Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness
- Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God. We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway. We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway. As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others. In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Given everything that is going on, I find it absolutely amazing to
hear these words from 1 Samuel. The
people have rejected God as their king.
They want a human king so that they can be like all the other
nations. God has every right to abandon
them and forget about them. God has
every right to tell the people that they have made the covenant void.
But that isn’t what God does.
God has Samuel tell the people that God is still with them. If they continue to follow God and God’s
ways, it will go well with them. God has
every right to abandon them, but that isn’t what happens at all. God sticks by them in spite of their
rebellion. God displays His desire to
forgive rather than judge in wrath.
For that matter, so does Samuel.
Samuel follows God’s lead. Samuel
is saying farewell as the judge over the people in this passage. But Samuel isn’t saying goodbye. He will still pray for them. He will still lift them up before God. He might not be their leader anymore, but
that doesn’t mean that he cannot pray that they find God’s will and obey
it. Although they have been rebellious,
Samuel still prays for them. That’s a
man after God’s own forgiving heart!
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment