Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah. (Isa. 1:9)
I heard a profound testimony shared by a husband and wife at a church service. The couple mentioned that earlier in their marriage one of them had been unfaithful. The deception tore apart their family. The pain caused by the open violation of the marriage vows was unbearable. All was lost—at least it seemed that way. But the spouse who had remained faithful extended mercy to the other one. Such an expression of grace did not make the pain disappear, and it did not dissolve the damage caused by the act of betrayal. However, the faithfulness of one of them created a pathway toward forgiveness and restoration.
The passage in Isaiah 1 shows that the people of God had rebelled against him. They had been unfaithful to the covenant with God. The sin of the people was so deplorable that the prophet compares them to Sodom and Gomorrah, cities that were destroyed for their rampant unrighteousness. The people of God were just as guilty and would have experienced the same fate, except for one thing: the faithfulness of the covenant God.
The stories mentioned above reveal the liberating power of faithfulness. By being faithful, one does not eliminate the possibility of being betrayed and does not take away the consequences of sin. But the Faithful One is the only one authorized to unlock the doorway to hope.
Worship God for his faithfulness.
Luigi Peñaranda is an associate professor of global leadership and Latino/Latina Christian studies at Wesley Seminary of Indiana Wesleyan University.
© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.