They Didn’t Want To Hear
“And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times” (Judges 20:28).
In the closing pages of Judges you find reports of wife abuse, blatant homosexuality, gang rape leading to murder, injustice, brother killing brother, and kidnapping. When David Jeremiah said, “I never thought I’d see the day,” you and I have never encountered a day as the day we live in. It is bad. Violence, vice, immorality, idolatry, and blasphemy are rampant.
This is the daily food people enjoy. TV and film violence is habitual and routinely accepted. It has become the fodder of unredeemed America. What is happening on the screen is being duplicated in the streets. When a nation is entertained by acts of violence, is there much hope for that nation?
Brother went against brother in Israel because evil was not properly dealt with punitive action. The Word of God tells us that “brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death” (Matthew 10:21).
Sin in the city will infect those in it and around and it will lead to war. The center cannot hold with stability. The home, the ministry, and society are disintegrating before our very eyes, and it seems as if people disdain the truth! But whether people want truth or not, the world must be told that Jesus Christ died for lost sinners, and that the power of Christ can transform homes, hearts, churches, and society if people will only trust Him.
“Christ beats His drum, but He does not press men,” said English preacher and poet John Donne in 1631; “Christ is served with voluntaries.”