Through the Bible in one year - Day 33

•           Psalms 32:1

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

Our Psalms have said this before – and I bet they might say it again; it bears repeating. Thank you Lord for forgiving us our sins. Notice that the Psalm ends by saying, be glad all those of upright heart – meaning if we have a clear conscious we can be freely glad. You can relate to this idea I am certain; if you have done something wrong or done something of which you are ashamed or not proud, you can have trouble looking someone in the eye if you have wronged them – this is what the Psalmist is getting at I think, this need to have a clean slate, to be able to look our world in the eye and not shrink back in guilt...this is what the Lord gives us when he forgives our sins; he gives us the ability to go forward without this shadow between us and the world.

•           Genesis 29:1-30

I don’t like this story about Lea and Rachel and Jacob. I don’t know exactly why Laban was conniving against Jacob but it certainly is not what Jacob had in mind and it hurts all three of the young people; Leah who wasn’t wanted, yet is thrust upon Jacob, Rachel who has been expecting all this time to marry Jacob whom she loves, and Jacob tricked into working longer for the wife he loves. We keep hearing about conniving and tricking – and we thought our news was the only news of such behavior; nope it has been going on for a long, long time.

It makes the reading from 2 Chronicles all the more interesting to me:

"If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.  (2 Chronicles 6:22-23)

And continuing in this same vein, we have the betrayal of Jesus and his coming before the judges who have no real authority over the Lord; these who scheme and plot and betray. Truly we can see that their conduct will come down on their own heads.

Lord, I pray, please keep me from these betrayals and actions that seek my own will first and not your will and the will of your Father.

Today’s readings: Psalm 32, Genesis 29:1-30, 2 Chronicles 6, Luke 22:47-23:25