Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Hands Off!

 

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

I, John, am the one who heard and saw all these things.  And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.  But he said, “No, don’t worship me.  I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book. Worship only God!”  Then he instructed me, “Do not seal up the prophetic words in this book, for the time is near.  Let the one who is doing harm continue to do harm; let the one who is vile continue to be vile; let the one who is righteous continue to live righteously; let the one who is holy continue to be holy.”  “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”  Revelation 22:8-13

Much of what the angel said to John was prohibitive; it was hands-off!  We can easily understand the admonition to not-worship an angel.  God has told us He is the only One worthy of worship in the universe.  The other word of prohibition to John is about the words of prophecy in God’s book.  John is not to seal them up, because the time is ripe to allow it free access to all people.  But there is an unspoken (but implied) third prohibition, stated inversely.  The angel tells John to let the Word have it’s way with evil…and for John (and by extension all believers) to not compel others to do right, rather to let free will run its’ course.

This third injunction makes it clear that believers are missing the mark of compliance with God’s will when trying to coerce behavior.  In my lifetime the growth of government regulation has gone off the chart.  The latest wave is the wokeness generation’s compelling so-called righteous behavior.  If you don’t toe the line, you’re ghosted…exiled to the land of foolishness…a non-entity.

Marching against “wokeness” are some rather well-meaning, but ill-advised people, who want control of the government so they can correct all the nonsense.  You can see it in the push to assimilate political power in the name of righteousness.  You can see it in the infamous January 6th invasion of the Capitol.  You can see it in the indignation of believers who want to punish wrongdoers severely, but can’t keep their own house in order.  Well-known and popular Christian leaders who couldn’t see past the glitter of power-grabbing, spearheaded the presidential campaigns in 2016 to gain control of the White House and Senate. 

There is a well-known saying, little heeded or even acknowledged these days, which offers the same kind of advice about all that, which the angel offered John:

When the church gets in bed with the government,

it isn’t the government that loses power.

The church’s real power is in prayer and the example of Christ, lovely, sacrificial, respect for all, with joy, unspeakable, and full of glory.[1] 

As the angel told John, God will do the judging and correcting soon.  The Alpha and Omega is better at it than any of us.  For now, hands-off the judge’s gavel.

For You Today  

It is a good thing to want to do something, instead of just standing by.  Today would be a good day to look around:  you’ll have no problem finding someone who is hurting for lack of food, clothing, a place to live, or a friend.  Then, do what’s natural for a child of the King…be a blessing.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

       Morning Star   and   Overwhelmed

Images: Title image Pixabay.com Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©  

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