Thursday, July 2, 2020

Inconvenient Accountability

 
Thursday, July 2, 2020

In November of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord gave this message to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah and grandson of Iddo:  “I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors.  Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:  Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’  Don’t be like your ancestors who would not listen or pay attention when the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:  Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’  “Where are your ancestors now?  They and the prophets are long dead.  But everything I said through my servants the prophets happened to your ancestors, just as I said.  As a result, they repented and said, ‘We have received what we deserved from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  He has done what he said he would do.’”


The 2006 documentary film by Davis Guggenheim entitled An Inconvenient Truth features the thoughts of former Vice President Al Gore on accountability for our actions towards global ecology (namely, global warming).  It is controversial, and served as a political hot potato between left and right sides of the aisle.  If Mr. Gore is right, we don’t have long to dwell on this planet unless we change our ways substantially…even radically.  If he is wrong, and it is simply the cyclical rhythm of the earth’s want of clearing out its lungs (a global cough, so to speak), we’ll know in a hundred (or a thousand) years.
Now, that said, this devotional thought is not about politics or global warming.  It is about a different kind of accountablity, much more cosmic and critical in nature, and much more inconvenient than global warming; this is about the judgment of God, and our incontrovertible collision course with accountability.
In speaking through the prophet, Zechariah, God reminded the people of Israel of the folly of their ancestors, who were warned about judgment coming, but blew it off as just opinions of preachers.  But Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian empire, and 50 years later God speaks to the remnant still in captivity.  The message is to look to how foolish it was to ignore God, and the key verse tells us of God’s ever-present invitation:

Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’  Don’t be like your ancestors who would not listen or pay attention when the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:  Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’  Zechariah 1:3-4

Zechariah’s voice is merely a simple repetition of what the people already knew (as is much preaching in any age…we know it, we simply fail to live it, and must be reminded constantly).  Consider what was said 500 years before when God’s Word was “rediscovered”:

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14

This collision course with accountability is a theme which threads its way through all of Scripture.  It is God’s repetitive message to we human toddlers who have trouble getting it, that we have a responsibility to pay attention, learn, and, most importantly,  ACT with reverence towards God, LIVING a lifestyle of worshipping God, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.  To do otherwise invites whatever Babylonian forces of today to invade and clean our clocks.  The truth is inconvenient here, but, if God did it back then, our flank is exposed here and now.  It would behoove this, or any, nation to behave, turning to God before it’s too late.
Let’s Pray Together:

Father, our ways are indeed wicked, and we must turn.  We believe; help us fight off unbelief.  Our land of joy, peace, and righteousness has become a stinkhole of anger, violence, and willful unrighteousness.  Have mercy on us; help us to turn and be restored.  In the name of Christ Jesus, let it be so.

For You Today
Nobody can repent for his neighbor, father, aunt, uncle, cousin, child, or grandkids.  But we can, and must, start with personal remorse for our sins, and repent from living in those sins.  Remember, God’s not interested in how good you are compared to your neighbor, or that other guy at work; He’s only interested in how close you are to Him! 
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!
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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For other posts on God’s Judgment see Judgment Day and The Lord is King

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