Oak

Right now I'm starting to read through Isaiah, which is a pretty stinking long book of the Bible. One part of chapter 1 stood out to me the other day.

Verse 29 says "You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted." You see oak trees were considered to be sacred to this society and because of that, they were sort of a hiding place for sin. Things like pagan sacrifices and sexual sins were performed in gardens under oak trees because their "sacredness" made the acts okay.

One thing I have to make myself do when I'm reading the Old Testament is to not look at the Israelites while shaking my head, thinking about how dumb they were to keep screwing up. Because, when I really look at how they acted, I see a lot of myself.

Too often in my life I find myself hiding under my own oak tree of God's forgivness and grace, where I feel that it's okay for me to sin. My prayer is to view sin in the same way that Christ does. Not continue to do the things that I do and think that its okay because I'm forgiven. My goal is to hate sin instead of finding ways that I can get away with it.