Sun.’s Devo - Being Offended

Read: Josh. 21:1-22:20, Luke 20:1-26, Ps. 89:1-13, Pr. 13:15-16 The Levites were the last to get their inheritance. They were given cities within every other tribe. They were also given the cities of refuge so they were the ones to decide if a person was innocent of murder and should be allowed to take refuge in their city against the avenger of blood. Finally, everyone was in their place and they had successfully taken all the land God gave them. They had fulfilled everything God told them to do, they had peace from all their enemies and went home to enjoy the spoils of their conquests. Their peace was cut short when they found the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh had built an altar which was a direct offense to God’s laws. The other tribes were appalled till they learned the truth, which we won’t read about till tomorrow. Jesus is teaching in Jerusalem these last ten days. He, as the Passover Lamb is being examined just as the temple lamb was being examined to see if it was spotless. The Pharisees and temple leaders are closely examining Jesus and his teaching to find some flaw that they can nail him with. They couldn’t; Jesus was the spotless lamb. They even send spies who pretended to be his followers to trick him with questions, but it was no avail. When he accused them of killing the prophets of God and now killing the chief messenger, they were determined to kill him lest the crowds turn against them. Offense always leads to murder. I see that happening all around me. People get offended because someone doesn’t believe just like they do so they set out to murder their reputation or their ministry. Woe to that person. How sad and how that hurts the reputation of Christ to the world. When we can’t look over an offense and forgive how can the world see Jesus in us? Lord, help us to forgive the offenses that come our way. Thank you for Your great forgiveness of our sins and offenses toward You.