Entry into scripture and faith is easy, as someone that started off trying to understand scripture from the simple question of “what is love?”; Often times we get stuck there, as Jesus is such a convenient way to share the gospel, to the point wherein some don’t even touch upon Old Testament scripture. Deep scripture however, is full of questionable if not downright wrong things. That is to say that discernment requires us to be rooted in the love, grace, mercy, righteousness, and the kingdom of God; for without these things, humanity will continue to fail… generation after generation.
2 Timothy 4:3 - For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
The Old Testament scripture is filled with tons of human flaws and sin; depending on the lens that you approach it… scripture can feel daunting, macabre, vain and just a prefix to human torment. Though if you can cut through the tall reeds and see how the living word flow through the entire scripture up unto Christ even. Then, and only then will we see that in a lifetime of less than a hundred, we barely do anything in order to pass the test.
Proverbs 27:21 - As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.
One of the most forgettable thing in life is intent, we can be in the day to day of life only to reach a part wherein we find ourselves asking, “What the heck, am I doing here?”. Repetition, while it could be good for certain things, it doesn’t translate well when it comes to matters of the heart. Praise is one of those things, it slowly becomes a chore and the praise that we do turns into a monotonous rhythm; Worship stagnates and water turns miry instead of the clear reflection of what it should truly be.
Jeremiah 18:15 - Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
Forgetting is part of what it is to be human. This is especially true when we drift away from seeking out what is true in the scriptures. Past lives and events were a mishmash of every possible error, some more severe than others, buried deep within scriptures. But isn't that what we do with sin? We forget! What's more is that we start to forsake God in the process so that we do not bear responsibility for our actions. The issue with that is atonement; we disregard the atonement that was given to us by God, through the covenant done on the cross. That is to say that generations after Christ’s death should know who God truly is, the grace and mercy that God provides daily. That includes how much He controls, and the life that we owe. Knowing that we have this covenant, we should be careful with it because this is a “perfect covenant”, and if we read through Jeremiah 18, previous generations have made errors in handling their covenant.
It really is hard to close out this specific post because there are a ton of things that can be pulled out from scripture about human failure. If there is anything that we can take out from it though, is that God reflects the same things that we do onto others, through our daily prayers and communication with Him. He is able to see through the problems of our lives. In turn, we should really get to know Him and we should love Him the same way He loves us.