Passage: Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they make the fatherless their prey! What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still.
Journal: This passage could very well be speaking to our culture and to our lawmakers; to our "decrees" that do not take into account the real needs of the elderly, the poor and of children. ("Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they make the fatherless their prey!") Many with the power of the pen in our day "talk" (or write) a good game, but the solutions offered are more harmful than helpful. The result is felt throughout our culture, as we disdain the young as non-events and isolate the old as if a nuisance. God cannot look at this with favor, for He repeatedly equates true religion with the plight of widows and of the fatherless.
The wrath of God is often looked at with disdain by man. However, it is impossible to truly know God without understanding His wrath. It is the man that minimizes the stench of sin that is deeply offended by the wrath of God and His punishment of sin. This man makes sin a moving target, and thus makes capricious the absolute truth of God. The prideful man shakes his fist, and shouts to the heavens, "How dare God declare me unrighteous and unworthy, for at my core I am profoundly good and I am earnestly seeking the truth that I have declared!" It is here, at the crossroads of God's absolute truth and man's relative truth, that the pride of man blinds him to the holiness of God. It is the regenerated heart, the heart that sees the absolute truth of God, that is able to replace his own arrogance with the humble recognition of the protective nature of God's wrath. It is here that the child of God recognizes that the wrath of God reveals the holiness of God, as it also reveals the mercy of God toward the saved sinner.
Heard 'Round the House:
I had a legal conference out of town last week. Jill came along, and we took the downsie twins (Vera [age 8; down syndrome] and Emma [age 6, down syndrome]). They are certainly interesting traveling companions, and spent a good portion of their time fighting over who got to sit by mommy, and / or stand by mommy, and / or sleep by mommy, and (well, you get the idea; I'm chopped liver next to mommy). I actually think it is very sweet that they love their mommy so much, and thus enjoy even more the bones I get thrown my way now and then. The picture [above left] was taken after they got out of the "kiddy" pool and were feeling "freezy . . ." (never mind that it was about 90 degrees that day).