The Bible is stained with the sins, transgressions, atrocities, weaknesses and failings of God’s chosen. God neither censors nor minces His words in communicating to His believers the swift and exacting nature of His sovereign righteousness in His timely response to wickedness.

During the infancy of our faith, the understanding that the only way that leads to eternal life in Christ is narrow and therefore, hard to find and difficult to walk on, is cemented into our minds. As we grow in stature (and by God’s grace, in some wisdom and in favour with God and man), we learn the harsh reality of this truth.

The world and everything it can offer presents us a broad shiny platter of options, tempts us with the illusion of choice, human rights and free will. These options are disguised as alluring, multisensory experiences, and irresistible desires that easily appeal to our pleasure, comfort, and self-gratification-seeking nature.

So much so, sometimes, we unwittingly let our guard down, cave and give in, even when those decisions are in clear and direct conflict with our better discernment, with what God requires of us.

When we come to our senses, perhaps nudged back to God’s truth by His Holy Spirit, our perspective of the efficacy and sincerity of God’s forgiveness of our wrongs starts off skewed, just like the Israelites, contingent upon the complexity of physical atonement.

But God has never wavered in His terms and conditions; a big ask in so few words – all He requires, as strict and precise as they come, is for us to, against false gods and all other odds, wholly fear and obey Him. Nothing can come between God and His almighty judgements.

Can we thus, like such, come before our LORD?

May God keep our hearts and hope grounded in His everlasting way.