Some Old Testament Smack Down

Day 44:  Genesis/Psalm 44, Judges 20

So yesterday was a tough one and today, well, it's not much better.

In Genesis 44:16 Judah (the son of Jacob and brother of Joseph) says to Joseph, "God has found out the iniquity (which means premeditated sin) of your servants..."  I can only assume that he is referencing the sin of he and his brothers in selling Joseph to into slavery all those years ago.

Then in Judges 20 the punishment for Gibeah's sin is doled out.  But it isn't just Gibeah that faces loss.  First the whole tribe of Benjamin refuses to hand over the men of Gibeah who committed the sin and instead join them in battle with 26,000 men arrayed for battle.  So Israel gathers 400,000 men armed and ready for battle.  But it isn't a slaughter.  On the first day of battle 22,000 men of Israel fall.  On the second day another 18,000 men from Israel fall - yes, they are supposed to be the ones who are winning!  On the third day, finally, Israel defeats Benjamin dramatically.  With little losses on the third day Israel puts to the sword over 25,000 of the 26,000 men of Benjamin - only something like 600 remain.  But that's not all.  The people of Gibeah are all killed and the city destroyed along with several other cities of the tribe of Benjamin.

The point of this is that sin is costly.  The punishment for sin often extends not only to those who committed the sin but also to those who allowed it.  Sin infects and spreads like a cancer.  It eats away at you, sometimes slow and sometimes fast.

But here's what I'm thankful for today.  I do not have to face the punishment of my sin.  Unlike Judah and his brothers and the people of Benjamin God does not hold my sin against me.  I am not punished for my sin because Jesus paid that price a long time ago.  Jesus died for sin, He took our punishment. The punishment that I deserved (and you) was put on Him.  So God punished Jesus instead of me.

As a believer in Jesus Christ I am not longer punished for my sin but I am corrected.  There is a big difference.  God punished those in the Old Testament for their sin out of His wrath.  But since He poured out the full cup of His wrath on Jesus there is now no punishment for sin for those who are in Christ Jesus.  We are corrected in love, not punished in wrath.

I am so thankful that:
1.  I had parents who loved me enough to bring me up in a Christian home (not perfect, but full of love) and helped me understand the God of love and His Son Jesus Christ.
2.  That Jesus was willing to go to the cross to take that punishment so that I could receive grace instead.

Thank you Father for your plan of salvation and that through faith in Jesus' life, death and resurrection I am no longer and object of wrath because of my sin but an object of your grace and love.