The Israelites assemble fasting and wearing sackcloth and ashes.
They listen to the Law for a quarter of the day and then confess their sins and the sins of their fathers for another quarter day.
Then they praise God and rehearse how he created the world and through Moses led them out of slavery, sustaining them for forty years in the desert, never abandoning them but bringing them out and giving them kingdoms and lands.
Since coming to Wooridle Church, I have been learning to see myself more objectively by seeing my sins more clearly.
I see that one confession of a sin clears me of that sin but my sinful nature doesn't change and I sin again and I must see it and confess again.
This has been a hard lesson for me.
I am grateful for the example of our pastors and my church members to help me do it.
My major sins seem to be pride, judgmentalism, fear, anger, and reluctance to help others.
The one I did not see for the longest time was adultery.
I twice committed adultery before I was first married.
I committed adultery with a woman I dated who didn't tell me she was married.
When I found out, it didn't make any difference to me and my desire.
I committed adultery with my first wife before we married because she was married when we dated and then lived together.
Then just before she died, I committed adultery with another woman.
When I reflect on the sins of my fathers, I see the same sin of adultery.
My mother committed adultery before she divorced my father.
My father lived with a divorced woman for many years but they never married.
My maternal grandfather lost his high position in the police department because of adultery.
My paternal grandfather was a regular adulterer.
Sexual immorality is the sin I am most aware of in my family, committed by grandparents, parents and children.
I repent of these sins that have scarred us and separated us from you, my Lord.
Forgive us, I pray.
Let not our wickedness blind us from your love and your grace.
Have mercy, I pray.
Today's passage shows me the need to confess the sins of my fathers.
This is was also a theme in the Book of Daniel.
