Thirty-five years ago, a former editor of this publication penned in part these solemn words: “On every hand there is a concerted drive to remove the fear of God from the consciences of the people of the land. A noted Bible expositor has said that they [so-called “Christian lands”] will reap the whirlwind for the dragon’s teeth they are sowing giving up God and throwing off inhibitions which even nature should teach men.
“The schools of the land now teach that God did not create man thus man satisfies himself that he bears no responsibility to God. Then, having reasoned that he is nothing more than an intelligent beast, not responsible to a Creator, by deduction man further reasons that he may just as well live in a bestial manner, seeking to satisfy all the corrupt tendencies of his evil heart.
“The religious world is filled with hosts of professed ministers of the gospel who openly deny virtually every precious truth of the Word of God. Under such gross infidelity, mankind has fallen so far down that all that now governs morals are lusts and popular opinion. Furthermore, there is a certain sophistry current that teaches that as long as people are not caught in their immoral or amoral actions, all is well. Christians, beware of these influences!”
How solemn to read these words today and realize that those days our late brother referred to were indeed the sowing the dragon’s teeth, while our day is surely one of reaping the wind.
Though we do not multiply examples, recent political events in the United States surely ought to provide ample motive for Christians to practically move as pilgrims and strangers through this wretched world walking in practical separation from all its corrupt ways. How sad that real believers in the Lord Jesus Christ become caught up in the spirit of such a defiled scene!
Perhaps all of us to some degree know in our minds the truth of moral separation from this corrupted scene far better than we practice that truth with our feet! However, truth known in the mind is not necessarily held in the heart. So in Proverbs 23:2626My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. (Proverbs 23:26) the father beseeches his son, “Give me thine heart,” while in chapter 4:23 he issues the loving warning, “Keep thy heart.” In the midst of the wiles and temptations of this world, how we need to guard our affections! But we cannot keep or guard what has not first been given wholly to the Father.
In the day of Deborah and Barak a day of very great failure and weakness in Israel there were those who, when called to the battle, rose up and went, for their hearts had been touched (Judg. 45). However, others who had become accustomed to and settled down in the very world which was oppressing them refused the call to battle.
Gilead his heart taken up with his comforts—was quite content to dwell on the other side of Jordan. Satisfied with those comforts, he had no motivation to fight such a battle.
Dan’s heart was involved with his business, for he remained “in [his] ships.” Thus the challenges of that world’s workplace kept him from helping to be a deliverer of God’s dear people.
Asher seemed quite content to rest and enjoy the security of his place. His heart was evidently unwilling to trade the advantage of that refuge for the apparent dangers and discomforts of battle.
However, amid this sad list of cold-hearted apathy, how sweet to read of Zebulun and Naphtali (Judg. 5:1818Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field. (Judges 5:18)) whose hearts, as the hymn says, “were on fire.” They “were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.” They were willing to lay down their lives for the sake of their brethren. Their hearts not their minds had been attracted by Jehovah. They were fearless their hearts placed no value on worldly possessions, its comfort, its business or its security.
Ed.