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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
“Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who
despise justice and distort all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and
Jerusalem with wickedness. Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for
a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the Lord’s
support and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.’”
“Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a
field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound
overgrown with thickets.”
Micah 3:9-12
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
Are you someone who like to likes to straddle the line?
You know what I’m talking about, right?
No, I’m not speaking about any tangible line one might
draw but rather an imaginary spiritual line that separates good from bad, right
from wrong, and living as the Lord desires from sinfulness.
I think we have all maybe been guilty of it from one time
or another. In fact, it has been so prevalent through the years that a biblically-based
saying was created that goes like this:
We are in the world but not to be of the world.
In essence, it simply means that although we are living
here within the world physically, we are to distinguish ourselves from it
spiritually. If you want to get technical and theological about the matter, you
would bring up the matter of sanctification and how it deals with the Lord’s
believers setting themselves apart of the world, making themselves holy as He
is holy just as He commanded.
You can’t possibly set yourself apart if you are rooted
in the world, wanting to be in the world and not of it at the same time. In the
end translation, you can’t have it both ways.
Why have this discussion in the first place?
Well, outside of the fact that it’s completely relevant
to the way believers are living today, it’s at the heart of our scripture
passage as we look at the closing verses of Micah, Chapter 3. Look again at
those verses here:
“Hear this, you
leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all
that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Her
leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell
fortunes for money. Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say, ‘Is not the Lord
among us? No disaster will come upon us.’”
“Therefore because
of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of
rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.” Micah 3:9-12
Note here the distorted spiritual attitude of the
Israelites in Micah’s day. They thought they could live however they wanted and
still live in the Lord’s favor, like it was possible for them to have it both
ways.
On one hand, they despised justice and distorted all that
was right. They built “Zion with bloodshed” and “Jerusalem with wickedness”.
Their leaders accepted bribes while the priests and prophets sought
compensation for their teachings and prophecies. They sinned and sinned yet
still believed that the Lord was somehow still with them as if nothing had
happened.
They seemed to forget that willing sinfulness is
equivalent to living separate from God. And as we look at the final verse, we find
God sending them a reminder:
“Therefore because
of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of
rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.”
The message from the Lord is clear.
You can’t sin and have a right relationship with God at
the same time. You can’t have it both ways.
For if you try it, you can expect to experience the Lord’s
judgment in response as He will always have His way, whether we like it or not.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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