“You have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness” (12).
Woe to you who sit in your nice houses, eat your nice meals, lie on your comfortable beds, and listening and making music. It will all come crashing down.
And woe to you who did little about it. You who are silent. You who do not confront injustice. Judgment will come to you as well.
The people put their own comfort as priority. They were prideful of their power and accomplishment believing that terrible things weren’t gong to happen to them.
But just as God brought judgment against other kingdoms for their depravity, so God would bring judgment upon Israel. No one would escape.
It wouldn’t be pretty. They would be smashed to pieces because of their persistence to do evil.
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Sometimes I read these Old Testament prophetic words and feel like they could be yanked from today’s newspapers. Proud nations who think they are safe, people who seek their own comfort as priority, who proclaim that if it doesn’t involve me it’s not my problem, or think there’s nothing that we can do about it.
I am grateful for the men and women who are standing up at school boards and not being bullied into silence. I’m grateful for the people who are speaking and saying no, this is wrong. For governors and governments and community leaders saying this is enough.
And the question is where do we get involved? How do we get involved? Right now evil is coming in like a flood.
Here are some thoughts.
- Do not compromise. I’ve been astonished at the Christian leaders who have bowed to the ideologies of the world when the Scripture says clearly what is sin and what is righteous.
- We speak the truth in love. No matter what we say we are going to be accused of being ‘phobic of something. But we can’t let that intimidate us into silence.
- We love people. We don’t join stupidity. Nor do we compromise truth.
- If you are in a position to speak and stand, do so. We need people going to the school boards. We need people to speak to our government leaders.
- We need to pray. Prayer and action together are powerful.
- And last but not least, we need to repent. We need to repent as a people and as a church and as a community and as a nation. Seek God that he will have mercy on us.
No nation is invincible. God sees our sin. Every nation thinks they are more righteous than other nations. But that does not absolve us of our crimes.
We must fight complacency. And cowardice. All of us. Me included.
May the LORD direct you and me both.
