Zechariah 7:11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
Oh Friends, oh Friends, almost from the day of creation mankind has been disobedient to God’s law. Today’s Bit is just one declaration in a long, long line of disobedience. Zechariah had just instructed the people, on God’s orders: ‘Execute true judgement (justice), and show mercy (LOVING kindness) and compassions every man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine (plan) evil against his brother in your heart.’ (Zech.7:9-10) Oh mih people, how many times have we heard those directives eh? Too numerous to count! We’ve been hearing them from the beginning of time because those are the basic rules on which our faith is based. It’s what Jesus was born, lived by example, preached and died for: For justice, mercy, compassion, and LOVE towards each other; to help the poor, the widows, the orphans and the strangers in our midst. But foolishly, Israel disobeyed. ‘They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder (gave a rebellious or stubborn shoulder) and stopped their ears (made their ears heavy), that they would not hear.’ How sad mih breddren. And that wasn’t the first time they’d been disobedient either. And each time they were punished. We’ll just quote one instance here though; after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and took them away captive. Now Nehemiah is trying to right it all with God, so that they can go back and rebuild Jerusalem. ‘Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations. Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed (oppressed) them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver (rescue) them according to thy mercies. And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly (acted presumptuously), and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgements, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.’ (Neh.9:26-29) Oh people it’s obvious something was seriously wrong with the Israelites, else they wouldn’t have made it a cycle of disobeying, suffering, crying out for mercy, only to fall back into the same ungodly mess. But we should be the last ones to pass judgement cause we have their mistakes as prominent and poignant examples and reminders of what not to do, but yet have committed the same foolish disobedience. So now we’re in the throes, and note it’s only early throes, of paying for our sins, and as we’re wont to do when payback time comes; everybody holding deh head and bawling, ‘Woe is me!’ But then it’s too late Friends. Remember the ole people’s words; ‘prevention better than cure.’ But no one pays attention to that nowadays, not in religion or any other walk of life. Look at the Pharmaceutical Industry; spending billions to find cures for illnesses and diseases that wouldn’t exist if we lived a better, more stringent life. The ole people also declared; ‘when yuh doh hear, yuh going to feel.’ And we all know that’s gospel, yet we ignore it at our own peril. We must think that the Lord’s joking cause we behaving just like the Israelites when Jeremiah warned them about keeping the Sabbath. ‘But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff (were stubborn) that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.’ (Jer.17: 23) And it’s not like they didn’t know that disobedience would bring punishment. Moses warned them early on about serving other gods that would bring down the Lord’s wrath. (Deut.29:25-27) Solomon said the same thing: ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God…and have taken hold on other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.’ (1 Kin.9:9) Again with Jeremiah, when the people asked why such evil had befallen them, the Lord instructed him: ‘Thou shalt say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me…and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me.’ (Jer.16:11-12) And sadly Friends, that’s the truth. We have done worse than our fathers. Our ungodliness has reached limits they could never have even imagined. And from the way things look, our children seem intent on taking it to a higher level. But people we can’t allow that to happen. It’s already a lot of our fault why they are ungodly, and we’re already seeing signs of dire punishment. We don’t want to be remembered as the generation that let the world slip into terrible ungodliness now, do we? Certainly not! So please, let’s make some serious efforts to turn this thing around, starting at home, with those closest to us. We can’t brow beat them with it now, it’s sorta late for that, but through LOVING-kindness, encouragement and a lifestyle of good example we can at least stop the rot. Oh Friends, the future generations are too important for us to just cede them to Lucifer without making a godly stand. Let’s stand strong for them nuh. Much LOVE!…living by godly example…is the only way to make a real difference…
Oh Friends, oh Friends, almost from the day of creation mankind has been disobedient to God’s law. Today’s Bit is just one declaration in a long, long line of disobedience. Zechariah had just instructed the people, on God’s orders: ‘Execute true judgement (justice), and show mercy (LOVING kindness) and compassions every man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine (plan) evil against his brother in your heart.’ (Zech.7:9-10) Oh mih people, how many times have we heard those directives eh? Too numerous to count! We’ve been hearing them from the beginning of time because those are the basic rules on which our faith is based. It’s what Jesus was born, lived by example, preached and died for: For justice, mercy, compassion, and LOVE towards each other; to help the poor, the widows, the orphans and the strangers in our midst. But foolishly, Israel disobeyed. ‘They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder (gave a rebellious or stubborn shoulder) and stopped their ears (made their ears heavy), that they would not hear.’ How sad mih breddren. And that wasn’t the first time they’d been disobedient either. And each time they were punished. We’ll just quote one instance here though; after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and took them away captive. Now Nehemiah is trying to right it all with God, so that they can go back and rebuild Jerusalem. ‘Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations. Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed (oppressed) them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver (rescue) them according to thy mercies. And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly (acted presumptuously), and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgements, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.’ (Neh.9:26-29) Oh people it’s obvious something was seriously wrong with the Israelites, else they wouldn’t have made it a cycle of disobeying, suffering, crying out for mercy, only to fall back into the same ungodly mess. But we should be the last ones to pass judgement cause we have their mistakes as prominent and poignant examples and reminders of what not to do, but yet have committed the same foolish disobedience. So now we’re in the throes, and note it’s only early throes, of paying for our sins, and as we’re wont to do when payback time comes; everybody holding deh head and bawling, ‘Woe is me!’ But then it’s too late Friends. Remember the ole people’s words; ‘prevention better than cure.’ But no one pays attention to that nowadays, not in religion or any other walk of life. Look at the Pharmaceutical Industry; spending billions to find cures for illnesses and diseases that wouldn’t exist if we lived a better, more stringent life. The ole people also declared; ‘when yuh doh hear, yuh going to feel.’ And we all know that’s gospel, yet we ignore it at our own peril. We must think that the Lord’s joking cause we behaving just like the Israelites when Jeremiah warned them about keeping the Sabbath. ‘But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff (were stubborn) that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.’ (Jer.17: 23) And it’s not like they didn’t know that disobedience would bring punishment. Moses warned them early on about serving other gods that would bring down the Lord’s wrath. (Deut.29:25-27) Solomon said the same thing: ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God…and have taken hold on other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.’ (1 Kin.9:9) Again with Jeremiah, when the people asked why such evil had befallen them, the Lord instructed him: ‘Thou shalt say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me…and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me.’ (Jer.16:11-12) And sadly Friends, that’s the truth. We have done worse than our fathers. Our ungodliness has reached limits they could never have even imagined. And from the way things look, our children seem intent on taking it to a higher level. But people we can’t allow that to happen. It’s already a lot of our fault why they are ungodly, and we’re already seeing signs of dire punishment. We don’t want to be remembered as the generation that let the world slip into terrible ungodliness now, do we? Certainly not! So please, let’s make some serious efforts to turn this thing around, starting at home, with those closest to us. We can’t brow beat them with it now, it’s sorta late for that, but through LOVING-kindness, encouragement and a lifestyle of good example we can at least stop the rot. Oh Friends, the future generations are too important for us to just cede them to Lucifer without making a godly stand. Let’s stand strong for them nuh. Much LOVE!…living by godly example…is the only way to make a real difference…
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