““We must always be careful when reading words written to Old Testament Israel , for we are often tempted to believe that we are free to apply scriptures pertaining to them to ourselves. Our situation, however , could not be more different from theirs, as Israel was under an inferior covenant that came with both rewards for obedience, and reprisals for disobedience. So even though there may be Old Testament scriptures seeming to suggest that sin separates us from God, we must keep in mind that these scriptures were written and addressed to national Israel, and not to the whole of humanity. We must also keep in mind that the “separation” we read of in such passages usually has nothing to do with a separation from God’s presence in a relational sense, but is speaking of God apparently allowing certain things to occur to them, and consequently appearing as though He is ignoring their prayers. The separation is not about a lack of warm fuzzies in our personal prayer time, but deals with God not seeming to act when Israel called to Him. It could manifest as Him no longer fighting Israel’s battles for her, or any number of similar things, but has nothing whatsoever to do with how God responds to human sin.””
