Reason for Disaster

Today's Bible story was about Zachariah in the temple, conducting the liturgy, praying at the hour of incense, confessing sin. Pastor started us off in Daniel 9 to review what the priests were praying for, what the confession sounded like, how they approached God. Daniel was confessing the sins of Israel, how they had transgressed God's law, and he said in verse 12, And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster.... As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.

Think about that for a minute. What if God had NOT sent the Amorites and the Philistines and the Assyrians and the Babylonians to overrun the Israelites?

In the Torah, God has said thus-and-such will happen if you transgress My law. So His people transgressed His law. If the results/consequences/punishments (or whatever you want to call them) had not come about, that would mean that God's word didn't pan out as He had said.

What would that mean with regard to His promises?

Think about that. Wow. I mean, well, there are reasons that God allows trouble to befall us -- so that we learn to depend upon Him, so that we do not continue in impenitence. But this too -- that we cannot depend upon the happy promises in God's word if some of the rest of His word is lacking in veracity.