One can find blogs that drone on endlessly about cat supplies, but where else can you find solid Messianic teaching? Only here at MessianicMusings.com! Here’s the final part of my three-part posting of my Va Yishlah commentary. Or listen to it!
So what about us? When we are faced with our own extreme circumstances, do we know what we ought to do? Well, if we claim to be Messianics, trusting in Yeshua and led by the Ruach haKodesh in all we do, then yes, we should.
Yet do we live up to that? Not always. Too often, we also let anger control us, rather than the Spirit of God. And there are consequences for doing so. The consequence is that we bring disrespect to the name of the God we claim to serve! And when we do that, as Romans suggests, “the world blasphemes the name of the L-RD” because of us.
Now, I always wondered where the Scriptures said, “the world blasphemes the name of The L-RD because of you.” Well, I found it. It comes from the story of David and Bathsheba. As we read in:
II Samuel 12:13-14
Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the L-RD.” Nathan replied, “Yes, but the L-RD has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin. But you have given the enemies of the L-RD great opportunity to despise and blaspheme him, so your child will die.”
Will God punish us as he did David? We don’t know. On the one hand, He deals with each of us individually. Yet it would be arrogant to assume he would exempt us from consequences when he did not exempt David. We can never be sure. David’s example must always serve as a warning not to abandon our obedience to The L-RD and His commands under any circumstances.
Remember, we do not set aside our own anger, our thirst for vengeance, justice and retribution, for the sake of those who have wronged us! We do it, in part, for ourselves, to avoid bitterness and even more sin. But more importantly, we do it to protect and exalt the name of our God.
Whenever we give into selfish desires, we hurt more than just ourselves. We damage the reputation of God in the eyes of the world!
Too often, people do terrible things out of selfish desires, and then claim to be believers! Dennis Rader, the serial killer known as the Bind-Torture-Kill Strangler, was the president of his church board and claimed from prison to be a genuine believer, despite the brutal murders of at least ten people over more than twenty years. Such hypocrisy only brings scorn on the name of God!
Remember, we represent the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob and his Messiah, Yeshua! We want people to look at us and see God’s character, rather than for people to look at God and see only ours.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: cat supplies, Torah, Va Yishlah