How much further can we fall? Talking to some old friends the other night, the question arose - “How long and how low will this country continue to fall?” It’s a fair question. The concern has always faced humanity. Even twenty-six hundred years ago, the prophet Habakkuk asked the same question. “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save.” - Habakkuk 1:2.
I could produce a litany of reasons why God should act decisively in the world today. From people committing the most atrocious crimes against humanity to people dragging God’s holy name through the mud. Without even stretching my imagination I could sit down and list the number of good reasons for God to step in, raise His mighty hands, and literally deal us a judgment of Biblical proportions. But just as in Habakkuk’s time, God acts at His own leisure and some would say, “With good reason.” 2 Peter 3:9 makes the case - “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” The Apostle makes a good point.
Can you imagine for a moment what the world would be like if God dealt His immediate judgment every time His creatures acted defiantly or committed a transgression against His laws? Where would you and I be at this very moment? Certainly, for most of us, the sins we commit on a daily basis are not as heinous as committing genocide, aborting a living human being, or engaging in human trafficking, but . . . that is not to say that God would merrily skip over our transgressions either.
We know what the Ten Commandments are. We know both the negatives and the positives that each one describes. We have no excuse. “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained.” - Act 17:30-31. And when God comes to judge the world, every sinful act will be disclosed and every transgression will be judged. Every thought, word, and deed will be illuminated by the blazing light of God’s righteous judgment. Naked, we will stand before Him and like Adam and Eve, we will feel the oppressive weight of our shame! “So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’”- Genesis 3:10.
Make no mistake: there will be no hiding from the wrath of God. There will be no fig leaf large enough to cover our sins. There will be no obfuscation on our part for our God is omniscient: all-knowing. It will be like standing before an inquisitor who already knows we are guilty as accused. What will we say? What can we say? Our hearts will be revealed without mitigation or reprieve. We will be without excuse or explanation for God has already revealed to us that He will one day judge us. “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” - 2 Corinthians 5:9-10.
Let us remember then that if God seems “irrelevant” or “disconnected” from the world and the human struggle, it is only because we don’t understand the decretive will of God, that which remains unknown to us because of our human limitations. But be certain; God’s will, will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. On God’s day of reckoning, the evil that has persisted throughout human time will all be judged by Jesus Christ. “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son.” - John 5:22.
While we should make every attempt to alleviate human suffering (it is our Christian duty), our chief concern today should be that we resist sin and error. Our concern should be for our own souls. We cannot stop the sins of the world no matter how hard we try. And Jesus Christ has revealed to us that it will get worse before it gets better - “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” - Matthew 24:21.
Let us all be vigilant for the salvation of our own souls, promised to us by the Holy Word of God - “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” - John 3:16. Believe in Christ. Believe in Him now. Believe in Him today. The time is fast approaching. “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” - Matthew 25:13.
Amen, He is coming, amen.
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