It Starts Small

Today we continue looking at the righteousness of God. We have explored the meaning of righteousness and how it defines who God is. We have discovered He is Just, Upright, Honest, and today we look at the final definition that God is right in ALL He does.

Daniel chapter 9 is a prayer Daniel prayed for the national of Israel. We will go into this prayer as Daniel is going to be one of our examples of righteousness, but we focus in on this verse. To give the quick version, the people had been in slavery, again, for around 65-66 years. Daniel is acknowledging the Lord warned the people if they fell into rebellion, disaster was coming their way.

The Hebrew word used for disaster is raʿ and means bad, evil. God did not produce this, He allowed it to happen. He withheld His protection over the people and allowed them to be overtaken by their enemies.

God’s Word is full of warnings for rebellion and a life lived in sin. How could God be righteous and there be no punishment for sinning? The two ideas can not coexist. It is important that we understand that righteousness is not something that God does, it is something that God is. To put it another way, righteousness is part of God’s character. Since He is righteous that means that there is no other way for Him to act because he must remain true to who He is. Every action God takes towards you will always be right, just, and honest.

We must then say the righteousness of God is evident in the way He consistently acts in accord with His own character. God always acts righteously; His every action is consistent with His character. God is always consistently “Godly.” God is not defined by the term “righteous,” as much as the term “righteous” is defined by God. God is not measured by the standard of righteousness; God sets the standard of righteousness.

God did not just give us a list of “Dos” and “Donts” He gave us a standard of living so that we would not have to suffer the consequences of sin. When we decide to toss that into the trash and live our own way, we are given over to the consequences of sin, just as He spoke. Just as God is honest about sin and it’s consequences, He was honest in speaking we can always turn away from our sin and return to Him. All of God’s Word is truth. God is truth. God sets the standard of righteousness buy revealing to us, to be righteous, we need to operate in the truth of His Word.

Ponder: Do you believe God is Always right in all He does?

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