Observation: Moses lists out the curses that will befall Israel if they turn away from the Lord, and those curses begin with this ... confusion and contrariness on everything. This section goes into much more detail, including total erosion of civilization with Israel and a return to slavery of the survivors ... it gets ugly, and Israel in fact realizes all those curses as they turn further away from the Lord. However, at their heart, all the problems begin with two mental states of the people:
-- Confusion: This is a lack of understanding of all aspects of life. It includes those practices intended to honor the Lord (like worship, legal compliance, and ceremonial activities), but also general daily living such as how to offer hospitality to strangers, government administration of cities, sanctity of marriage, and farming practices.
-- Contrariness: This is a division and conflict regarding any and every topic. It is most obvious in Israel when it divides into two different countries, but in truth it exists in almost all activities and topics. These conflicts manifest regarding land ownership, treaty enforcement, community rights ... a variety of issues, which repeatedly devolve into disagreement.
Application: Confusion and contrariness are the order of the day in the United States, to the point that it isn't even worth pointing out the many, many natural truths about which we are confused, nor the extreme manner in which almost every topic one can imagine becomes are philosophical / intellectual / political / cultural public battle to the death.
But what about me, personally?
From the perspective of contrariness, I used to be very competitive in my opinions. I have definitely softened. I still have a solid and unmoving stance on biblically-based truth, but I would prefer not to fight about such issues. I would rather "preach Christ crucified" than debate the law and prophets. I am privately critical of those who have strayed from the Lord in word and practice, but I don't engage in public debate, and I actively avoid hearing about such fights to the point that some may think I'm uninformed (or at least under-informed).
As for confusion, I have a good understanding of the Lord, though of course my actions are sometimes misaligned to that understanding. I would say there are times I am confused about the confusion of others ... times when I know the logic of the situation in inconsistent and can't believe others don't know that, too.
However, to be clear, I live in a society that is under these curses - a society that is actively turning away from the Lord, and thus very, very obviously exhibits both contrariness and confusion - and that means that I am under this curse. This is why Jesus is even more important right now. Jesus is not just the savior who can offer me forgiveness from when I fall into confusion and contrariness, and thus protect my soul for eternal salvation. He is also the perfector of the age, who will return and deliver us out of this state of curse. Jesus is the way, and it is only by him that anyone can be delivered from these curses, and not by our own actions and thoughts.
Prayer: Lord, I thank you so very much for Jesus, and his promised salvation. Yes, we are a cursed people, just as Moses said we all would be, and that was a prophetic word to show us the need for Messiah. May our nation turn to Jesus in preparation for his return. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment