In Wrath Remember Mercy

When does a nation deserve the wrath of God? Certainly, the scriptures are clear that you can reach a point of corporate sin that tips the scales so that your nations sin is "complete" (Genesis 15:12 speaks of the Amorites in this way). But what sins bring that judgement? It would be wrong to presume to understand all of God's ways or to suggest that there is a formula for how God' handles every situation. However, it is worth paying attention to what happened to Israel so as to learn lessons from that nation. When did Israel earn judgment for their sin? When they turned justice into their own selfish gain, denying the poor and the weak of the justice they deserved. When they took advantage of the helpless, when they looked to everyone and everything except God for help, and when they rejected, they brought judgment on themselves. When the nation Judah (southern part of Israel) had lived like this for a long time, Habakkuk the prophet cried out to God about the injustice that he saw and asked how long God would allow this to continue. God promised to deal with Judah's sin and rebellion, but Habakkuk struggled with God's method. In the end, Habakkuk accepted that God would judge the people, and do so as He saw fit, but Habakkuk needed to trust God regardless. His final chapter opens with these words. "Lord, I've heard the report about You and I fear. O Lord revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy." It is these words that I have stood out to me. America is due judgment. We kill the most helpless (yes, I speak of abortion) and justify it because of the life and rights of the mother (who may already be a victim of a kind, and now by killing her child we do double wrong to her). Our political leaders turn justice upside down and slander and destroy innocent people. We take from one group wrongly, simply to redistribute power. We enjoy all the things we like, on the backs of slave labor in other parts of the world. We live immorally and then become outraged at anyone who dares to disagree with our lifestyle and choices. Yes, we are filling up the measure of our sin. LORD, I pray as Habakkuk did. In wrath, remember mercy. You are God. We are sinful. We need Your mercy, but we deserve Your wrath. In wrath remember mercy. You did for Israel then, and I pray that you will for us now.

Loving One Another

 I (Dan) had intended to post this some months ago in the early spring, but for various reasons, it slipped my mind, and I never did.  Now in early fall, I think that perhaps some of the thoughts may well still be pertinent, and perhaps the issue of loving one another instead of ourselves is ever more pertinent than before.  I hope this encourages you as you consider the situations in our world, from COVID-19 to our current racial tensions, etc.  It is clear that I am addressing the situations from April, but consider how to respond to today's issues now.

John 15:12-13 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life his friends."

Matthew 22:36-40 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"  And He said to him, " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

I recently had the opportunity to discuss with one of my graduating seniors what her life plans are after graduation.  As I discussed with her, she told me that she wants to become a nurse, largely so that she can care for people in a way that shares the love, hope, light, and joy of Christ with the people whom she cares for.  If you are inclined toward skepticism at all, you might think that these are the words of a sweet, well-meaning young lady, but when faced with the real world, you suspect that she will find it hard to share anything so profound.  I understand how some could say that, but I know this young woman, and I know what she and her family have walked through already; her grandmother's recurring cancer, her cousin's cancer, her uncle's cancer (those two while still very young), her sister's struggle to keep her eyesight, her own severe sickness with E. coli, etc.  Yet in the midst of all of this, her whole family exudes love and joy.  I can hardly think of people (one or two come to mind) who show so much love and joy.  How can this be?  There is but one answer.  They know the one who IS joy.  They know the God of joy, and they know that "the Joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10).

This young woman whom I've had the privilege of teaching for four years understands that joy, and because she does is willing to strive to share it with others the way her grandmother and other family members have before her.  This, combined with a natural inclination to love people, leads her to a desire to be a nurse.  As we discussed this, the coronavirus was just beginning in our country and was already becoming severe in Italy.  I asked her if she was ready to go into nursing, knowing the risk that was involved when sicknesses such as this broke out.  Her answer seemed to be without hesitation.  Yes.  She loves people enough to put herself at risk for others.  Isn't that really what our medical professionals all potentially do?  The lay their life down for others.  

As I watch our country battle and war and divide over coronavirus, I am deeply distressed.  I often wish I were a medical professional with the training to care for the sick.  I fear no loss for me.  I know Christ, and I know He will keep me, live or die.  But others do not.  This is how my student also feels.  If our sacrifice could help some find Christ, it is all worth it to us.  But what I see is not a love that lays down its life for others.  Nurses do their job and then throw it in the faces of those who aren't on the frontlines.  You can see it in the social media posts and protests.  Others protest restrictive orders from governors and closures that don't make sense to everyone, causing nurses and other medical staff to be angered and feel that people don't care if they get sick in this process.  The protesters seem to respond in kind that these people aren't caring about how this forced closure is destroying lives in a totally different way.  Others still suggest that this is all media driven fear-mongering with a corrupt goal of setting us up for some takeover or something.

In this milieu of ideas and heated passions, we find ourselves drawn to take sides.  I've done so in some ways as well, even if the side I have taken has generally been "stop treating other people like this".  What if, instead of taking sides, we chose what my student's words would call us to.  What if we chose to simply love each other and put each other first.

Here is what could happen if we don't.  Protesters would be ignored and people will go without work for LONG times.  Their jobs won't return in large enough quantities for long enough that many will be impoverished.  Others will struggle intensely with purposelessness, and still others may go off the deep end altogether.  People may die from lack of other health care because we have shut down much of the rest of our health care system to deal with a threat from COVID 19 that has been severe, but is not the only threat.  More life may be lost in the social chaos that will follow from having so many people who have been discarded along the way.  At the same time, these protesters may be causing the continued spread of this virus, which is endangering the lives of health care providers as well as other people.

It seems we are caught in a catch 22.  Whichever way we go, people suffer, and people die.  We have flattened the curve some, but the truth is, without a vaccine (which is a long way off), and without herd immunity (which could actually be achieved much more quickly, but with a cost of life), we have no easy solution.  It is here that I turn to Christ's words.  How can we turn this conflict into an opportunity to love others and lay down our lives for each other.  I have pondered long over this.  One step was for me to obey the government peacefully while we tried to figure out what was really going one and how to handle it.  A lot of information has been learned since then, and we've begun to see the disruption that this shutdown is causing.  Would love turn a blind eye to that?  No.  Would love crash forward with disregard for sickness?  No.  Are there more options?  Yes.

What of sacrifice.  Health care workers make sacrifices.  We make sacrifices.  We all take risks for each other.  We can all inconvenience ourselves, and yet find ways to make life possible, knowing that risk is present, but knowing that we must continue to live and care for each other, lest inaction causes a death of a different sort.  

As I write, I admit that my situation is different.  I live in the middle of nowhere.  Truly!  I still have a job, and my wife and I raise a ton of our own food.  We won't starve quickly if the food supply gets disrupted.  But others will.  What sacrifices must we all make.  How can we plan ahead now.  We must look forward to the other side of this and look around to those around us as we walk through this.  

Government protesters probably are not wanting to harm health care professionals.  I doubt that these other people hate the protesters.  But I do believe that we have allowed pride to blind our ability to see another person's hurt and need.  I know that I have done this.  So let's make the love of our neighbor our great aim, and lay down our lives for one another.