Biting the Hands

We met a man this weekend who left the country he’d lived in for forty-seven years. When asked why, he said he left when someone told him that must not go golfing without carrying a gun to protect himself. This was in another country far away.

That same day we heard on the news of a sports figure who was out late at night with one of his team members. As they sat in a car waiting for two other people, someone came up to the car and shot this man, seriously injuring him. This was in another country, but much closer.

This morning’s newspaper has several stories of murders in our country, and a few in our own city. The dangers of living in this world crowd closer and closer.

Besides violent crime, lesser crimes touch our lives. Neighbors are robbed. People decide to turn left across three lanes of traffic right in front of us. Other behavior may not be illegal but nonetheless disturbing, like dishonesty, cheating, and a general disregard for the needs and rights of other people. Immorality and lack of integrity are the norm. While we wonder what the world is coming to, our hearts know that one day this world is going to be judged. Even if God didn’t plainly say so, that inner sense of wanting justice demands it.

It the Old Testament, the people of God were dropping into sin like the pagan world they lived in, provoking God’s wrath on even His own. He told them He would bring calamity on them because “they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods” (2 Kings 22:17).

However, young King Josiah had a heart for God. The Book of the Law was discovered in the ruins of the temple he wanted to repair. When it was brought to the king and read, Josiah’s heart was broken. He was dismayed about the disobedience around him and the certainty of God’s wrath against them. He asked that a prophet seek God’s face so he would know what would happen. Verses 18-20 is God’s answer:

Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Concerning the words which you have heard — because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the Lord. “Surely, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place.”

A few years ago, the wife of Billy Graham said that if God didn’t soon do something about the mess in the moral fibre of the U.S.A., He would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. After reading these verses, I wonder if it wasn’t the tender heart of people like her husband that have held back God’s wrath from this world.

Because Josiah was deeply concerned about the sin around him, God reserved judgment until Josiah’s generation had died. Is He doing the same in our day? Could it be that the caring, praying people of this world are the reason God has not poured out judgment on those who do not care, who never pray, who only curse Him?

Could it be that God sees a few tender and humble hearts who want to see His glory recognized, worship restored and His name exalted, and because of those few, He is postponing a great calamity that will eventually come on all those who reject Him and godliness?

When others mock the people of God and make fun of our faith, do they realize that they could be belittling the only reason they are still able to live and do as they please? As we raise our hands in prayer and intercession for the moral mess in our world, those who laugh have no idea that they are biting the hands that keep them from the wrath of God.