Tread lightly on the things of earth

Obadiah’s words to Edom are today’s thought for the day on where nationalistic pride leads:

The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rocks
and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

Though you soar like the eagle
and make your nest among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,”
declares the LORD. …

The day of the LORD is near
for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your deeds will return upon your own head.

The situation. U.S. leadership invaded a sovereign nation, Iraq, whose citizens had done us no wrong, by bearing false witness against them. We took the Lord’s name in vain by associating it with this endeavor borne not of justice and godliness but of vengeance and lies. And in so doing we’ve caused the deaths of multiple 10,000s of said Lord’s children.

My questions.

• Why push to post the Ten Commandments everywhere if we’re not going to heed them?

• What’s the basis for any of us thinking we’re immune to the law of sowing and reaping? Scripture, all scripture, implies over and over that it applies to everyone.

• What benefit can accrue from denying our deeds, from continuing to assert our own righteousness?

I don’t think there’s any mystery why John the Baptist, in preparing the way for Jesus, constantly preached what was essentially a one-word sermon: “Repent.”

Ah, repent, John’s wondrous verb:

• to turn
• to sincerely regret in a way that drives a change for the better

Its presence says everything. Its absence says more.

[as reminded by reasew]