A lot has happened this week. We just completed Rhetoric in the Rockies, and it was a great camp. The facility was wonderful, and the event itself was incredible.
The big news of the week though is that long time Senator Lindsay Graham passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. He had recently returned from Ukraine, and for all practical purposes looked like he was in good health and ready to run for another term as Senator. As expected, the reactions to his sudden passing were many and ran the gamut of emotions and decency. Many who knew him personally and were his friends were shocked and paid him respectful tribute, with prayers lifted up for his family. On the other end, there were those who celebrated his death, and mocked him and his time of service to our country. Although I knew this was coming, I had to breathe a sigh of disappointment, but I also had to reflect on my own attitudes. I had to ask myself, would I ever secretly celebrate the death of anyone? While I would never state this publicly, would God see joy in my heart if someone I considered an enemy passed away? It was a hard question.
The Bible says that the Lord does not take joy in the death of the wicked. In fact, it says, “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ezekiel 18:33) This is the Lord GOD speaking here. In the New Covenant period, the Pharisees and those of their ilk had a saying that all of heaven rejoiced when a sinner died and was dragged to hell. This was why Jesus told those parables about the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son. Heaven and the angels rejoices when one lost person is saved. And when I think about that, and I also think about those who are my enemies, or are the enemies of truth, I would hope that my heart would rejoice if they came to salvation.
I remember when Jeffrey Dahmer was killed in prison. It happened after he was baptized into the faith. There is an interview of him with his father where he takes full responsibility for his actions, but talks about how God saved him. He was at that point even setting up Bible studies in prison. Shortly after that he was killed by other prisoners. A popular shock jock stated that he had claimed to now be a Christian and then asked, “Even if he did, would you Christians want him?” It was actually a good question. I was doing homecare nursing at the time and I mentioned this to a patient of mine, and she said that she wouldn’t want him to be counted among the saved.
I asked her, “Would you want anyone who was a known murderer to be admitted to our Christian group?” She said “no.” I said, “How about someone who took another man’s wife, got her pregnant and then had her husband killed to cover it up?” (Don’t get ahead of me now.) “How about someone who made it his life’s work and purpose to wipe out the name of Jesus and Christianity in general?” And to all of these she gave an emphatic “NO.” Then I said, “I just described Moses, David, and Paul.” Paul, who counted himself the worst of sinners was one of the best of the saved. Not due to his own strength, but because of the power of God and His love for His lost sheep.
I was not a big fan of Lindsay Graham, but I didn’t know him personally. He did some great things, especially when he defended Brett Kavanaugh during the Senate hearings for confirmation to the Supreme Court. He was known to be one of the hardest working congressmen who had a deep love for his State of South Carolina. He was a member of Corinth Baptist Church, and confessed Jesus as his Savior. I sincerely hope this is true, and I have no reason to doubt his profession of faith. What we need to do is pray for his family, and for a godly person to fill his seat, who fears God and is wise in the ways of the Lord.
In other news, I also finished Genesis and am through the plagues of Exodus now. The Israelites are at the mountain and God is about to speak to them and make a covenant with them that will make them a nation. It took a lot to get to this point, but here they are. This group that left Egypt has already shown some of their grumbling and complaining. This fascinates me as well.
They have seen the power of God at work. They experienced the first few plagues, and then saw how God was able to separate the Children of Israel from the Egyptians during the rest of the plagues. They went through the first Passover and saw how God gave them favor in the eyes of the Egyptians when they asked for gold, silver, and clothing. God showed up as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. And yet, when the slightest thing seemed to go wrong, they were all ready to go back to Egypt where they had their fill of leeks and garlics, and pots filled with meat, and where taskmasters beat them ruthlessly, and their baby boys were the target for death, and, and, and…
Why was this? Because as Psalm 103:7 says, “He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.” Moses knew the plans or the ways of God. He saw where all of this was going. He knew that God would fulfill all of His word, and they would ultimately get to the Promised Land. The people, on the other hand, saw the same things, but considered them merely “acts” of God. Each of these miracles were separate acts, but they didn’t see them as a guarantee that He would act again. So yes, He set them free by His power, but can He save us from Pharaoh at the Red Sea? Okay, so He saved us here, but can God give us water? So God was able to get us water, but can He get us bread and meat? You see what I mean? Each of these was an independent act to them. But God was not to be totally trusted.
If you all are anything like me, I find myself doing the same things at times. Yes, God has provided for me in ways I could never imagine, but will He keep doing this? He healed me of my heart disease, but can He make sure I get enough income to provide for my family? I can get into the same cycle of doubt. AND I can also see at times how God is working, and where He is taking me. And I ultimately know that He will lead me to the true Promised Land where we will all have leeks and garlics and pots full of meat…Wait. No, we will be in His presence and will eventually get new bodies that will never get sick or die, or have pain, or sorrow.
We are going through a sort of wilderness experience while we are here on earth. But God continues to teach us that Jesus is the Bread that came down out of Heaven, and that we need to gather Him in daily. He is the food and drink that we need to survive. Lord, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Amen
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