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Taking Matters Into Our Own Hands

Taking Matters Into Our Own Hands

God created us to serve Him to his glory.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Satan first decided to serve his own interests (Isaiah 14:14) and then got Adam and Eve to follow in the pursuit of their own interests (Genesis 3:5). The rest of human history has been the aggregate result of self-serving actions;

Philippians 2:21 For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.

Satan has directed the course of history in such a way as to seduce Christians into following a path away from God by getting them to consider what they can achieve on their own. For example, the American Revolution (which became a template for world wide revolution) was an opportunity to stir people to rile at the injustice of unfair taxation (20 pence a year on average). Many even came to deceive themselves into thinking it was their Christian duty to “set things right” (similar to the rational of a jihadist).

The Old Testament (particularly the book of Judges) contains a series of of cyclical events where people get further away from God, suffer a calamity, cry out to God for help, God rescuing them, then they forget about God and start the cycle all over again. Moses even warned them about this danger (Deuteronomy 6:12). We are told that the record of their failures was kept to instruct us (1 Corinthians 10:11).

The American and French revolutions, the abolitionist movement, the progressivist movement, the socialist movement, the environmentalist movement, the war on poverty, the war on hunger, and the equal rights movement are all examples of how easily we are led to think that we can control things and “fix” all that God has gotten wrong or neglected. God does not seem to have a favorable view of this attitude;

Genesis 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

At the core of these various corrective ideas is the belief that man is good and perfectible. Also the appeal to human vanity that one knows how to “fix” others has always had an appeal. Consider Mao, Lenin, and Hitler. It is ironic that Satan used the result of Western civilization which was achieved mostly by Christians as the basis to support the idea that man is evolving and perfectible and not only does not need God, but is becoming God.

The truth is that man is desperately evil (Romans 3:10) and apart from God has no hope (Ephesians 2:12). Satan wants us to look at the world and see evil and be seduced into thinking we can “fix” it. In reality, what we see is a reflection of our own sinfulness and the patience of God as he tolerates (for now) our evil to each other so that some might be called out of the mess we have made of the world he created. The Christian is well advised to reflect on if he has been seduced into attempting to control that which belongs to the Lord.

Psalm 37:7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

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