26 “But they became disobedient and rebelled against You,
And cast Your law behind their backs
And killed Your prophets who had admonished them
So that they might return to You,
And they committed great [m]blasphemies.
27 “Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their oppressors who oppressed them,
But when they cried to You in the time of their distress,
You heard from heaven, and according to Your great compassion
You gave them deliverers who delivered them from the hand of their oppressors.
28 “But as soon as they had rest, they did evil again before You;
Therefore You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they ruled over them.
When they cried again to You, You heard from heaven,
And many times You rescued them according to Your compassion,
29 And admonished them in order to turn them back to Your law.
Yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to Your commandments but sinned against Your ordinances,
By which if a man observes them he shall live.
And they [n]turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck, and would not listen.
30 “However, You bore with them for many years,
And admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets,
Yet they would not give ear.
Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
31 “Nevertheless, in Your great compassion You did not make an end of them or forsake them,
For You are a gracious and compassionate God.32 “Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness,
Do not let all the hardship seem insignificant before You,
Which has come upon us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers and on all Your people,
From the days of the kings of Assyria to this day.
33 “However, You are just in all that has come upon us;
For You have dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly.
34 “For our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers have not kept Your law
Or paid attention to Your commandments and Your [o]admonitions with which You have [p]admonished them.
35 “But they, in their own kingdom,
With Your great goodness which You gave them,
With the broad and rich land which You set before them,
Did not serve You or turn from their evil deeds.
36 “Behold, we are slaves today,
And as to the land which You gave to our fathers to eat of its fruit and its bounty,
Behold, we are slaves in it.
37 “Its abundant produce is for the kings
Whom You have set over us because of our sins;
They also rule over our bodies
And over our cattle as they please,
So we are in great distress.
A Covenant Results
38 “[q]Now because of all this
We are making an agreement in writing;
And on the sealed document are the names of our leaders, our Levites and our priests.”
In spite of everything God had done for Israel, they turned their backs on Him. Worse, they squandered their inheritance over and over. They used it foolishly and even worse, they did detestable things like child sacrifice and engaged in all the things the pagan nations had done before them.
One is tempted to think that was just because they were so uncivilized, but our country engages in all these same things. We give them different names, but we are not so much different. For all our “progress”, we have not learned nearly so much as we ought to.
Yet there were those faithful to God, even in the darkest of days, and now there was a remnant who had been restored to the land. They made a covenant with God, to obey His law, in spite of everything their ancestors had done.
No matter how dark and twisted our culture becomes, God is still seeking those who will follow Him. The call for repentance never stops, His arms are always open, and His ears attentive to any who will call on His name. Do not despair for all the wickedness around you, for God’s will cannot be subverted by any human effort. Serve Him with your whole heart and do what He asks of you, for this is the “whole duty of man”. So a wise man once said…