Judge Me O Lord

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Micah Calls for Justice among Unjust People


No Rest for the Wicked

Psalm 7:1-8  The Message

A David Psalm

7 ^1-2 God! God! I am running to you for dear life;
    the chase is wild.
If they catch me, I’m finished:
    ripped to shreds by foes fierce as lions,
    dragged into the forest and left
    unlooked for, unremembered.

^3-5 God, if I’ve done what they say—
    betrayed my friends,
    ripped off my enemies—
If my hands are really that dirty,
    let them get me, walk all over me,
    leave me flat on my face in the dirt.

^6-8 Stand up, God; pit your holy fury
    against my furious enemies.
Wake up, God. My accusers have packed
    the courtroom; it’s judgment time.
Take your place on the bench, reach for your gavel,
    throw out the false charges against me.
I’m ready, confident in your verdict:
    “Innocent.”

For Reflection 

How many times have you prayed to God to save you from untoward circumstances?  How many times have others misrepresented you?  David sang this song of prayer to entreat God to stand on his side.  What song would you sing as an appeal to God's protection?

Pray

Sing songs of praise.  Sing songs of adoration.  Sing songs to invoke God's protection.

Good Deeds for the Oppresessed

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Micah Calls for Justice among Unjust People


No Rest for the Wicked

Job 29:7-20  The Message

^7-20 “When I walked downtown
    and sat with my friends in the public square,
Young and old greeted me with respect;
    I was honored by everyone in town.
When I spoke, everyone listened;
    they hung on my every word.
People who knew me spoke well of me;
    my reputation went ahead of me.
I was known for helping people in trouble
    and standing up for those who were down on their luck.
The dying blessed me,
    and the bereaved were cheered by my visits.
All my dealings with people were good.
    I was known for being fair to everyone I met.
I was eyes to the blind
    and feet to the lame,
Father to the needy,
    and champion of abused aliens.
I grabbed street thieves by the scruff of the neck
    and made them give back what they’d stolen.
I thought, ‘I’ll die peacefully in my own bed,
    grateful for a long and full life,
A life deep-rooted and well-watered,
    a life limber and dew-fresh,
My soul suffused with glory
    and my body robust until the day I die.’

For Reflection 

Ask about Job.  What answers would you get?  Good Guy, blessed by God, fair, good to the needy, champion of the underdog, Job's reputation as a righteous man preceded him.  Job knew God and God new Job. Job's faith was deep-rooted in God's grace.  Job was God's poster child, an archetype of Godliness.  Yet, even Job, a child of God, will enter darkness.  This story of Job is a tale of faith's victory in the darkest of times.  Each of us experience dark times. In Job's shoes, how would you fair?

Pray

for the faith that will carry you through the darkest of times.  Pay that you will not succumb to the common understanding of the human plight.  Pray that your faith will not be undermined by those who would have you trivialize God and God's love, compassion and faith in you.

God Will Remember Their Iniquity

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Judgment on Israel and Judah


God Will Never Forget

Jeremiah 14:1-10  The Message

Time and Again We’ve Betrayed God

14 ^1-6 God’s Message that came to Jeremiah regarding the drought:

“Judah weeps,
    her cities mourn.
The people fall to the ground, moaning,
    while sounds of Jerusalem’s sobs rise up, up.
The rich people sent their servants for water.
    They went to the cisterns, but the cisterns were dry.
They came back with empty buckets,
    wringing their hands, shaking their heads.
All the farm work has stopped.
    Not a drop of rain has fallen.
The farmers don’t know what to do.
    They wring their hands, they shake their heads.
Even the doe abandons her fawn in the field
    because there is no grass—
Eyes glazed over, on her last legs,
    nothing but skin and bones.”

^7-9 We know we’re guilty. We’ve lived bad lives—
    but do something, God. Do it for your sake!
Time and time again we’ve betrayed you.
    No doubt about it—we’ve sinned against you.
Hope of Israel! Our only hope!
    Israel’s last chance in this trouble!
Why are you acting like a tourist,
    taking in the sights, here today and gone tomorrow?
Why do you just stand there and stare,
    like someone who doesn’t know what to do in a crisis?
But God, you are, in fact, here, here with us!
    You know who we are—you named us!
    Don’t leave us in the lurch.

¹⁰ Then God said of these people:

“Since they loved to wander this way and that,
    never giving a thought to where they were going,
I will now have nothing more to do with them—
    except to note their guilt and punish their sins.”

For Reflection 

Who are the people God is abandoning to their own devastation?  From these passages it is hard to discern.  Although the prophet pleads for God to help these people God will stand down in this case.  These are the people who lead others to worship false Gods.  These are the people who followed the false prophets.  These people are not pleading their own case before God.  They are not repentant.  The prophets plead their case for them.

God condemns blind leaders and blind followers equally.  God has not commissioned them. God has not sent them on an angel's mission.  Impenitent sinners will fall from their own folly.  When those who deny God are overwhelmed with trouble they suffer from their own wickedness.

Pray

that you will not fall barren in the shadow of false prophets.  Pray that you will abide in God's household.  Pray for those who are seduced by the promises of false teaching.  Pray that they will come to know the folly of their ways and escape the inevitable fate of their choices.

Israel Refused to Return to Me

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Judgment on Israel and Judah


God Will Never Forget

Hosea 11:1-9  The Message

Israel Played at Religion with Toy Gods

11 ^1-9 “When Israel was only a child, I loved him.
    I called out, ‘My son!’—called him out of Egypt.
But when others called him,
    he ran off and left me.
He worshiped the popular sex gods,
    he played at religion with toy gods.
Still, I stuck with him. I led Ephraim.
    I rescued him from human bondage,
But he never acknowledged my help,
    never admitted that I was the one pulling his wagon,
That I lifted him, like a baby, to my cheek,
    that I bent down to feed him.
Now he wants to go back to Egypt or go over to Assyria—
    anything but return to me!
That’s why his cities are unsafe—the murder rate skyrockets
    and every plan to improve things falls to pieces.
My people are hell-bent on leaving me.
    They pray to god Baal for help.
    He doesn’t lift a finger to help them.
But how can I give up on you, Ephraim?
    How can I turn you loose, Israel?
How can I leave you to be ruined like Admah,
    devastated like luckless Zeboim?
I can’t bear to even think such thoughts.
    My insides churn in protest.
And so I’m not going to act on my anger.
    I’m not going to destroy Ephraim.
And why? Because I am God and not a human.
    I’m The Holy One and I’m here—in your very midst.

For Reflection 

God asks, "[Israel]  How can I leave you to be ruined..."  The Father's "insides churn in protest" to the idea of abandoning God's child, Israel.  In spite of Israel's rejection and disobedience God loves his creation. God declares that God will never abandon his children.  God will abide in their midst.

Pray

that you will always remember to whom you belong.  Pray that your every breath will glorify your creator.  Pray that you will see the world through God's eyes, know God's compassion, practice God's forgiveness, and work for God's justice.

Israel's Sin Shall Be Destroyed

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Judgment on Israel and Judah


God Will Never Forget

Hosea 10:1-8  The Message

You Thought You Could Do It All on Your Own

10 ^1-2 Israel was once a lush vine,
    bountiful in grapes.
The more lavish the harvest,
    the more promiscuous the worship.
The more money they got,
    the more they squandered on gods-in-their-own-image.
Their sweet smiles are sheer lies.
    They’re guilty as sin.
God will smash their worship shrines,
    pulverize their god-images.

^3-4 They go around saying,
    “Who needs a king?
We couldn’t care less about God,
    so why bother with a king?
    What difference would he make?”
They talk big,
    lie through their teeth,
    make deals.
But their high-sounding words
    turn out to be empty words, litter in the gutters.

^5-6 The people of Samaria travel over to Crime City
    to worship the golden calf-god.
They go all out, prancing and hollering,
    taken in by their showmen priests.
They act so important around the calf-god,
    but are oblivious to the sham, the shame.
They have plans to take it to Assyria,
    present it as a gift to the great king.
And so Ephraim makes a fool of himself,
    disgraces Israel with his stupid idols.

^7-8 Samaria is history. Its king
    is a dead branch floating down the river.
Israel’s favorite sin centers
    will all be torn down.
Thistles and crabgrass
    will decorate their ruined altars.
Then they’ll say to the mountains, “Bury us!”
    and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

For Reflection 

The ultimate sin is knowing God and rejecting God.  As humans we delude ourselves into thinking that we are in control.  We are seduced by the power of the creativity we have been given.  We, ignore the being before being and we shrug off the most important questions by not looking beyond ourselves.

Pray

that you will look beyond yourself to your creator for the answers to life's most important questions.  Strive not only to discover the creator but to exercise your own creativity int service to God and each other.

Days of Punishment Have Come

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Judgment on Israel and Judah


God Will Never Forget

Hosea 9:5-9  The Message

Starved for God

9 ^1-6 Don’t waste your life in wild orgies, Israel.
    Don’t party away your life with the heathen.
You walk away from your God at the drop of a hat
    and like a whore sell yourself promiscuously
    at every sex-and-religion party on the street.
All that party food won’t fill you up.
    You’ll end up hungrier than ever.
At this rate you’ll not last long in God’s land:
    Some of you are going to end up bankrupt in Egypt.
    Some of you will be disillusioned in Assyria.
As refugees in Egypt and Assyria,
    you won’t have much chance to worship God—
Sentenced to rations of bread and water,
    and your souls polluted by the spirit-dirty air.
You’ll be starved for God,
    exiled from God’s own country.
Will you be homesick for the old Holy Days?
    Will you miss festival worship of God?
Be warned! When you escape from the frying pan of disaster,
    you’ll fall into the fire of Egypt.
    Egypt will give you a fine funeral!
What use will all your god-inspired silver be then
    as you eke out a living in a field of weeds?

^7-9 Time’s up. Doom’s at the doorstep.
    It’s payday!
Did Israel bluster, “The prophet is crazy!
    The ‘man of the Spirit’ is nuts!”?
Think again. Because of your great guilt,
    you’re in big trouble.
The prophet is looking out for Ephraim,
    working under God’s orders.
But everyone is trying to trip him up.
    He’s hated right in God’s house, of all places.
The people are going from bad to worse,
    rivaling that ancient and unspeakable crime at Gibeah.
God’s keeping track of their guilt.
    He’ll make them pay for their sins..

For Reflection 

Taking God for granted never seems to turn out well.  How do you take God for granted?

Pray

prayers of contrition.  Pray long and often confessing your sins.  Pray that your repentance will glorify God.  Pray for God's mercy.

Reaping the Whirlwind

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

God Will Never Forget

Hosea 8:7-14  The Message

^4-10 “They crown kings, but without asking me.
    They set up princes but don’t let me in on it.
Instead, they make idols, using silver and gold,
    idols that will be their ruin.
Throw that gold calf-god on the trash heap, Samaria!
    I’m seething with anger against that rubbish!
How long before they shape up?
    And they’re Israelites!
A sculptor made that thing—
    it’s not God.
That Samaritan calf
    will be broken to bits.
Look at them! Planting wind-seeds,
    they’ll harvest tornadoes.
Wheat with no head
    produces no flour.
And even if it did,
    strangers would gulp it down.
Israel is swallowed up and spit out.
    Among the pagans they’re a piece of junk.
They trotted off to Assyria:
    Why, even wild donkeys stick to their own kind,
    but donkey-Ephraim goes out and pays to get lovers.
Now, because of their whoring life among the pagans,
    I’m going to gather them together and confront them.
They’re going to reap the consequences soon,
    feel what it’s like to be oppressed by the big king.

^11-14 “Ephraim has built a lot of altars,
    and then uses them for sinning.
    Can you believe it? Altars for sinning!
I write out my revelation for them in detail
    and they pretend they can’t read it.
They offer sacrifices to me
    and then they feast on the meat.
    God is not pleased!
I’m fed up—I’ll keep remembering their guilt.
    I’ll punish their sins
    and send them back to Egypt.
Israel has forgotten his Maker
    and gotten busy making palaces.
    Judah has gone in for a lot of fortress cities.
I’m sending fire on their cities
    to burn down their fortifications.”

For Reflection 

Today I read an opinion written by a ranking member of The Secular Society.  He explained that of the two core tenants of secularism (separation of church and state and tolerance for religious pluralism) tolerance suggests that all religious beliefs are equally valid and must be treated with respect.  Following that philosophy, the type of religious fervor steeped in hate as expressed by the radical perversion of Islam is equally valid as mainstream Islam.  What of the Christian movement that resulted in the murder of those associated with abortion clinics a few years ago?  Is that really to be treated as equally valid as mainstream Christians whose faith is based on love, compassion and forgiveness?

I suppose, if I had a choice, I would prefer those who would be indifferent to or reject or exclude religion and religious considerations to those who pervert the truth of God in God's many forms.  When we begin to accept the validity of hate, rename it a religion, and treat it as a valid life philosophy,  we have erected an alter of sin.  In our efforts to be fair-minded and impartial we have opened the door to chaos. Have we, in our efforts to offend no one, unwittingly built palaces to the individual's right to hate and seek selfish ends at expense of anyone that stands in their way?

Pray

for those who reject the God of Love.  Pray for those who suffer at the hands of those who hate in the name of God.  Pray for those who worship self and pervert the love of God.

The Righteous Are Generous

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice


Rebuked for Selfishness

Psalm 37:14-22  The Message

^14-15 Bullies brandish their swords,
    pull back on their bows with a flourish.
They’re out to beat up on the harmless,
    or mug that nice man out walking his dog.
A banana peel lands them flat on their faces—
    slapstick figures in a moral circus.

^16-17 Less is more and more is less.
    One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,
For the wicked are moral weaklings
    but the righteous are God-strong.

^18-19 God keeps track of the decent folk;
    what they do won’t soon be forgotten.
In hard times, they’ll hold their heads high;
    when the shelves are bare, they’ll be full.

²⁰ God-despisers have had it;
    God’s enemies are finished—
Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time,
    vanished like smoke in thin air.

^21-22 Wicked borrows and never returns;
    Righteous gives and gives.
Generous gets it all in the end;
    Stingy is cut off at the pass.

For Reflection 

"...slapstick figures in a moral circus."  How many ways will you be able to use that phrase over the next few weeks?  But, I suppose that is what we are without the Holy Spirit as a guide.  Christians are encouraged to be generous, giving more than we take.

Pray

for a life of giving in response to God's love.

Turn My Heart from Selfish Gain

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice


Rebuked for Selfishness

Psalm 119:31-40  The Message

^25-32 I’m feeling terrible—I couldn’t feel worse!
    Get me on my feet again. You promised, remember?
When I told my story, you responded;
    train me well in your deep wisdom.
Help me understand these things inside and out
    so I can ponder your miracle-wonders.
My sad life’s dilapidated, a falling-down barn;
    build me up again by your Word.
Barricade the road that goes Nowhere;
    grace me with your clear revelation.
I choose the true road to Somewhere,
    I post your road signs at every curve and corner.
I grasp and cling to whatever you tell me;
    God, don’t let me down!
I’ll run the course you lay out for me
    if you’ll just show me how.

^33-40 God, teach me lessons for living
    so I can stay the course.
Give me insight so I can do what you tell me—
    my whole life one long, obedient response.
Guide me down the road of your commandments;
    I love traveling this freeway!
Give me a bent for your words of wisdom,
    and not for piling up loot.
Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets,
    invigorate me on the pilgrim way.
Affirm your promises to me—
    promises made to all who fear you.
Deflect the harsh words of my critics—
    but what you say is always so good.
See how hungry I am for your counsel;
    preserve my life through your righteous ways!

For Reflection 

It is one thing to ask and yet another to wait and listen to the answer.  When God answers your prayer are you prepared to follow-up?  We ask for wisdom and when it arrives do we have the courage to act wisely?  We ask for courage, but do we act when God presents an opportunity to be courageous in God's name?  We ask for mercy.  Are we merciful?  We ask God for affirmation and assume that God will affirm who we are and we ignore God's affirmation of who we can become.

Pray

for God's wisdom.  Pray for God's affirmation. Pray for God's courage.  Pray that you will act wisely.  Pray that you will act courageously.  Pray that you will act in ways that will affirm God's faith in you.

Guard Against Greed

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice


Rebuked for Selfishness

Luke 12:15-21  The Message

¹⁵ Speaking to the people, he went on, “Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.”
^16-19 Then he told them this story: “The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest.’ Then he said, ‘Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself, Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!’
²⁰ “Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnfull of goods—who gets it?’
²¹ “That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.”

For Reflection 

The farmer produced more than he needed.  But, greed displaced his thoughtfulness for those not quite as fortunate.  Without a second thought, he made arrangements to keep the over production for himself.  To top it off, he boasted to himself about what a great man he was.

That's the way it is, isn't it?  Good times are not necessarily God times! 

Pray

that you fill your barn with selflessness.  Pray that you will be able to share with those in need.  Pray for God times.

Proclaiming Christ, Whatever the Motive

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Rebuked for Selfishness

Philippians 1:12-21  The Message

They Can’t Imprison the Message

^12-14 I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah.

^15-17 It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them.
^18-21 So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!
And I’m going to keep that celebration going because I know how it’s going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.

 

For Reflection 

When I was a teen a preacher from Scotland spoke a sermon at our church.  He had a high rhetorical style.  The unifying phrase was, "Ye cun trample doon the heather, but, Ye canna trample the wind."  He must have said this phrase at least eight times in parsing out its meaning.

Perhaps, his phrase is close to Paul's meaning.  The Spirit will turn the word of God to each listening ear.  It doesn't matter much how or why the word was spoken.  It matters only that the word is spoken.  The Spirit of God like the wind will spread the word, the promise of God.  The Spirit will transform the meaningless into the meaningful and the thoughtless in to the thoughtful.  God cannot be tainted by who is speaking.  The word of God is spoken only by the Spirit who moves us like a fresh breeze upon the golden grasses.

Pray

for the word of God to swirl around, through and into all of human living.  Pray that God's word will sweep the grains of peace, compassion, justice and love into all corners.

Full of Greed Inside

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

Judgment on Israel and Judah


Rebuked for Selfishness

Luke 11:37-42  The Message

Frauds!

^37-41 When he finished that talk, a Pharisee asked him to dinner. He entered his house and sat right down at the table. The Pharisee was shocked and somewhat offended when he saw that Jesus didn’t wash up before the meal. But the Master said to him, “I know you Pharisees burnish the surface of your cups and plates so they sparkle in the sun, but I also know your insides are maggoty with greed and secret evil. Stupid Pharisees! Didn’t the One who made the outside also make the inside? Turn both your pockets and your hearts inside out and give generously to the poor; then your lives will be clean, not just your dishes and your hands.

⁴² “I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God’s love. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.

For Reflection 

You wear the robes and trappings of a Christian.  You observe the sacraments. You have your children baptized.  You observe the Sabbath.  You bow your head for prayer.  You do all the right things to appear Christian.

How are you doing on the inside?  Is your spiritual life and your corporeal life separated.  Do you give allegiance to both?  Do you see them as justifiably disconnected? Jesus showed us that the two can not be separated.  Your corporeal life is as sacred as your spiritual life.

Pray

that your faith will guide your every day journey.  Pray for those who cannot link their spiritual lives with their cultural journey. Pray for a life lived in the fullness of God.

Seek the Lord and Live

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

God Is Not Fooled

Amos 5:1-6  The Message

5 Listen to this, family of Israel,
    this Message I’m sending in bold print, this tragic warning:

² “Virgin Israel has fallen flat on her face.
    She’ll never stand up again.
She’s been left where she’s fallen.
    No one offers to help her up.”

³ This is the Message, God’s Word:

“The city that marches out with a thousand
    will end up with a hundred.
The city that marches out with a hundred
    will end up with ten. Oh, family of Israel!”

^4-5 God’s Message to the family of Israel:

“Seek me and live.
    Don’t fool around at those shrines of Bethel,
Don’t waste time taking trips to Gilgal,
    and don’t bother going down to Beer-sheba.
Gilgal is here today and gone tomorrow
    and Bethel is all show, no substance.”

⁶ So seek God and live! You don’t want to end up
    with nothing to show for your life
But a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground.
    For God will send just such a fire,
    and the firefighters will show up too late.

 

 

For Reflection 

The most dangerous time of our lives is when all is going well.  It is the time when we forget God is the root cause of our comfort.  If we have known God and have assumed that we are comfortable because of our own effort and our own plan then watch out!  Our conceit will do us in.  When we take for granted the gifts of God, We are apt to lose them.  It will seem our successes will burn to the ground and no fireman will ever be able to quench the burning that our estrangment from God has produced.

All we have left is regret -- and God's promise for restoration.  All is never lost. Seek God and you shall find life arising from the ashes of your failure

Pray

to abide in the care of God.  Pray prayers of thanksgiving for the fruits of God's labor.  Pray, rejoicing in the bounty of a life lived in the hollow of God's hands.

I Know Your Transgressions and Sins

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

God Is Not Fooled

Amos 5:7-13  The Message

Raw Truth Is Never Popular

^7-9 Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar
    and stomp righteousness into the mud.
Do you realize where you are? You’re in a cosmos
    star-flung with constellations by God,
A world God wakes up each morning
    and puts to bed each night.
God dips water from the ocean
    and gives the land a drink.
    God, God-revealed, does all this.
And he can destroy it as easily as make it.
    He can turn this vast wonder into total waste.

^10-12 People hate this kind of talk.
    Raw truth is never popular.
But here it is, bluntly spoken:
    Because you run roughshod over the poor
    and take the bread right out of their mouths,
You’re never going to move into
    the luxury homes you have built.
You’re never going to drink wine
    from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.
I know precisely the extent of your violations,
    the enormity of your sins. Appalling!
You bully right-living people,
    taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.

¹³ Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.
    Decent people throw up their hands.
Protest and rebuke are useless,
    a waste of breath.

For Reflection 

Yes, raw truth is never popular.  If these passages of God taking retribution on sinners justifies your faith in God or makes you feel good that the sinners are getting their just rewards, you have missed the point!

Yes, God is speaking about those who commit gross injustices.  But, God is also speaking a warning to you and me.  If you see yourself as decent, favored by God and better than others who are evil and favored by Satan, you are also committing a grievous sin, the sin of arrogance, the sin of elevating yourself above others while ignoring the sins you have committed.

In God's eye, justice is not a lost cause and protest and rebuke of injustice is never a waste of breath.  Losing God's gift of hope for a just and compassionate world is tantamount to losing faith in the God of justice.

Pray

prayers of confession to the living God.  Pray for humility as a sinner in the arms of God.  Pray for your steadfast abiding hope in God.

To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

God Is Not Fooled

1 Samuel 15:17-23 The Message (MSG)

^17-19 And Samuel told him. “When you started out in this, you were nothing—and you knew it. Then God put you at the head of Israel—made you king over Israel. Then God sent you off to do a job for him, ordering you, ‘Go and put those sinners, the Amalekites, under a holy ban. Go to war against them until you have totally wiped them out.’ So why did you not obey God? Why did you grab all this loot? Why, with God’s eyes on you all the time, did you brazenly carry out this evil?”
^20-21 Saul defended himself. “What are you talking about? I did obey God. I did the job God set for me. I brought in King Agag and destroyed the Amalekites under the terms of the holy ban. So the soldiers saved back a few choice sheep and cattle from the holy ban for sacrifice to God at Gilgal—what’s wrong with that?”
^22-23 Then Samuel said,

Do you think all God wants are sacrifices—
    empty rituals just for show?
He wants you to listen to him!
Plain listening is the thing,
    not staging a lavish religious production.
Not doing what God tells you
    is far worse than fooling around in the occult.
Getting self-important around God
    is far worse than making deals with your dead ancestors.
Because you said No to God’s command,
    he says No to your kingship.

For Reflection 

When I was much younger, I thought that spiritual ritual was a waste of time.  That ritual was empty and unproductive in worship.  I suppose, at that stage of my life, ritual was empty because I could not bring substance to it.

Ritual, as practiced then by our spiritual leaders and parishioners was not empty.  Ritual was symbolic of the spiritual life each was striving to achieve.  The practice of robing in ancient costumes, swinging incense before the procession of the cross, (as was practiced in my early years in the Lutheran Church) was not an empty show. Neither were the rituals of communion as practiced in my teen years in the Presbyterian Church.  It was I who was empty of substance.  It was I who was too immature in my faith to understanding the meaning of these repeated acts.

There are some for whom religion is just a spiritual show, lavish productions done for selfish reasons.  And yet, God works miracles even through the selfish abusers of God's name.  The Spirit will enter and make the inauthentic authentic in those who listen.

Pray

prayers of thanksgiving for the Spirit of the Holy God.  Thank God for those who speak authentically of God's promise to all humankind.  Thank God for the miracles God has wrought.  Pray for the wisdom that the spiritual gifts of ritual remind us.

Full of Hypocracy and Lawlessness

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

God Is Not FooledMatthew 23:23-28 The Message

^23-24 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?
^25-26 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.
^27-28 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.

For Reflection

We sometimes forget that the context of the Christ event is as important in interpreting God's intention as is the life of God's son.  The very people that God entrusted with institutionalizing and integrating the spiritual and corporeal lives of God's people were themselves corrupted by their social, religious and political positions.  Contaminated by their power and endorsed by the Roman occupation practice of using them as Roman representatives lead the Pharisees to give way to their selfish urges.

Pray

that you will not fall prey to that same trap.  Pray that the cultural influences do not trap you into confusing what is a faith practice and what is a corporeal, cultural practice.  Pray that you will not use God to justify the ungodly.  Pray that you will measure your spiritual and corporeal life by your abiding love for God and God's intention that you work for justice, peace, forgiveness and compassion.

Can You Deceive God?

God's Prophets Demand Justice
Amos Rails against Injustice

God Is Not Fooled

Job 13:7-12  The Message

^6-12 “Listen now while I make my case,
    consider my side of things for a change.
Or are you going to keep on lying ‘to do God a service’?
    to make up stories ‘to get him off the hook’?
Why do you always take his side?
    Do you think he needs a lawyer to defend himself?
How would you fare if you were in the dock?
    Your lies might convince a jury—but would they
        convince God?
He’d reprimand you on the spot
    if he detected a bias in your witness.
Doesn’t his splendor put you in awe?
    Aren’t you afraid to speak cheap lies before him?
Your wise sayings are knickknack wisdom,
    good for nothing but gathering dust.

For Reflection 

Living in defense of God!

Have you ever been put in a situation where you felt compelled to defend God?  How does one go about defending God?  What could you possibly say?

Nothing!

Those who apologize for God misunderstand God.  Those who rationalize the mystery of God do God no justice.  Those who quote scripture out of context in defense of an irrational assumption about the nature of God bear false witness to God.  Those who justify hate by evoking God's name, blaspheme.  Those who cast stones in the name of God do not know the love of God.

God needs no defenders.  God needs obedient, humble people who seek justice, compassion, forgiveness, and mercy to live in the household of God.  God's household needs no justification but the Grace of God and the faith of God's servants.

Pray

for those who work tirelessly for the realization of the Kingdom of God.  Pray for those who justify themselves by defending God.   Pray to act in humility in service to God.