God Is Always Right

“Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous.” (2Ch 12:6 AV)

 

The princes of Israel and the king fell away from the LORD and the LORD brought Egypt against them.  Egypt pillaged Israel.  Palace and all.  They removed all the precious metals and gems from the palace as well as the temple.  Further, they inflicted harassment on the leadership of Judah as well as the princes of Israel.  Upon suffering the affliction for their choice, the leadership humbled themselves and made the statement above.  What is revealing about this statement is the nature of it as it stands alone.  The leadership did not ask their affliction to be removed.  Rather, they admitted God’s righteous judgment was exactly what they deserved.  They willingly accepted God's judgment as being right.  They willingly surrendered to the righteous judgments of God and admitted God was right and they were wrong.  Further, in confessing God is righteous, they also acknowledged the law and the ways of God as righteous.  In short, the affliction of the leadership was acknowledged as right, the ways of God were acknowledged as right, and they were at total fault.  This was all done without any pretense of relief.

A mark of maturity is admitting to the LORD that He is right and we are not.  These times are tough, but cleansing.  My father was a rather constant and forceful disciplinarian.  However, there were times when he could be approached and the consequences were not so bad.  There were few times I remember, probably because I wasn’t quick to admit my fault, but there were a few times.  There was the time I broke a panel of sheetrock.  I ran away for almost an entire day.  When I came back, I admitted to Dad that it was me who had broken that sheetrock, and whatever punishment he thought appropriate I was willing to accept.  Much to my surprise, there was nothing.  He realized my running away was torture enough.  There were a few times I admitted failing in collecting fees from customers along my paper route.  When we did this, we figured ways of floating that delinquent customer rather than confronting that customer over a bill he or she owed.  Usually, we fessed up because we knew that eventually we would be caught anyway.  Like the time my sister and I took my Dad’s pickup out for a spin and went around town popping the clutch.  That was a big no-no with Dad.  As we peeled out from a certain intersection, I looked to my left and there was one of my father’s good friends.  Busted.  Time to run to Dad and fess up before he got a phone call.  The thing is when we did fess up and welcome whatever our consequences, it usually went better than expected.  The real prize was the restoration received and respect gained by both parties.

The same is true of the LORD.  Even more so.  He knows everything.  There is nothing He does not see.  God knows what is in our hearts.  We cannot fool Him when we confess our sin.  He knows if our hearts are genuine, or if we are merely trying to assuage the guilt we have piled up.  He knows if our hearts are truly repentant, or if we are simply trying to deal with the present shame so we can turn around and do the same.  When the leadership above testified of the righteousness of God, it was a confession of humiliation and surrender.  When the leadership expressed the truth above, it was an act of worship to a God who deserves all praise.  These are not mere words.  These words are a genuflection of the heart.  A bowing down to a God who created and controls all things.  Simple humility is a beautiful thing.  These men found it in the nature and work of the LORD.