REDEMPTION

God can do anything, you know–far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!

Ephesians 3:20

Sometimes the most compelling stories are not about what happened, but who gets to write the narrative.

Several books in the bible tell many of the same stories. In the Old Testament (the part of the Bible that takes place before Jesus arrives on-scene) four books recount the history of the people of Israel. Some of these accounts are found in the books of Samuel & Kings. Although modern bibles divide each into two books for a total of four parts, they were originally written as just two books.

These books of Samuel & Kings tell many stories of the people of Israel (we’ll call them Israelites), their kings and their battles. There are stories of sorcery & sacrifices, murder & adultery. And those are just the first two kings of Israel. Then, the third king had a thousand wives! Maybe you've heard of a couple of these guys: David and Solomon were father and son. The rest of Samuel and Kings tell us stories of four hundred years of falling away from God's plan for his people. The Bible does not shy away from telling sordid, tragic tales of the people who were supposed to be living for God. 

This is one of the things I find endlessly fascinating about the Bible: it doesn't sanitize its heroes. It tells the truth about God's people who knew Him but still made devastating choices. 

Throughout these stories, God sent prophets, not like modern prophets who are trying to build a cult-like following, but men and even a few women who were truth-tellers, warning kings when they were veering away from God's plan.

If you want to read some juicy history, find Samuel and Kings. 

Chronicles, though, is another matter. This is God's redeemed view of history. It doesn't tell a different story; it reveals a different perspective. It's where we get the version of the story God sees. The book of Chronicles is history, with some of the same characters, but we get to see God's mercy in examining the parts of the story that are left out. 

We don't read about David's adultery or murder of the woman's husband. We don't see Solomon's countless wives and their influence on him to drift away from the things of God. 

This doesn't mean there's a discrepancy in the Bible. What it means is, God chooses not to define His people by those parts of their stories. 

When we belong to God, He sees us through the lens of what Christ has done for us at the cross. 

THAT'S REDEMPTION. 

The chapters we would most like to hide are very often the chapters God uses to shape who we become.  

Because these aren't just outdated stories about ancient kings. 

It's my story, too.

There is a lot of my story that I'm not proud to tell, but if I refuse to tell it, you won't be able to see how different I am. I'm not different because I changed. I'm different because God changed me. THIS is why I tell my story. Now I can see both my version and God's redeemed version of my story. 

I am my own worst critic and it's difficult to fight that tendency. I look at my story through the lens of my failures.

God, however, sees me through the lens of grace

The cross of Jesus is what makes that possible.

Here's what's important about this story: YOU can see your story through God's lens of grace, too. Your story can be redeemed just like mine has been; just like the Israelites thousands of years ago. You can find redemption when you look toward God and allow Him to transform the parts of your story you wish you could redo. 

Redemption doesn't mean your past goes away. No one ever gets to wipe the slate clean. 

Redemption

does mean that you can look around

at some point

and realize this story got better

than you could have ever imagined.

Twenty years ago, someone wiser than me said, "This season will be just a sentence in your story one day." At the time, I couldn't see twenty minutes into the future, much less a couple of decades.

Standing here now, twenty years later, I can see they were right.

That terrible, difficult season didn't disappear. It hasn't been supernaturally erased from my memory. Instead, God used it to give me depth, perspective, and oceans of grace and mercy to pour out on others.

That's what God is teaching us through the book of Chronicles. God doesn't ignore our hardest chapters. Instead He redeems those stories and transforms them within the greater story He is writing. 

Those broken places don't get to have the final word. 

God does.