Verse of the Day for September 7

God turns the language of work upside down here. Israel was meant to serve him. Instead he says, thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. The servant made the master do the labour.

It is a startling picture. God, tired. Not because he is weak, but because carrying a stubborn people is real work, and he names it honestly.

And then, without waiting for Israel to repair anything: I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake. The repetition is deliberate. I, even I. Nobody else is doing this. Not the priests, not the sacrifices they never brought.

For mine own sake is the hinge. God forgives because of who he is, not because Israel finally turned up with sweet cane. That is good news for anyone who measures their standing by their output.

At your desk, behind the counter, in the middle of a long shift, you may feel your worth rising and falling with your work. The work matters. But your forgiveness was never part of the job description. It was done by someone else, for his own name.

God's forgiveness is not a wage for good work.

The one who blots out sin also chooses not to remember it.