Day 87: I'm starting to get it now

Micah 1:1-4:13

Revelation 6:1-17

Psalm 134:1-3

Proverbs 30:1-4

I'm still kinda stuck on yesterday's reading, to be honest. I'm amazed at how long it took to occur to me that these prophecies exist inside stories and the prophecies are good and made to change stories.

I don't know if that makes sense. I don't know if I've even been voicing this nagging monologue that goes through my head every time I read a harsh prophecy thus far, or at least I don't know if I've voiced it as strongly or as often as it would take for any readers to see this shift in my understanding.

But as I've been reading so far and I read all these harsh passages I hear in the back of my head the voice of the world, the movement to define oneself and live one's life individually, what is right for you as an individual, and form god into whatever you want him to be.

And I'm not saying I believe these things, but I am sympathetic to these thoughts. I'm human, I get it. I get the appeal and I get what sounds right about it. It sounds right! It's the world we live in, we have been trained to think this way is right. I sympathize with the thoughts and when I read these harsh prophecies I think "how can they possibly understand?"

And all the while, I'm not understanding either.

Every prophecy was given in a pertinent time and place and it was given because God is good, gracious, compassionate, and slow to anger. It was spoken in a way that was meant to make things better, to fix things. When Jonah was sent to Ninevah to proclaim destruction, it was because God wanted to give them the opportunity to repent. And they did repent so God didn't send destruction.

And this all seems so obvious that I don't know if it's even worth trying to explain how blind I've been to it. Maybe I've been saying this same message in my blogs, maybe I've already preached this message...but I'm starting to actually get it for myself.

I think I'm just starting to "get it" in a more tangible way than before.