Why didn’t they just admit they were wrong, and ask for forgiveness? When the Ammonites realized that what they had done put them on Israel’s bad side, instead of apologizing, they ran to the neighbors, got the neighbors riled up against Israel, and joined forces to fight the very people they themselves had offended.

The Bible tells us 40,000 men died that day, and it was because the king of the Ammonites couldn’t humble himself and admit his sin. No, he actually made the people he’d sinned against (Israel) appear like they were the enemy. The Ammonites tried to make their victims look like the aggressors. And it ended in death.

I sin. You sin. Sometimes we like the sin we sin so instead of repenting of it, we start pointing fingers at other people’s sins. We rally the troops against abortion, against homosexuality, against racism, against corruption in government. Maybe we “ask for prayer” for someone we know entangled in sin, pointing our fingers at their need hoping no one will recognize our own. It’s like we throw out a smoke screen and think that will hide the truth of our guilt.

What Hanun did by not accepting responsibility for his sin caused the death of many. Which makes me consider how many people are suffering consequences because I refuse to repent of my own sin. My life touches many lives. I don’t sin in a vacuum, even if I think no one sees or no one gets hurt.

I want to be clean before my Lord because I know that is when I enjoy my best life, my closest relationship with God, and am blessed beyond what I deserve. But today I realize I want to be clean before my Lord for your sake, too, for the sake of my family and friends, my church, my community. May it never be said that God can’t pour out his blessings on those people I love because I refuse to admit my sin and don’t ask Him to forgive me. And a more sobering thought, may it never be said that anyone else suffers the consequence for my pride, my arrogance, my sin.

Jesus said people will know I am His disciple if I love you. Until today I never considered that maybe one way I can show you I love you is to repent of sin, to allow God to bless and not have to punish me, and in turn you, my neighborhood, maybe even my country. Maybe God is telling me the healing of our land begins with me humbling myself and asking Jesus to forgive me.

Maybe God is saying the same thing to you.