Violence
“The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.”( 2Sam. 22:3)
“O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!” (Hab. 1:2)
Recently while I was walking with friends we saw some sort of a dispute between and a young man and a woman. I didn’t see the encounter at first but my friend said that it looked like there was some domestic violence taking place across the street. She had seen the man hit the woman. As I looked over the woman was walking behind the man and he turned around, stopped and said something to her and then slapped her. We yelled out at that point and the woman turned around and walked back towards us with her head down. We asked if she was ok but she just walked past us with her head down and the fellow was gone. This was something I had never witnessed before and it was rather surreal. The man did not seem at all concerned that he was hitting this woman in broad daylight in a very public area and I guess it made me realize that violence to many people today is just a natural way of expressing their anger and frustration. We do not seem to know how to control ourselves today and we just allow our natural feelings to express themselves. Without Christ in our lives it is very easy to feel this way as it is our natural reaction.
Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.”
There are many demonstrations of this violence in the world today. We have the Occupy movements some of which have had violence erupt. We have the student demonstrations over high student fees, violent demonstrations in the Middle East and now others erupting in our Israel nations as well. They all have a different reason but it seems that people think that the way to solve their problems today is by violent means. “For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. (Hab. 2:17).
We have so much violence in our world today. Violence seems to be becoming the answer to problems, such as abortion, neglect and abuse of the elderly, abuse of children and abuse of animals. Violent criminals who have raped and killed young children are not given the sentences they deserve and the families of these young children never receive justice. “Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.” (Zeph. 3:4). God’s laws have been abandoned and evil fills our lands. We have lost our way and do not allow God to work in our lives and change our hearts. We continue to do things our own way and try to make God fit into our plans rather that changing ourselves to fit into His plans. We are so arrogant and really deserve everything that we get, but luckily for us, God is merciful and will save us from ourselves if we will only repent and turn to Him.
“And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.” (Luke 3:14) When I read these words of Jesus I realized how far down we have come. Can you imagine yourself trying to say these words to this selfish and self-righteous generation? Here in British Columbia we have many contracts coming up with our Government employees and they are asking for the moon. Now, I’m not saying that I know all of the issues with these employees but from what I’ve heard so far I do not feel sorry for them. With all the troubles in the world today and so many people struggling to make ends meet these spoiled people still want everything that they can manage to get for themselves. There is no humility in our lands. So now we have the prospect of having more strikes and confrontations.
In the end violence never solves our problems and we know this cannot go on forever. We have a mighty God and we must pray that He will save us from the violence in the earth. One day soon this violence will end with the final act of violence destroying the Babylonian system that has enslaved us for too long. Our Lord Jesus Christ will then return to set up His millennial kingdom. Hallelujah!
“And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.” (Rev. 18:21). “And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.” (Rev. 19:1-3).
