Fail Devotion

Bad Dog

the LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? 12I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they."

-Numbers 14:11-12

Last night I ended up sleeping on the couch.  Not because I had a fight with Sunny, or because I accidentally fell asleep watching tv.  I was trying to catch my dog in the act of destroying the screens on the screened in porch.  He ruined four of them in the past few days and its started to get pretty annoying.  

So this got me thinking about the old Testament. The Exodus was a huge thing for Israel.  They were slaves to Egypt and even had to kill their baby boys as a form of population control.  Moses frees them from Egypt thanks to God's miracles.  They get going and the Egyptian army follows them.  God miraculously parts the Red Sea and helps them escape.  They run out of food and God gives them food.  

BUT, in the midst of all of this the people aren't satisfied and turn on God.  They rebel against him and complain.  God was furious with the people.  In a really strange twist to the story, Moses talks God out of killing all the people.  In the long run we see that the people continue to fall into a cycle of forgetting about God, getting in trouble and calling on God, and then forgetting all about God.  

What does this have to do with destructive dogs?  What does "old story" have to do with my life today?  It is the reality of what we are like.  My dog is to stupid to know not to destroy my house.  But still I love him.  I work with him to help him get better, even at a sacrifice to myself (ie. sleeping on the couch).  And even if he keeps ruining stuff, I'll still love him.

That's how we are with God too.  Except we are the bad dog.  God continues to love us even though we quickly forget how he has taken care of us.  God did a lot more than stay up on the couch.  He actually sent his son to the earth to die for our sins.  

Next time your dog does something stupid (like destroying your porch), think about how you so easily forget and rebel against God.  And know that God still loves you.