March 31
Deut 16:1-17:20 | PS 72:1-20 | Prov 12:8-9 | Luke 9:7-27
For those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have moved from being under the law to being under grace. But all too many have come to the mistaken conclusion that the law was something other than good. The law was indeed good, it was and is people who are not good. Until fairly recently, if one was to launch accusations it had to be done face to face. There was personal responsibility involved in such a decision. With the advent of social media we have reached a new phase of accusation in cyber-bullying. There are few consequences for the accuser and no proof is required on their part. But from the privacy of their own homes they can set off a barrage of attacks which may or may not have any merit at all. The one being accused has no real way of defending himself or herself. In the process reputations and lives are ruined. Consider all of the recent high profile events which have evolved from anonymous whistle-blowers. These men and women make their accusations and are praised for their bravery by those who agree without having to back up what they say or face the consequences if it turns out that they are lying. Anonymous accusations are now common at many workplaces. It is done with the premise that those who have something to say will be protected from retaliation from those in more powerful positions. But underlying this comes the mistaken belief that the anonymous accuser is somehow altruistic and the accused must somehow be brought down. In our hospital we see this in the form of anonymous "verges". Anyone who wants to make an anonymous complaint can do so, without any proof of merit or having to face the one they are accusing.
We read in Deuteronomy 17:6-7, "Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you." We will read tomorrow in Deuteronomy 19:16-19, "If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing,...then you shall do to him as he thought to do to his brother; so you shall put away the evil from among you." This represented a great way of avoiding and handling false accusations. It is interesting that when Jesus stood before His accusers on the night of His betrayal they could not find anyone who could serve as witness against Him, in that no two stories corroborated each other. This despite His very public ministry. So the religious leaders chose to ignore this portion of the law, when putting Jesus to death. Then when Jesus claimed to be God, and they accused Him of the sin of blasphemy which is the sentence they used to crucify Him, according to this law they should have been the ones to have personally taken Him and should have put Him to death with their own hands. But, these same religious leaders also chose not to follow this law, instead handing Him off to the Romans to carry out the sentence. For those who claim that they did not have the authority to carry out the punishment, it did not stop them from doing this to Stephen in Acts 7. We read in Deuteronomy 16:19, "You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous." Yet when it came to Jesus, they paid off Judas with thirty pieces of silver. When the Roman soldiers who watched the grave confirmed the truth of the resurrection it was the religious leaders who broke this law by bribing the soldiers to lie (Matthew 28:11-15). In Deuteronomy 18:18, which the Jewish people have always understood to have referenced the future Messiah, we read, "I will raise up a Prophet like you from among the brethren, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command Him." This future Prophet and Messiah, was indeed Jesus Christ. He was missed by many at His first coming. Had they followed their law honestly and read what was said about the future messiah, rather than their pre-conceived notions and taking shortcuts in the law, many more would have seen Jesus for who He is.
Unfortunately, as a society, as opposed to what the thought leaders would have you believe, we are not evolving, but instead devolving. We are not getting better, but spiraling out of control. We are not becoming more ordered but becoming more chaotic. The law is good, but society has chosen to ignore it, believing they uphold something superior, more tolerant, more fair. Every time we move away from God's perfect Word and the advice from His Word we take another step towards society's destruction. We all have a choice. As Christians, if we have something to say, may we say it to someone's face, and openly confront those we accuse in love with a spirit of correction. May we uphold justice everywhere and not set out to corrupt others for personal gain or to win public opinion. The law is good and always has been.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: