"And Gideon said unto him (an angel of the Lord), Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?" Judges 6:13
Last Friday, Dec. 14th, a week ago as I write this, a horrible scene played out in the small town of Newtown, Conn. A total of 28 people, including 20 children, were murdered. Of course, any murder is horrible, not only because of the death of a person, but also for the inherent fallout associated with the parties involved. In this incident, you can magnify the horribleness hundreds of times over.
Like you, I've heard many, many pundits, reporters and psycho-babblers offer their opinions of what happened and why it happened and I know, probably like myself, that you're tired of hearing the same thing over and over. For this lesson today, I'm going to use this terrible incident as the basis, but hopefully it won't be something you've heard "ad nauseam," as I intend to address it in a different manner than the pundits et al.
All of the ones I've heard discuss the incident have reasoned or related it to all sorts of causes, none of which related it to a scriptural aspect. That's the approach I'll attempt to take in this editorial today. I appreciate your consideration of it.
One of the things I heard the pundits say is that we have a "societal problem." In a sense that may be so, but I rather think that we have a "moral problem." Or, maybe better said, society has a "moral problem." To illustrate what I'm talking about, I received a photo from a brother that pretty much nails it. It was a picture of a T-shirt that read: DEAR GOD. WHY DO YOU ALLOW SO MUCH VIOLENCE IN OUR SCHOOLS? SIGNED, A CONCERNED STUDENT. Below this question was this reply: DEAR CONCERNED STUDENT. I'M NOT ALLOWED IN SCHOOLS. GOD.
The pundits ask "What has our society come to?" I'm amazed that they even ask this question. I ask, "Where has society's morals gone?" and I don't see it as a hard question to answer. When the basis for our morals and ethics, our basis for what's right and wrong, has been systematically subjected to years of assault by those opposed to God and any of His precepts, what do you expect of society? A better one? Not hardly.
When for the past 40 years or so society, through its governmental entities, has prohibited God from being seen or heard, much less taught in schools or other public agencies, can you expect a God-less society to somehow be morally better? But, none of the pundits I heard speak ever made this connection.
Think about all of the behavior that used to be immoral that is now accepted as normal. Behavior that has, over the last couple of generations, been forced on and into society. I ask again, Why wouldn't society have a "moral problem?"
With the society we have "advanced" (?) to today, I'm hard-pressed to define "deviant behavior." I used to have no problem knowing what deviancy was, and "was" is the operative word here. I never thought that I'd say this, but I'm glad that I'm of the age that I won't be around to see what the next generation embraces. What deviancy will be the next "normal."
But one thing that I can see so far is that a lack or morals, a lack of decency, a lack of ethics leads directly to one thing - a lack of regard or concern for others. Or, said another way, leads to a total disregard for their fellow man. That simply means that they have no "love" for others.
All of the above "lacks" comes from a "lack" of God which teaches people what "love" truly is. John pretty much nails this down when he writes in 1John 4:7 "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."
It's a pretty simple equation, isn't it? If we know God, then we know "love" and "love" is what causes us to have concern for others. When we've done our best to remove God, the source of "love," from society's basic structure, should it be any surprise that incidents of horrible behavior occur in that society.
A man once asked Jesus what the greatest, most important commandment was and Jesus answered that it was to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind." Without being asked, Jesus then said that the 2nd greatest commandment was "like unto" the 1st. "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself." (Matt. 22:36-39) In my humble opinion, society today doesn't "love God" and therefor doesn't "love it's neighbors."
That's my analysis, but it certainly isn't the pundits. Their answers to these events is that we need to enact more laws. One thing that history has proven, over and over, is that you cannot legislate morality or moral behavior. Enacting more gun laws or more mental health laws isn't going to alleviate the "moral problems" of society. Do we have laws against drunk driving? Laws against theft? Laws against all sorts of criminal behavior? Of course we do. Has those laws stopped anyone from violating them? Of course not.
To borrow the words of the prophet Hosea, because we've "sown the wind" (been denying God) we're now "reaping the whirlwind." (Hos. 8:7) You can make all the laws you want. Legislate up a storm, which is what Congressmen do in order to make it appear that they're doing something, but that isn't going to address the underlying cause of our "moral problem."
Said in another fashion - you can't legislate a society to "love its neighbor" when that society has no basis for "love" which is the basis for our morals, ethics and decent behavior. You know what legislation would work? If the government passed a law that said that God's Law will be read in every home and taught in every school.
Then, perhaps, if God was "allowed to be in schools" we wouldn't be needing armed guards and locked doors in them. However, if we continue on in our path of removing and denying God we can only expect more of these horrible event to occur. My greatest fear is that our society will continue that path of destruction and I shudder to think what my grandchildren's generation will have to live with.
In conclusion, I would opine that the answer to Gideon's question might just be this: perhaps "The Lord" isn't with us as a nation because, like Israel of his day, we've left Him.
Ron Covey
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