When I read these words from Luke 19
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
I had to ask myself....have I ever wept like Jesus did, over those who don't know him personally, knowing that their destruction is coming? Seriously, If I am to be in imitator of Christ... should I not weep over their eyes not being opened?
Then in Genesis 34:1-31I read again the story of Jacob, and how his daughter Dinah was defiled by the Hivites, and again I'm stunned at the depth of revenge the boys had. Killing ALL the men. Not just the ones who did it, but all of them. Sometimes the violence portrayed in the Old Testament is such that I don't understand it. I can understand the boys anger. Having their sister treated in such a way, but the man who did it, got his entire town to be circumcised because he liked Dinah so much. yet that meant nothing to the sons of Jacob. And so they all died.
Now granted the Hivites thought if they did this all the stuff that belonged to Jacob would be theirs, but killing ALL the men? It just stuns me.
The prayer in Psalm 26:1-12 is one that I would like to pray
1 Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. 2 Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind. 3 For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness. 4 I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. 5 I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. 6 I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O LORD, 7 proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds. 8 O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. 9 Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, 10 in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes. 11 But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me. 12 My foot stands on level ground; in the great assembly I will bless the LORD.
Oh.. how I want to be a person who walks in faithfulness, to be the kind of person that people can stay...ah, there goes one who loves the Lord God himself. In her I can see Christ. But I can always see my failures you know. The times I lose my temper, or want to hide the truth, or I see myself other than how God sees me. I want to be a person who indeed "TRUSTS THE LORD UNWAVERINGLY".
I have so much to learn of the Lord yet... so much...