July 20, 2024 Daily Devotion

Love God

For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers’

wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation.

Exodus 20:5

Recently at our “Each Day is a New Beginning” prison ministry, I was blessed to lead a group of men in a Bible Study. This cell block has a few charismatic Elijah’s in their midst and read the inspired word together twice daily. We discussed the Old Testament reading out of 1 Kings 21 where Elijah confronts King Ahab for allowing Naboth to be killed to possess his vineyard. In detail, Elijah tells Ahab the disasters that the Lord plans to bring upon him.

Ahab owned the evil and sin that he had committed in the eyes of the Lord, tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, fasted, and humbled himself before the Lord. The Lord delayed the punishment in his day but brought it to his house in the days of his son. Ahab’s sinful ways brought disgrace and shame upon future generations as God reminds us in Exodus: For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation.