Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. – Exodus 34:7
The bullet-riddled bodies of a young couple were found in Chicago on May 12, 1978. Acting on an anonymous phone tip, the police arrested four young men with no history of violence. They were convicted of kidnapping, rape and double murder. Two were sentenced to death row and all appeals failed. In September 1981, a tattered envelope with a return address of the “Condemned Unit,” Menard, Illinois, arrived at the offices of the Chicago Lawyer magazine. That letter led the editor and publisher of the magazine and a journalism professor to investigate the case. They uncovered substantial evidence that exonerated the four convicts, including the first use of DNA to prove that multiple defendants were excluded as suspects in a rape case.
On July 2, 1996, more than eighteen years after the murder took place, the judge ended the unjust sentence by reading, “All the convictions are vacated.” The four prisoners walked free. The next day, the state attorney’s office charged the three real killers.
Since America’s justice system can often be manipulated, many people mistakenly believe they can also manipulate the Lord’s system of justice. But Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” He always acts consistent with the requirements of His character as revealed in His law. As the holy and righteous Sovereign of the universe, He cannot ignore or overlook sin. His decisions are always based on absolute truth. So as you intercede for your leaders, pray they will only make decisions based on what is right in Yahweh’s eyes.
Today’s Verse: Exodus 34:7
keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
5 Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
