Doing What You’re Told

08/20/11

Jeremiah 48.10 10“A curse on anyone who is lax in doing the LORD’s work! A curse on anyone who keeps their sword from bloodshed!” NIV

Okay, this one is for all those who claim the Bible is just as bad as the Koran, or the Q’uran, or the tenets of Islam. Just exactly what is the Lord’s work? This is precisely where some get into trouble with proof-texting; and precisely why we shouldn’t do it – proof-texting that is… This verse is only meant to be taken in the context of this passage as it pertains to the judgment of Moab.

The people of Moab were the descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. They were a very hostile nation to Israel. Maybe it’s because their ancestor Lot was sometimes at odds with Abraham, his uncle (Cf. Genesis 13). Not always do relatives get along. The longer I live the more I see evidence of that. And so perhaps the familial unrest of Lot and Abraham carried over into the descendants of theirs. and the feuding never stopped. It’s one thing to feud with someone, but it’s quite another altogether to pick a fight with God’s chosen. That never seems to fare well with those who do, and the folks down in Moab seemed to be content to pick fights incessantly with their northwestern neighbors.  Bad form.

God’s judgment is neither selective nor spurious. God is as just in His judgments as He is forgiving and merciful in His love. But we cannot factor out that there are consequences to our actions – whether good or bad. And God wasn’t going to put up with the fighting and bickering and prejudice that came out of Moab against His own people who bore His own Name. He wasn’t going to take it from Moab and He wasn’t going to take it from anyone else.

What’s interesting about the context of the verse above is Moab didn’t think anything would happen to them for irritating the Israelites, their distant relatives. God had other ideas about that and said to His assigned warriors something like, “If you don’t do as I say and do all that I say then you are worse off than the ones I am summoning you to destroy!” Moab was to be reduced to nothing more than rubble and grave sites and woe to those who didn’t do it, and then had to face the Lord.

So if that is the fate of those who don’t carry out the Lord’s judgment exactly as commanded, then what’s to become of the ones to whom the Lord has said, “…Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28. 19,20 NIV)? No wonder the writer of Hebrews said, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10.31 NIV)

Moab had their chance and like Israel, rejected the Lord. They got what they deserved. You and I however are not presently getting what we deserve; we are recipients (at least for the moment) of God’s grace. But let’s not abuse that grace and make excuses for it by ignoring what we’re called to do.