Playing Church

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Monday, July 15, 2019

Announce this to the leaders of Philistia and to the great ones of Egypt:   “Take your seats now on the hills around Samaria, and witness the chaos and oppression in Israel.”  “My people have forgotten how to do right,” says the Lord.  “Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence.  Therefore,” says the Sovereign Lord, “an enemy is coming!  He will surround them and shatter their defenses.  Then he will plunder all their fortresses.”  This is what the Lord says:  “A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear.  So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on luxurious beds, and for the people of Damascus reclining on couches.  “Now listen to this, and announce it throughout all Israel,” says the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.  “On the very day I punish Israel for its sins, I will destroy the pagan altars at Bethel.  The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.  And I will destroy the beautiful homes of the wealthy—their winter mansions and their summer houses, too—all their palaces filled with ivory,” says the Lord.  Listen to me, you fat cows living in Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, and who are always calling to your husbands, “Bring us another drink!”  The Sovereign Lord has sworn this by his holiness:  “The time will come when you will be led away with hooks in your noses.  Every last one of you will be dragged away like a fish on a hook!  You will be led out through the ruins of the wall; you will be thrown from your fortresses,” says the Lord.  “Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel.  Keep on disobeying at Gilgal.  Offer sacrifices each morning, and bring your tithes every three days.  Present your bread made with yeast as an offering of thanksgiving.  Then give your extra voluntary offerings so you can brag about it everywhere!  This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do,” says the Sovereign Lord.  Amos 3:9 – 4:5

When God extended the invitation to Egypt and Philistia, arch-enemies of Israel, to take a front row seat and watch the humiliation of defeat that God was engineering to straighten-out his rowdy children, it should have brought waves of fear in Jerusalem and Judea; if anyone knew what the powerful wrath of God looks like in action, it was the children of Abraham.  These former slaves, people who had nothing, were led out of Egypt by Moses and a miraculous GPS cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.  They watched as the Red Sea swallowed Pharaoh’s storm troopers who were in hot pursuit.  They saw 23,000 of their fellow Israelites swallowed by the earth’s crust and fire when Korah led a rebellion against Moses.  They watched thousands die at the bite of venomous snakes when they complained against God.  These people had seen God’s wrath.  But they had forgotten all that and forgotten how to do right.  Their sin was playing at church! They kept the rituals but forgot how to do right; they were going to re-learn!

I have never claimed to be a prophet.  However, there is this foreboding deep within my spirit about the state of the current culture in America which I cannot shake.  It has amazing parallels to Israel of old, those who were blessed by Heaven’s hand, and descended into Hell’s ways.  They saw ways to accumulate wealth by oppressing others; they refined and strengthened their hold on the weak in order to become stronger, lazier, and increasingly self-indulgent.  Justice was a laughable joke, and the powerful saw to it their power would require others to look to them as God. 

Now, the parallel I fear most in the comparison of America as the New Israel is we have the Old Israel’s same mindset…accumulation of power, wealth, and the ability to keep others under control.  It’s hedonism, multiplied by situational ethics, empowered by a calloused heart that looks out for #1.  With apologies (perhaps) to President Trump, it’s The Art of the Deal as king…get from others before they get from you.  America, as a nation, is not generous and gracious; we are despised in the world today for our arrogance and childish selfishness.  

We dole out a bit of our resources here and there to the poverty-stricken third-world countries, but it is little more than dangling the carrot in front of the enslaved mule to keep him walking to the beat of our drum.  

For You Today

While it is true there are many thousands, perhaps millions of Americans who much more truly reflect the Jesus-following life, generous, gracious, and God-honoring, what we see coming out of Washington is a 21^st century God-invitation for wrathful judgment.  May He have mercy in His wrath; we stand in need of it!

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

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com        Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

Snake in the Grass

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Tuesday, April 2, 2019

“When you make an agreement with your neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not take advantage of each other.  When you buy land from your neighbor, the price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last jubilee.  The seller must set the price by taking into account the number of years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee.  The more years until the next jubilee, the higher the price; the fewer years, the lower the price.  After all, the person selling the land is actually selling you a certain number of harvests.  Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other.  I am the Lord your God.  “If you want to live securely in the land, follow my decrees and obey my regulations.  Then the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it.  Leviticus 25:14-19

You can legislate against evil intent, but how can you stop or change intent without a grip on the heart?  Especially when no heart exists, as in the case of sociopaths?  Among the characteristics of sociopathic behavior is a lack of shame.  

If the person is a true sociopath, then he or she will feel no remorse about hurting others, lying, manipulating people, or just generally acting in an unacceptable way.^[2]

God’s instructions to Israel about the way they were to treat each other is just the opposite – there is to be genuine care for each other, particularly in business dealings.  It was explicit in the Levitical mandates, written as the law of Jubilee, where fair prices were to be central in transferring property.  As such, there could be no lying, no truthful hyperbole to promote one Hebrew over another.  But some people will find a loophole in any law.  That is why “the law” is something God designed for the heart, as opposed to the courts.

Someone who breaks the law of compassion, withholding fairness and restraint of personal gain, is being sociopathic, taking every advantage over his neighbor, rather than loving his neighbor, and thus, not loving, (let alone fearing) God. 

That being said, sociopaths need to be loved also.  In fact, a key diagnostic in recognizing a sociopath identifies lack of love as a factor of abusive parents in the early stages of a sociopath’s early years.[iii]

This law of love is something tied to the quality of life we lead, whether you consider an individual or the entirety of humanity.  In Leviticus God describes the impact that integrity and fairness will have on a culture in terms of whether we will have enough to eat.  Loving your neighbor means everyone has enough; taking advantage of anyone is what a snake in the grass does, and it makes sure some will go hungry.

For You Today

In every aspect of living there are opportunities to exert power over others; Godly people do not slither!

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

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[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

[iii] How to Spot a Sociopath