The Irish Wolfhound
The government was exterminating the little Jewish boys,
they were enslaved to the point where they cried to God because the
bondage was so severe. They were brothers and sisters, suffering the
same agony and oppressed by the same enemy and yet we have Exodus 2:13.
If that was the situation, how come they were oppressing each other?
You'd think since they were enduring oppression from their enemies that
that would be enough, how could they turn on each other and do the
enemy's work for him? Wasn't there enough pain in the world for the
People of God to face? Weren't there enough enemies who bullied and
butchered? In Exodus 2:13 we have one brother wronging another (and by
consequence, wounding the man's family--do we ever wrong only one
person?). There, there, in the land of injustice, where Hebrews
should have stood by each other and had good reason to stand by each
other; there, we find brothers and sisters wronging brothers and
sisters.
And in a world filled with tireless evil, vicious, brutal, evil;
slimy, rotting evil; crushing, debasing, cruel evil—in a world filled
with that we find churches grinding each others bones. We find journals,
bulletins, taped-sermons and all kinds of church media devoted to the
exposure of some preacher, church or other on matters of teaching. Ah,
yes, but surely the critics are dealing with something foundational like
the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus? Maybe his atoning death?
The certainty of judgement? The one true God? The truth and
trustworthiness of Scripture? Some central affirmations of
Scripture—surely? No! Take one quick glance around at these papers and
see for yourself. With the porn industry, the booze industry, the drug
industry, the vice industry, the abortion industry; with the many open
sewers pouring out filth, with countless open wounds around us, caused
by gangsters, corrupt landlords, politicians and war mongerers,
Rolex-watched prime-time evangelists of hype, nonsense and a ceaseless
diet of "give us more and more of your hard-earned money"—with all these
in front of us as enemies, who do we pick a raging battle with? Some
other little assembly, that, with Bible in hand and God set in their
trembling little hearts, has taken on these tyrannies. That's who some
of us dedicate our papers, sermons and letters against to scorn and destroy!
There's this story about the Irish Wolfhound that enjoyed a big juicy
bone and then hobbled off on three legs. Ummm...I don't believe I'll
tell it.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, theabidingword.com.