Some
of us tend to be critical of God for sending a flood to destroy the earth and
kill all the people on it. Of course,
some people don’t necessarily believe in that God but would nevertheless argue
that if He did exist, they would still be critical of Him for sending that
flood. But, to be honest, what’s there
to be critical about? As an introduction
to the “story” of Noah and the ark, there was a small phrase inserted… “and the
earth was filled with violence”. To put
it another way, people were killing each other.
What God did by causing a flood was to simply speed up the process of
what mankind was already doing to himself, yet in the meantime, rescue one
family that was not party to all the violence so that they would not also fall
victim to the carnage that was going on at that time.
Even
that one family that survived the flood had some make-up within its spiritual
DNA that aroused a tendency toward evil.
The descendants from that one family still were prone to selfishness,
anger, defensiveness, lack of forgiveness and all those elements that make us
prone to violence. But one might say “I’ve
never practiced violence. I’ve never
felt hatred towards anyone.” I ask
rhetorically, “what if you had no police or army to keep you from being exposed
to that violence? Would you still have a
heart filled with pure benevolence towards those who’d harm you because of the
absence of military or police protections? Can you guarantee that you would
have no feelings of revenge in your soul?”
Jesus
said:
“You have heard that it was said to the
people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject
to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother
or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother
or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says,
‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
(Matthew
5:21-22)
Simply
put, Jesus said, “if you hate others, or think even so much as to have an
attitude of dismissiveness towards others as (thus, in disdain calling them a
fool), you’re guilty enough to go to hell”.
What
Jesus said is not anything new. God,
through Moses, said:
“Do not
seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people (members of your
nation), but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
(Leviticus
19:19)
The importance of this law is punctuated with God’s
declaration… “Ani YHVH” (I Am… the
ineffable Name of God… poorly translated as Lord and often somewhat flippantly
mispronounced in many circles). Putting
God’s Name on this law is a declaration as to how utterly important it is to
not even bear a grudge but to love instead.
As I’d written here, http://onlyholybook.blogspot.com/2017/05/liberal-guilt-moral-relativism-and.html
God had intended for Israel to be a model nation characterized by such a level
of peace and prosperity that the other nations could not help but emulate it
and, by so doing, discover that there was indeed a God who was worthy of
universal worship. After all, it was
this God who himself, had written the constitution for that nation. This constitution not only had specific
verifiable laws such as “leave some of the grain on the fringes of your fields
behind after harvesting so that the poor and needy will always have food available
to guarantee their well-being” (Leviticus 19:9-10) and “build a fence around
the roof of your house so that no one whom you are entertaining will fall off”
(Deuteronomy 22:8) but it also had less verifiable laws such as “don’t harbor
hate”.
The United States Constitution has no such unverifiable law… “don’t
harbor hate”, but the Mosaic law presumed that the author of their
constitution, God Himself, being all knowing, also knew the thoughts and
intentions of every human heart. Where
the enforcers of law could not accuse an individual of hating for lack of
evidence, the omniscient God could and was capable of discerning whether an
individual harbored hatred. And thus, a
fearful awe of this God would hopefully inspire the one who’s doing the hating
to repent, ask God for forgiveness and seek to rationally, dispassionately and
in a non-accusatory manner, seek reconciliation with the one who is the object
of his hatred.
And why would this law against hate (which cannot be
perceived by the senses) be inserted as part of ancient Israel’s constitution
which we call the Torah? Because ultimately
hate cannot be hidden. It does manifest
itself tangibly eventually in one way or another. It manifests itself in the form of violence
whether it be the result of the hater murdering the object of the hatred
directly, or the result of a chain reaction of people taking their aggressions
and frustrations out on one another. It tears
people apart, forces people to take sides and ultimately creates unrest,
dissention and chaos. And hate which
pervades among the citizens of a nation ultimately results in the nations
demise.
The Law of God given to Israel and reiterated through Jesus
is a universal law. It is applicable
regardless of geography, background or time in history. Hate yields death and seems to be the element
that is dividing the world. And so, allow
me, if you will, to ask some rhetorical questions.
Do you hate black people?
If so you’re a murderer in the eyes of God.
Do you hate white people? If so you’re a murderer in the eyes
of God.
Do you hate Hispanics or Asians or Jews? If so you’re a
murderer in the eyes of God.
Let’s say there’s a more tangible reason for hatred…
Do you hate conservatives? If so you’re a murderer in the
eyes of God.
Do you hate liberals? If so you’re a murderer in the eyes of
God.
Are you black and never experienced slavery but hate whites
who’ve not only never owned
slaves but
whose ancestors never owned slaves either? If so you’re a murderer in the
eyes of God.
Are you black and hate whites because they have “white
privilege”? If so you’re a murderer in
the eyes of
God. The likes of Clarence Thomas, Ben
Carson, Thurgood Marshall and
Condalisa
Rice may just bear witness to the fact that your failure is not because of
white privilege
but the fact that you’d never applied yourself.
Are you Jewish and hate Nazis? If so you’re a murderer in the
eyes of God.
Do you hate Muslims? If so you’re a murderer in the eyes of
God. (I would hold that they are
deceived by an erroneous world view
but it is the world view that I’m obligated to hate…
not it’s adherents.)
Let’s get even more personal…
Do you hate your former spouse because he or she was abusive
or a druggie or alcoholic or
even beat
your children? If so you’re still a
murderer in the eyes of God.
No doubt, wrongs done to you can create deep wounds and may make
it very easy to harbor hate. But there
is absolutely no justifiable reason for harboring hate. Hatred has no place in the human heart. Hate is man’s natural way of responding to
being offended. But God does not want people
to react to being offended as they normally do but as they are supposed to
react. And just suppose you were very
deeply hurt, you do have a choice… to take it personally and harbor hatred or
regard it as a test to see just how much you love God.
If there was one person who deserved to or had an excuse for hating
it was Jesus. He did nothing but good
for everyone, yet He was unjustly accused as being evil. He was whipped so that his raw flesh was
exposed. He was mocked, crucified and
mocked some more. Yet, while dying, He
cried out to God “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing”.
You may have experienced terrible persecution or pain of some
sort at the hands of others. But don’t
hate! You will only accumulate the guilt
of murder to your own soul. There is
such a thing as justice. If you can,
pursue justice in a rational and just manner, but without the attitude of pursuing
vengeance or vindication. Ultimately,
though, trust that God will mete out perfect justice in His time. And remember.
You’ve never been as innocent as Jesus.
Neither have you ever endured more than Jesus who nevertheless was quick
to forgive.
Do not hate.
Love. And if you discover that
you can’t love, ask Jesus to love for you. As you trust Him, He will. Your soul depends on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment