Sun.’s Devo - Forgiven

Read: Jeremiah 6:15-8:7; Colossians 2:8-23; Psalm 78:1-31; Proverbs 24:26
In the Old Testament the watchmen were the prophets and their mouths were trumpets. They were to tell the people what God was saying to them and lead them on the right path to God.
Isaiah told them that they were at a crossroads and they were being asked to make a decision whether to follow the road that their ancestors travelled like Abraham and Moses or whether they were going to keep on the road to destruction.
Another time Isaiah was told to stand at the gate of the city and cry out to everyone that entered to repent and turn from their ways of idolatry and God would let them remain living in Jerusalem. Their actions would reflect their heart.
God told them to go to Shiloh in Israel and see what God did to Israel because they refused to turn back to him. Maybe that would help them change their minds. But God told Jeremiah before he went that they would refuse to hear or change. Eventually, destruction will come and their graves will not have room to bury the number of people who will die there. They will be left for the birds and animals to eat.
The job of the prophet is to warn the people so they could never say that God didn’t warn them. How devastating that must have been for Jeremiah. He was doomed to look like a failure on earth but was a total success to God.
In Colossians , Paul warned them against going back to the wisdom of philosophy and principles of this world which the Gentiles had worshipped before Christ. God cancelled the curse of the law that stood against them by nailing it to the cross.
He warned them against becoming religious in their practices because every feast that God gave them pointed to Jesus. It wasn’t how they practiced them as much as it was why they practiced them and what the point was.
Back then, when they wrote legal documents they would hand write them in duplicate and sometimes triplicate, writing the word “chirographum” really large in the middle of each page. Then they would cut through that word on one copy and give half of it to the person and keep the other part in the place of government. To prove the document you brought your half and if it lined up with the other piece, you were proved to be the person it was written for. God wrote the word Forgiven across our story and gave us our copy. It is our proof through the blood of Jesus that we are forgiven and saved.
Lord, thank you for your word that is always fresh and alive for what we need today. Thank you for the blood of Jesus that makes us righteous and free. Help us to walk in freedom today.