Subject: Repentance and God's Discipline - 2 Chronicles 10-14

2 Chronicles 12:7-8 (ESV Strong's)
When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they shall be servants to him, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.”

Subject:  Repentance and God's Discipline

The story we have here in the above verse is about Rehoboam, who was Solomon's son.  After Solomon's death, his son Rehoboam was the new king.  However, unlike the succession from King David to Solomon, this succession from Solomon to Rehoboam was not as smooth.   And, it certainly wasn't as God honoring.  Solomon may have written the Proverbs with many admonishments to "my son.". But, the son did not listen.  In says in the first verse of this chapter, "he (Rehoboam) abandoned the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him."  God sends the Egyptian army to discipline the king and the people.   At this point is when our above verses are stated.  Rehoboam saw the sin he was in and did repent.   He humbled himself and declared, "God is righteous," thus declare himself sinful.   God honors that humility, but that doesn't take away all the consequences of sin.   Allowing sin into our lives, as believers, can be forgiven ... 1 John 1:9 tells us!!   However, the consequences we do out bodies is similar to what happen to the king.   He did repent but the Egyptians were still at the door.  Living for God keeps sin away from us.  Opening our lives to sin invites the enemy to plunder us.   We can be forgiven but we now have conditioned our body to enjoy the sin. Like trying to break the habit of eating chips at night, sin hangs on.   We might not want the chips, but our taste buds are on fire for the salt and the carbs.   Sin is the same way.   God WILL forgive us of our sin.   We KNOW this to be true.   But, sin still has power in our lives (not over our lives).  When we feed sin, it gets more power and produces more circumstances.   God's discipline can remain, despite the forgiveness.  Forgiveness wipes out the eternal penalty for sin as it puts it on Christ's account.   But, the circumstances on earth may not change.   There are examples when it does change.  There are examples when it doesn't ... as in the above verses.