Sermon snippet – Should Christians Support Violence? Part III
INTRODUCTION – The answer remains a resounding “No!” Last week, we took time to honor fathers, as God commands in His Word. This week, we return to the subject of violence and anger, using Ephesians 4:26-27 as our beginning text. In part I of this short series, we found that God has always opposed violence and always will, that God has always warned about violence, and that God is always met with violence. Since I preached that sermon, one prominent promoter of progressivism has called for statues of Jesus to be destroyed – how predictable! Violence both begets and attracts violent people. In part II, we saw that Jesus, God the Son, was angered in His earthly ministry by the abuse of children, of a house of worship, and of authority by leaders. Today, we will look at the captivity of Israel. The Mosaic Law does not apply to the United States, but the underlying principles provide lessons for us. Why did Israel suffer captivity in Babylon? We will consider the three most obvious reasons.
- GOD OPPOSES THE VIOLENCE OF IDOLATRY
II Chronicles 36:11-21 – Verse 14 explicitly links Israel’s idolatry to captivity. Some might quibble with my use of “violence” in the sub-title of this section, but it is Biblically appropriate. First, idolatry is violence against the very existence of God. He is not some petty and petulant tyrant who craves attention and affirmation and thus cannot abide the worship of fraudulent idols and false ideas (the latter being a larger issue now). No, the issue is the absolute disjunction that is presented to us in Matthew 4:8-10. Here, we discover that there are only two ultimate choices available to us: we worship either God or Satan. Remember Ephesians 4:27: “Neither give place to the devil.” If we do not bow down to God, we are bowing down to Satan (even if we do not believe in his existence) and are on his vicious and vindictive side. Thus, we are violent against God Himself. Second, idolatry is violence against the nature of man, who is created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27). To reject God is to reject the divine image in man; thus, everything is permissible. Third, idolatry is violence against real people. Think of our present national situation. What kind of people bow down to others and their destructive teachings? Even worse, who thinks that he has the right to demand that we bow down? I call such a person “Little Joe,” not after the beloved character in “Bonanza” but after Joseph Stalin, the former dictator of the Soviet Union. The man (or woman) who wants us to kneel is small, small-minded, a small dictator. Who could possibly approve of such people? Charlie Manson would, if he were still alive, for he wanted to start a war in our nation. Certainly sociopaths and psychopaths like him must be clapping their blood-stained hands in admiration. Marxists are most assuredly content, for ongoing violent revolution is the main tenet of that heinous philosophy, one responsible for tens of millions of deaths. Especially, Satan is pleased with all expressions of violence. God, however, is not, and His people must eschew the violent ways of the world. Remember, if we will not have God, we will have Satan – and we will be in captivity to that sultan of sin.
- GOD OPPOSES THE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE SABBATH
Verse 21 (of II Chronicles 36) is speaking not of the weekly day of rest (which was an ongoing problem addressed by Jesus) but of the sabbatical year of rest which was supposed to be kept every seventh year. The nation of Israel never fulfilled this obligation. First, because Israel did not trust God to provide for them abundantly in the sixth year, they were attacking the character of God. Second, they were doing violence against the land, for it had no time to recover from repeated cultivation. Third, the failure to keep the sabbatical years was an assault on the poor. Debts were supposed to be forgiven, giving those struggling financially an opportunity to start over. If we do not trust God, we will never care for people as we should, and the most vulnerable will be afflicted. Consider our burning cities. Many are hurt, but the poor are always the ones who suffer most. They lose access to necessities such as stores, pharmacies, and doctors. They are more likely to lose jobs. Moreover, the poor are disproportionately affected by the ensuing higher crime rates. Even though the law of the sabbatical year does not directly apply to us, the principles underlying it do. If we will not have God’s way, we will think that we are forging our own new way, but we will instead by charging right into Satan’s way, right into spiritual (really, unspiritual) captivity.
- GOD OPPOSES THE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE POOR
What is implied throughout this passage in II Chronicles 36 is stated explicitly in Isaiah 3:14-15. The powerfully poetic prophet precisely predicts; in Ezekiel 22:29-31, we observe the outcome as Ezekiel, who lived and prophesied in Babylon, connects this captivity to the maltreatment of the poor. If we, like the people of Israel, bow down before the newest idea, fad, or personality, we are doing violence against the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us (especially, as we have previously considered, impressionable children). If anyone thinks that this point is an overstatement, remember that Israel went into captivity in part because of its treatment of the poor.
CONCLUSION – Psalm 95:6-8 – It has correctly been said that if you stand for nothing, you will stand for anything. In other words, if we have no strong moral core (God!), we will be weak and easily controlled by Satan and his violent followers. Let me suggest an additional maxim: if you bow for nothing, you will bow for anything. If however, we bow before God, we will stand strong. God gave us backbones so that we could stand upright and, figuratively, stand up for right. We have two options: we can kneel before Jesus, God the Son, Who died for us on the Cross, or we can grovel before Satan, who has never done anything for anyone and never will do anything good. May each one of us make the right decision to follow the risen Savior, Jesus Christ.