Repentance Changes Us
Matthew 23:29-35 (KJV)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
The woe for the Pharisees was not that they garnished the tombs of the prophets but that they had not changed from the nature of their fathers, who had killed the prophets.
The worst form of hypocrisy and deception is self-deception.
The Pharisees believed themselves to be better than those of the past when, in fact, they were exactly like those of the past.
-Circumstances were slightly different.
-Names had changed.
But the nature of the Pharisees was the nature of their fathers.
We do no good in apologizing for the sins of the past generations. Removing monuments and ignoring history does not change us. Repentance changes us.
-Acknowledging our own sin
-Owning up to it and
-Turning from it
that changes us.
Woe to the one who grows angry at the sins of their fathers so they might ignore the sins in their own heart.
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Matthew 23:29-35 (KJV) Repentance Changes Us
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Before the LORD saved me I had a huge unforgiving heart; but after the LORD saved me He little by little softened my heart to where I could forgive and even almost forget. I believe that when the LORD saved me and by me being able to forgive my father, for example, it broke that generational curse of my forefathers. My family has been cursed with many ugly filthy things. Forgiveness set me free. God bless. Will Follow.
I didnt have much contact with my father for most of my life. After he died my animosity toward him increased. I should have forgave him the way that i want to be forgiven for my sins.
The only person hurt by not forgiving, is ourselves.
27 ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, 28 then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. 29 Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. 30 I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. 31 I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas. 32 I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it. 33 You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.
34 ‘Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it. 36 As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall. 37 They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies. 38 But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. 39 So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them.
40 ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me—
41 I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. 43 For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, [o]because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes. 44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”---Leviticus 26
Verse 40 says that the sons on Jacob SHOULD repent for the sins of their fathers. By confessing their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, God will remember his covenant with them, and gather them from the lands of their enemies and return them to Israel.
"1Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth and with dirt upon them. 2The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God."---Nehemiah 9:2
"19Have You completely rejected Judah? Or have You loathed Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We waited for peace, but nothing good came; And for a time of healing, but behold, terror! 20We know our wickedness, O LORD, The iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You. 21Do not despise us, for Your own name's sake; Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory; Remember and do not annul Your covenant with us."
---Jeremiah 14:20