MEROZ PLACE: DRIVING ON NEUTRAL
Ever heard of Meroz?
I bet you're shaking your head. The sure and confident fact that most of us are not familiar with Meroz is proof that the curse that was laid upon this city thousands of years ago still lingers on.
'Curse Meroz,' said the angel of the Lord.
'Curse its people bitterly,
because they did not come to help the Lord,
to help the Lord against the mighty.' (Judges 5:23)
Why was the city cursed? Because it failed to help God's people, its Israelite brothers, in stopping the retreat of the latter's enemy when it had in its power to do so.
Why didn't they help Israel? Because they wanted to stay neutral.
Why did they want to be neutral? We can only speculate. Perhaps they were unconcerned since it wasn't their business or they were scared of Israel's enemy. Whatever the reason (or to be more apt, excuse), the Lord God Himself cursed the city resulting in its oblivion and footnote mention in history for its cowardly neutrality. And if we're not careful, the same can happen to us, the followers of Christ, if we adopt the same attitude during times of moral crisis such as we are living in now.
At a time of moral crisis, there are only two sides---good and evil; right and wrong and "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." (Edmund Burke, Irish statesman). Doing nothing might bring us peace because we could go about our insular lives but "no one has the right to be at peace at a time of moral crisis." (Adrian Rogers, American pastor) In fact, believers are bound to take a stand for what is biblical.
When someone is in need of help,
When the wicked are flourishing,
When wrong becomes right,
we, the followers of Christ, are to call out evil just as God has done through His prophets and Son. In a moral crisis situation especially on a societal magnitude, there is no such thing as being neutral for the salt and light of the earth as there is no such thing as neutral salt and light.
Salt always affects how we enjoy our food; light always makes a difference in how we go about so why do we deceive ourselves thinking neutrality is an option? Jesus said that salt that has lost its flavor is good for nothing except to be thrown away. Light that does not bring light is darkness.
Friends, claiming to be neutral is as good as saying that we are good for nothing except for Payatas and we are enabling the reach of darkness. Let us not be the modern-day Meroz inhabitants who could have done something but refused to do so. Yes, we can do something. In fact, we can do a lot and and it starts with going down on our knees and repent of our neutrality that does nothing but aid existing evil.
Ever heard of Meroz?
I bet you're shaking your head. The sure and confident fact that most of us are not familiar with Meroz is proof that the curse that was laid upon this city thousands of years ago still lingers on.
'Curse Meroz,' said the angel of the Lord.
'Curse its people bitterly,
because they did not come to help the Lord,
to help the Lord against the mighty.' (Judges 5:23)
Why was the city cursed? Because it failed to help God's people, its Israelite brothers, in stopping the retreat of the latter's enemy when it had in its power to do so.
Why didn't they help Israel? Because they wanted to stay neutral.
Why did they want to be neutral? We can only speculate. Perhaps they were unconcerned since it wasn't their business or they were scared of Israel's enemy. Whatever the reason (or to be more apt, excuse), the Lord God Himself cursed the city resulting in its oblivion and footnote mention in history for its cowardly neutrality. And if we're not careful, the same can happen to us, the followers of Christ, if we adopt the same attitude during times of moral crisis such as we are living in now.
At a time of moral crisis, there are only two sides---good and evil; right and wrong and "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." (Edmund Burke, Irish statesman). Doing nothing might bring us peace because we could go about our insular lives but "no one has the right to be at peace at a time of moral crisis." (Adrian Rogers, American pastor) In fact, believers are bound to take a stand for what is biblical.
When someone is in need of help,
When the wicked are flourishing,
When wrong becomes right,
we, the followers of Christ, are to call out evil just as God has done through His prophets and Son. In a moral crisis situation especially on a societal magnitude, there is no such thing as being neutral for the salt and light of the earth as there is no such thing as neutral salt and light.
Salt always affects how we enjoy our food; light always makes a difference in how we go about so why do we deceive ourselves thinking neutrality is an option? Jesus said that salt that has lost its flavor is good for nothing except to be thrown away. Light that does not bring light is darkness.
Friends, claiming to be neutral is as good as saying that we are good for nothing except for Payatas and we are enabling the reach of darkness. Let us not be the modern-day Meroz inhabitants who could have done something but refused to do so. Yes, we can do something. In fact, we can do a lot and and it starts with going down on our knees and repent of our neutrality that does nothing but aid existing evil.