Today's Old Testament reading focuses on the importance of heeding our Lord's commands, which are for our good. Look at the way he lovingly and incrementally brings circumstances against his people to act as a corrective for their unbelief. First he brings natural events against us, then disease and enemies. If we don't fear those things, which, observe, we are powerless to combat effectively, God will come against us himself. In other words, if delivering us into the hands of nature and our enemies does not remind us of our frailty and need for repentance, God himself will visit us with his wrath and will turn his back upon us.
What's the good news in all this? What is our response? Is it perfect obedience to God's Law? That's exactly what we would expect, especially after reading all the things our Lord says we are to do. But we find quite the opposite. Not that we are to ignore God's decrees, but in verse 40 our Lord calls us to confession. That's what God desires of his people. He wants us to see and acknowledge that we aren't able to take care of ourselves. He wants us to see that in fact we are not him. We are his creation, he is the creator. We are to fear, love and trust in him above all things. That's what the Lord calls his people to do. That is what preserves God's covenant, not our obedience, but our confession of our disobedience.
Let us turn to our Lord in repentance, realizing and confessing the many times we have tried to run the show ourselves, trusting in our own power. Let us trust rather in the mercy and lovingkindness of our Lord.
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