God wanted so badly to take it back! He raised a nation through the covenant he made with Abraham. He raised them, freed them, protected them and brought them to their Promised Land. All the while they griped, complained and were stiff necked, sinful people. Even after he placed them in the land, they did everything exactly how he warned them not to. They destroyed hundreds of years of work in a generation or two.

All through their history, God’s people have been set apart to represent Him to the world. While they have been awful as a lot, they have shown time and again that God does keep his promises despite the breach of promise by his chosen.  Even as the psalmist recounts the less than stellar track record of Israel, it screams that God’s grace is still sufficient to forgive and restore the worst of men–that is great news for us!

Personally, I cannot point fingers at Israel without them pointing right back at me. God has blessed me and my family so many times–only to have me whine when things fail to go exactly how I want them to.  I too drive God crazy–but so do we as a nation. One Nation under God–and still we see courts and governments trying to remove his presence from any and everything visible to the public. 

We should be ashamed of ourselves that we allow such disrespect to a God that built this nation on the shoulders of injustice and oppression.  Like Israel–we see his hand of mercy and slap it away as a sign that we can do it on our own. Yet, one need only open his eyes to see it simply never works nor lasts. We fall back into the grasp of those that would entangle, enslave and destroy us!

God simply replies–REPENT. His promise to Solomon still rings so loudly, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Lets join together and humble ourselves and allow God to keep his promise.

God Bless you

They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor
    and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods;
29 they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds,
    and a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
    and the plague was checked.
31 This was credited to him as righteousness
    for endless generations to come.
32 By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord,
    and trouble came to Moses because of them;
33 for they rebelled against the Spirit of God,
    and rash words came from Moses’ lips.[c]

34 They did not destroy the peoples
    as the Lord had commanded them,
35 but they mingled with the nations
    and adopted their customs.
36 They worshiped their idols,
    which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed their sons
    and their daughters to false gods.
38 They shed innocent blood,
    the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
    and the land was desecrated by their blood.
39 They defiled themselves by what they did;
    by their deeds they prostituted themselves.

40 Therefore the Lord was angry with his people
    and abhorred his inheritance.
41 He gave them into the hands of the nations,
    and their foes ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them
    and subjected them to their power.
43 Many times he delivered them,
    but they were bent on rebellion
    and they wasted away in their sin.
44 Yet he took note of their distress
    when he heard their cry;
45 for their sake he remembered his covenant
    and out of his great love he relented.
46 He caused all who held them captive
    to show them mercy.

47 Save us, Lord our God,
    and gather us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
    and glory in your praise.

48 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.

Let all the people say, “Amen!”