66.4 A Call To Praise And Obedience

(Psalm 95)

Come.let us praise the Lord!
Let us sing for joy to God, who protect us!
Let us come before him with thanksgiving and sing joyful songs of praise.
For the Lord is a mighty God'
a mighty king over all the gods.
He rules over the whole earth'
from the deepest caves to the highest hills.
He rules over the sea, which he made;
the land also, which he himself formed.

Come, let us bow down and worship him;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
He is our God;we are the people he cares for,
the flock for which he provides.

Listen today to what he says:
"Don't be stubborn, as your ancestors were at Meribab'
as they were that day in the desert at Massah.
There they put me to the test and tried me,
although they had seen what I did for them.
For forty years I was disgusted with those people.
I said, 'How disloyal they are!
They refuse to obey my commands.'
I was angry and made a solemn promise:
'You will never enter the land where I would have given you rest.'"

66.3 Return To God And Purify Your Hearts

(James 4:1-10)

Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from?  They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you.  You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight.  You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. And when you ask, you do not received it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures. Unfaithful people! Don't you know that to be the world's friend means to be God's enemy? Whoever wants to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy.  Don't think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, "The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires."But the grace that God gives is even stronger.  As the scripture says,"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will ran away from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

66.2 The Lord Has Pity On The Penitent

(2 Kings 22:14-20)

Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan,and Asaiah went to consult a woman named Huldah, a prophet who lived in the newer part of Jerusalem. (Her husband Shallum, the son of Tikvah and grandson of Harhas, was in charge of the Temple robes.)  They described to her what had happened, and she told them to go back to the king and give him the following message from the Lord: "I am going to punish Jerusalem and all its people, as written in the book that the king has read. They have rejected me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and so have stirred up my anger by all they have done. My anger is aroused against Jerusalem, and it will not die down.  As for the king himself, this is what I, the Lord God of Israel, say: You listened to what is written in the book, and you repented and humbled yourself before me, tearing your clothes and weeping, when you heard how I threatened to punish Jerusalem and its people.  I will make it a terrifying sight, a place whose name people will use as a curse.  But I have heard your prayer, and the punishment which I am going to bring on Jerusalem will not come until after your death.  I will let you die in peace."

The men returned to king Josiah with this message.

66.1 If The Sinners Return, I Will Remember The Covenant

(Leviticus 26:40-45)

"But your descendants will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, who resisted me and rebelled against me, and caused me to turn against them and send them into exile in the land of their enemies.  At last, when your descendants are humbled and they have paid the penalty for their sin and rebellion, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will renew my promise to give my people the land.  First, however, the land must be rid of its people, so that it can enjoy its complete rest, and they must pay the full penalty for having rejected my laws and my commands.  But even then, wen they are still in the land of their enemies, I will not completely abandon them or destroy them.  That would put an end to my covenant with them, and I am the Lord their God.  I will renew the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I showed all the nations my power by bringing my people out of Egypt, in order that I, the Lord might be their God."