Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, November 15, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
You, of all people, should know better. It’s one thing when peoples and nations who don’t know God behave in ways that God doesn’t like. But it’s a whole different ballgame when the people who were set apart (made holy) and specifically instructed on how to behave turn around and spit in the face of the God who instructed them.
And yet we still don’t know better. We’ve been taught our whole lives about loving God and our neighbor, caring for all creation, following in the way of Jesus, and yet people who claim to be Christians still commit all kinds of crimes against humanity and the environment. It’s something in our human nature that allows us to compartmentalize, to do horrible things and still convince ourselves we are good people.
God doesn’t need to punish us the way God punished Israel. We’re doing it to ourselves. May God daily remind us who we are and whose we are, and goad us into right action for the good of the world.
Am I able to justify my wrongdoings so I don’t have to look at them? What does God call me to do?
