God promised to send a Savior to rescue His people from the very beginning of creation. While we have been looking at this promise, we have been tracing the family line, starting with Adam and Eve, all the way to Jesus.
God's people are now living in the Promised Land, and the Israelites were given clear instructions to drive out the people who lived there and make God their king and follow His commands. But the Israelites didn't do either of those things well. The Israelites forgot that God was their king and began to live like the people around them. Then they faced a lot of hard things and cried out to God. God would send judges, or leaders, to help them. But then they would forget about God again and started the cycle again.
The Israelites seemed to always be focused on the situation that was right in front of them and forget about the big promise God had made. So our question for today is: Did God get distracted by the current circumstances of the Israelites? No! God is reliable all the time!
God is reliable. He always keeps His promises!
Quietly in the background, God continued the family line that would lead to the rescuer - Jesus. Last week we learned about Ruth and Boaz, and while the Bible tells us a lot about their story, it only gives us a little bit about the next two generations in the family line of Jesus. They had a son named Obed, and Obed had a son named Jesse. While we don't know much about these men, God use them to fulfill His promise to send a rescuer for all who follow Him.
Lamentations reminds us that God is always faithful.
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
Much like the the Israelites, we can get distracted by what we are going through today. We forget to go to God. We forget to make God our King. He wants to hear from us. There is no problem too big or too small that God can't handle. What is something that you can share with God today?
Pray and ask God to help you put Him first.