II Samuel 21:1 "During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, "It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death."
There was a famine in the land and David inquired of the Lord. What he found out was that there had been some unaddressed sin: Saul had destroyed the Gibeonites when they had made an oath to protect them (Joshua 9). Because of the Israelites failure to keep their word, dryness entered into the land, and the only way to bring relief was to make atonement for this sin.
I am really challenged by this passage - because I can often be a cowardly prayer. The dryness that is in my life can most-likely be traced to some sin or thought process that I'm quite good at avoiding. It takes deep, soul-searching, honest prayer to come to a place where this sin is recognized and dealt with.
Toward the end of WWII, as the Allies pushed through France and Belgium to Berlin, they approached a well-fortified city called Aachen. The commanders knew that it would take a long time and a lot of casualties to defeat it, so they decided to simply surround it and keep moving. However, the Germans inside the city kept attacking the supply lines to the front, and the generals finally decided that they had to take it out. It ended up costing hundreds of lives as they were forced into door-door combat to root them out.
We need to approach sin that way. If we side-step it, our supply line will be under constant attack and we will be drained of energy and power. It's time for some honest prayer. Brave prayer. Prayer that acknowledges even our deepest sin. We need to go door-to-door and root out even the deepest part of our human nature.
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