go back to what used to be comfortable, They forget what God did through them when they followed him, and began sinning just as before.

           True change is designed to be challenging. it is placed in our lives to push us and stretch us into the men and women of God that we are intended to be. God doesn't want Sunday morning Christians who say amen on Sunday, yet push God aside the rest of the week. God is not something that should be on the back burner of life, in case he is needed. This may be just me, but I think the Israelites believed that they could do whatever they wanted, and when a prophet came to town, they would repent to hold back the judgement, then once the prophet died or relocated, the would quickly go on living their life as if nothing was different.

         This nation that we now live in was founded on a pure belief in God, yet we have fallen so far away that it is a wonder God still tries to get us back. This is one of the reasons that I am so grateful for his love and mercy that is new everyday. For even when the world is full of darkness, God still sends his messengers of light to bring people back under God's covering.

           Let us not forget what God has done for us, not now or ever, but let us always remember where we were then, and where we are now. Don't be like the Israelites, or Ninevites or all the other nations in the bible that turned away from God, but instead let us be a people that repent of our sins and leave the past behind us, rather than around us. 

Adam Semple- a young man on a mission from God.