October 19 Why Do You Know?

Rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done? ~Proverbs 24:11-12

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory; all the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then He will say to those on His left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.” They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help You?” He will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. ~Matthew 25:32-33-&-41-46

At the end of seven days the Word of the Lord came to me: “Son of Man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. So, hear the Word I speak and give them warning from Me. When I say to a wicked man, “You will surely die,” and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself. ~Ezekiel 3:16-19

There’s no denying it, getting involved is often a messy business. Once we choose to get involved, we usually discover that we have bitten off more than we can chew, so to speak. We often think, “It would have been better if we hadn’t known,” but now that you know…what? No matter how prepared we think we may be, the one fact seems to be that the unexpected almost always happens, demonstrating to us that we weren’t as prepared as we thought we were.

However, the truth is that in God’s eyes, it’s better that we know and once we know, we are responsible to act. “God has shown you, what is good. For what does the Lord “REQUIRE” of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humble with your God.” (Micah 6:8) We are people of action. “Rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering toward slaughter.” These are action words that call us to intercede on behalf of victims.

The sad thing is that, in our society, it’s too easy not to know. We are grateful that no one knows what goes on behind closed doors. We like our privacy. We turn off the news because we’re just sick of it. There are times when we hesitate to ask, “How are you doing?” for fear that we may end up finding out more than we wanted to know. Our culture makes it easy for us to be the priest or the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan. We can pass on the other side of the road, pretending that we don’t see, or have an excuse handy for when we do see, but don’t want to stop. Stopping could get messy and, for many reasons, we just don’t want to get messy, this time.

We’re so grateful for our first responders who go out of their way to get messy. God, however, seems to be calling all of us to be first responders for Him, to do what we can to be informed and help. God doesn’t seem interested in excuses. “If you say, “but we knew nothing about this,” does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?” Jesus echoes this when He says: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

This can be a hard teaching to face. Can’t Jesus at least make allowances for busy schedules and too much on our plates already? Then we get back to the question: “Why do you know?” I think that, in truth, God has us on the hook for more than we want to be on the hook for. He holds us to be more responsible for others than we may want to be.

I do not believe, however, that God is calling us to be constantly looking for rescue operations to participate in. Jesus is also the one who said: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) Also, there are times when physically getting involved can do more harm than good. We do well to know our gifts and limitations and respond wisely.

However, there is one thing that we can always do that will never cause harm. It may be an important part of rescuing another from death, physical and spiritual. That is, we can always pray. We may never be able to free a fellow Christian from prison in a country where they are persecuted, but we can stay informed and pray. We may not be able to physically right all the injustices of our land, but we can stay informed and pray. We may not be able to heal a sick friend, or save a broken marriage, but we can pray.

This is not to say that we are not responsible to do all the good we can when we are able. “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.” ― John Wesley. But everything that we do, spiritual or physical should be a matter for prayer, bathed in prayer. And, when prayers are answered or good has been accomplished, prayers of thanksgiving should be offered that we were used of God in an amazing way, whatever that way is.

What if, when we are standing before Jesus on His throne, His question for us is, “Why didn’t you pray?” Perhaps, the reason why we come to know anything is so we will pray.

Prayer: Father, there is so much to pray for! There is also much to do! I am overwhelmed thinking about it! But I will rest in prayer and listen for Your voice. May my prayers and actions be guided by your will and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Make me fruitful and productive in works of compassion, mercy and justice. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Song: Give Me Your Eyes