I’ve seen Fire and I’ve seen rain
I ‘ve seen Sunny days I thought would never end
I’ve seen Lonely times when I could not find a friend – Fire and Rain, James Taylor

It was a bright clear day, a week after hurricane Gaston had moved north, barely touching the outer banks of North Carolina. There was a lite cool breeze as I stood at the top of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse overlooking the vast blue ocean.

This was the final day of a great vacation my wife and I had enjoyed by ourselves in untold years. Our children were now all grown and mostly on their own, life had now allowed us to take a long needed getaway. Every day we had enjoyed an eternity of sun and sunsets from our stay at Virginia Beach. We were now heading home taking the long way, so we could take in as many sights as possible.

As I was standing, looking out at the view from the top of the lighthouse, for a moment all seemed right with the world, Time was temporarily non-existent as I pondered my surroundings, I did not want to move or think of coming down. We continued there as long as daylight would allow, then begin the downward descending steps of the inner lighthouse. The path that would eventually lead us back home and to reality.

Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home. CS Lewis

When we read stories in the bible there are no videos, no background music, no narrations as the scenes change, nothing high tech, just written words on the page. God understood this as He inspired the many authors as they begin to weave together the written/living Word that would be set on the pages for eternity. So imagery in scripture is sometimes expressed by the place and surroundings of the characters.

An example would be when Elijah was running from Jezebel in 1 Kings 19. There Elijah was in fear for his life as he hid in a cave to spend the night. Could there be anything as depressing and dark as a cave at night? So the implication is that Elijah was in the depths of depression and fear, not knowing what to do or where to go. It was out of the dark cave of depression that he comes to experience God’s power, through the wind, the earthquake, and fire. Then as Elijah sees and feels this power, he is then ready to listen. Finally, Elijah hears the still small voice of God. So this imagery is used as part of the way the Holy Spirit colors the Scriptures and our own imaginations to help us better understand.

In contrast, the imagery of Jesus’s first sermon is up on a mountain. That is where He chose to start His preaching and teaching ministry. This was before the religious leaders would start working against Him or a close friend would conspire to betray Him. It was a place and time when everything was right and the multitude was ready to listen.

Jesus taught Blessed are the people who will follow me and give heed to my Words. Anyone who chooses to follow me will become the salt that makes life on earth taste good. I imagine As He taught in the breeze, He was pondering the surroundings as He was moved with compassion for the multitudes that gathered. In my mind, it was a bright clear day up on the mountain with the sea of Galilee in full view. This is the backdrop, that the Son of God chose as He begins proclaiming His word to the world.

He came to that which was his own, His own did not receive him. John 1:11

I remember as we arrived at the lighthouse and started our path to the top, there was a place at the bottom to sit and rest before the climb. The stairs on the inside were ominous black concrete and metal, all in a spiral as far as you can see looking straight up. They were all surrounded by a dimly lit dungeon like a brick wall. This wall was round and continued to close in, the higher up the stairs you would climb.

We sat and took a rest, wondering if we were going to have the stamina to reach the top. Then as we started up the first few flights we noticed the only lights were small windows placed about every 2-3 stories. Just enough light to allow you to see the next flight. Once you are about halfway, it begins to feel like a never-ending process, one step at a time, round and round, as you progress to the top.

“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.” CS Lewis

There is a saying, I use quite often at the regret of my family. “No good deed goes unpunished” I use this saying because it reflects that there is a price that has to be paid to do good or accomplish anything in this life. There is always a price that has to be paid to help yourself and to help others. If you do not want a skinned knee or dirty hands you should never stop to help someone change a tire on the side of the road. If you want to see the view at the top or help others on their journey to the top, there are always steps that have to be climbed.

Jesus understood the price He would pay, the pain, suffering, and death of the cross. This would be His view at the bottom. Jesus walked the road to the cross one step at a time, knowing what was ahead yet looking at the bigger picture of eternity for you and me. Jesus knew that every son of Adam and every daughter of Eve would face the darkness of death. He knew we would all suffer from the unmitigated pain of body and soul. Part of the reasons why Jesus took the ultimate journey in wisdom was to show us that even the Son of God was not immune from the pain this world gives.

Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. Isaiah 40:4

It was through His suffering that death and hell were defeated so that in the next world every wrong in this life can be made right. Every disability, sorrow, shortcoming, the pain will all be wiped away. The pain of this life will become a vapor that will be replaced by eternity, all because of Jesus seeing the bigger picture and defeating the lowest low that could be reached. This view from the bottom was the price He paid, so we can, in the next world see the view from the top for eternity.

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. Psalms 139:8

Our journey in wisdom is a lifelong journey, a journey that can lead us to the rock bottom of our lives and show us the darkest places of our souls, even to the very end of ourselves. As we take each step everything material in this life becomes worthless and we discover the only worthwhile purpose is to pursue eternity and the things that will last forever.

If you travel here you will feel it all the brightest and the darkest
If you travel here listen to your heart and take with you what last forever, Travelers song, Future of Forestry

Being an avid prophecy reader, I realize that there are millions of mixed messages among a lot of prophetic teachers. Each one describing why their ideas are the ones we should listen to. It is usually confusing as we strain to understand prophecies and end-time events. I think this is often the reason that these topics are not often discussed in most church settings or between some Christians. There is a fear of getting it wrong because of the complexity of the subject and mostly just being fearful of unknown future events.

Matthew 2:1

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

My purpose of this article is not one of prophecy or prediction, but one of analysis and comparison. I believe the Bible, written over 2000 years ago is The Living Word of a Holy God. I believe it holds in its pages truth and answers for our age and for our nation.  Because we all come to the Bible with our own bias, we sometimes only understand a small portion of the message God has for us. To illustrate my point, the nation of Israel, was very religious in the time leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. There were religious leaders, Pharisees, Sadducees, and many kinds of religious sects, all studying and learning the scriptures. It was a very large part of their culture. Yet, at the time of Jesus’ birth, very few knew it had happened or was happening, except those that were told directly by angels. The only people spoken of in the Bible who were aware of Jesus’ birth were Magi (wise men) from the east.  Not the religious “church goers” in Israel, but Persians from a far land who understood and kept a watch on God’s creation and understood heavenly signs.

Deuteronomy 11:16

Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you…

I am concerned that in America we also, are living in such a time.  We “Christians” have become so caught up in being religious that we fail to understand or we just ignore the facts of the age we live in. After centuries of sometimes misleading paths, we have missed some of the trails that lead to being “wise” enough to understand our time. To illustrate my point, we all tell ourselves and want to believe that America is a Christian nation. Yet, if we look around our nation, where are the Christian symbols? Is there a cross in New York Harbor proclaiming to the world our belief in Jesus Christ as the one true Savior of mankind or is there a statue of a mythological deity? How, or what part of the Washington monument, represents Christianity? If we were to take a tour of the Capital, are there any great murals or scenes inside showing an empty tomb, or giving witness to the power of a resurrected Christ? There are Bible verses here and there on some of the buildings, but can we quote them? Are we taught in our education system the value of their meaning?

Exodus 34:13

Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Even if all of our founding fathers were great men of the faith, if we take a realistic inventory, we would have to admit that faith has been thwarted. As a country, we have worshipped our own accomplishments rather than God. We have erected and worshipped idols, all the while calling them “American”. Because of God’s blessings we are, and have been, one of the greatest nations the world has ever known, yet our symbols and our pride does not reflect that true source. Our pride is in the strength of our own hands and our faith is in our technology. If we lose our bias and take notice of our national monuments we will realize that they are replicas of idol gods and symbols that the Bible names as abominations, because they represented heathen gods and religions that caused Israel to sin.

1 Corinthians 10:11

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

King Nebuchadnezzar was one of the main figures of the first few chapters of Daniel. He was the King of Babylon when Jerusalem was seized and Israel was taken into captivity. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream described in the fourth chapter about a tree.  The tree was so tall that it could be seen all over the earth.  It produced good fruit and all the animals found refuge in its shade and the birds nested in its limbs. In the dream, an angel came and chopped the tree down, leaving only a stump. The stump had dew on it until seven seasons went by (seven years). Daniel was called in to interpret the dream. Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar that the tree represented him and his kingdom and, because he did not recognize the God of heaven as his source and strength, he would be taken out of power for seven years and live like an animal. Daniel told him that after the seventh year he would be restored and would recognize the one true God who gave him his strength.

Genesis 3:9

But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

Because of man’s sinful nature, we are all inclined to hide from God and His Word. We always look at how it applies to someone elses life. Seldom do we take time to look in the mirror and apply it to our own life. I think our bias blinds us from seeing our nation as God sees it. America, just like King Nebuchadnezzar started out with greatness, but in similarities, America has forgotten the source of what made it great. America has lost its soul, and has set up idols and now bows to the gods of greed and immorality. Sin never stops, it continues to gets worse and without repentance, the nation is going down the path to perdition.

Daniel 4:30

The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty. The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you…

Nebuchadnezzar, at the height of his pride, was brought down. He had a very humbling experience in that for seven years he walked on all fours and ate grass like an animal. I think in the times we live that the question about America is not if, but when, will America be humbled? I am not advocating this as a prophecy, nor that the story of King Nebuchadnezzar was placed in the Bible for just these circumstances but I am suggesting this: because of America’s pride and the refusal to recognize where the source of its strength comes from, we are on a path to collapse. Our leaders continue to plot and plan everyday with no thought of God, creating laws and programs that destroy the family while promoting a sinful lifestyle.

Daniel 4:37

Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

After seven years of living like an animal, Nebuchadnezzar came to his senses, realizing who was in control and who was the true source of his greatness. Because of God’s grace, Nebuchadnezzar was not destroyed, but was brought back to reality. When and how America’s humbling experience will come is in God’s hands but every year our nation and society take on more animalistic features in our foolish search of a nation without God.

Romans 1:22

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

The Bible is sometimes misunderstood for a number of reasons, mainly because it is not all understood with our mind, but with our spirit. When we read a book like “Job” in the Bible, we read a story about a man that loses everything, then is later restored. In our physical world we can sympathize with him and relate to him because of our own losses, but in order to understand Job’s “spiritual compass” it takes a greater depth of spiritual meditation to grasp the whole picture.

Job 1:6

One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

The first chapter starts out with a challenge from God to Satan (the Devil). If we stop and think this through, it will shake the foundation of how we have been taught and challenge our perception of the spirit world.  It goes against the conventional wisdom of most churches, and even most of our beliefs, about God. Why would God challenge Satan and why does he point out Job, who, according to the scriptures, was an upright man and had done nothing wrong?  We find in the story that Job lived humbly before his Creator and is blessed with a great family of seven sons and three daughters. Things were near perfect in his life, so much so that Job’s daily routine was to pray and sacrifice for God’s continued favor, not only for himself, but also for his children.

Satan accepted God’s challenge with the condition that God would lift the hedge of protection from around Job. The second the “Spiritual” hedge was lifted, physical enemies came and destroyed Job’s family, killing all his children, cattle and possessions. Job responded to God by becoming more humble, tearing his clothes, shaving his head and sitting down in sack cloth and ashes and simply continuing to worship God.

Job 2:3

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.

God taunted Satan “Have you considered my servant Job?”  Satan again asked that the “spiritual” barrier be removed so that he could test Job’s physical body. God then “allows” Satan to hurt Job physically. Boils came up on his body and he was in horrific pain. At that point Job’s wife told him to give up by cursing God and dying. Job had nothing left.  He wondered where God was and his body was in severe pain.  Yet, still Job continued to magnify and worship God. He even had some “friends” come by and try to explain to Job how that everything was his fault, and that he must be covering up a sin. Each one, in their own way, explained their concept of God and Job’s perceived sin against Him. The rants go back and forth until finally in a whirlwind God spoke.

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Each one of us are caught in this “tug of war” between the “spiritual” battles and the physical struggles. Each of us are trying to please our Creator in our own way, while fighting an enemy we can’t see. We sometimes wonder, “Where is God?”  We want Him to speak over our lives. We need the answer to our questions today because we think that tomorrow may be too late. We want God to speak to us, our way, through our filter, saying something we are comfortable with, giving us only answers we want to hear.

Genesis 3:15

And I will put enmity between you (serpent; Satan) and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers; he (Jesus Christ) will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.”

At our first look, it seems terribly unfair how Job is just a pawn in a chess game between God and Satan. But I think the story reveals much deeper issues than we first realize.  Job is the story of human existence and God’s unchanging love and patience toward us all. Adam and Eve were created and placed in paradise, but because of the serpent (Satan) the barrier that kept pain and suffering away was removed. Yet, God in his infinite wisdom, taunted (Satan) with the prophetic promise of a deliverer that would come through the offspring of the women (Jesus Christ). Jesus’ blood covers the earth for those who will accept Him and, when God looks down on us, He sees us as upright and is then unable to see our faults.

Isaiah 29:15

Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord,

and their works are in the dark,

and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay:

for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not?

or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

Humankind has endured wars, pestilence and persecution at the hands of Satan and his minions, but it is all blamed on an “uncaring God”. We are bombarded by “friends” that tell us about our sins and how we should just give up. Our whole world system teaches us God is a myth and man’s ideas and theories are fact. We are taught that we are just a cosmic mistake, suffering in a world of hate, created by a God, that “if” He exists, he does not speak or care.

Job 19:25

For I know that my redeemer liveth,

and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

And though after my skin worms destroy this body,

yet in my flesh shall I see God

In the end God spoke to Job through a whirlwind, and explains to Job and his friends that they have no comprehension of the infinite nature of God. He created the largest and smallest creatures in the ocean and when He speaks universes are formed. He then defends Job in front of his “friends” by telling them the folly of their ways and asks Job to pray for his friends so God won’t deal with them harshly. Then the book ends much like it began. God restored Job and blessed him with wealth and family; even more so at the end than the beginning.

Romans 8:22

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

God’s patience and love for us frail humans is paralled in the story of Job. No matter how weak we are or how bad our surroundings, He instills in us an inner “spiritual compass” that lets us realize that one day He will speak to this physical world in a whirlwind.  Satan (the invisible enemy of our soul) will be destroyed and we, like Job, will rise up and see our Redeemer face to face. So, our story will end much like it began.  We will be restored and blessed even more at the end than we were in the beginning.

“Show The Way” David Wilcox

> You say you see no hope, you say you see no reason we should dream

> that the world would ever change, You’re saying love is foolish to believe

> ‘Cause there’ll always be some crazy with an Army or a knife

> To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life

>

> Look, if someone wrote a play

> just to glorify what’s stronger than hate,

> would they not arrange the stage, To look as if the hero came too late,

> he’s almost in defeat, It’s looking like the Evil side will win,

> so on the edge of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins

>

> It is….Love that mixed the mortar

> And it’s love who stacked these stones

> And it’s love who made the stage here

> Although it looks like we’re alone

> In this scene set in shadows

> Like the night is here to stay

> There is evil cast around us

> But it’s love that wrote this play…

> For in this darkness love can show the way.

Hebrews 3:4

For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

Proverbs 12:15

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes…

As I have written in several articles, we all have within us the capacity of good and evil. Using the analogy of the moon reflecting the sun’s light, we have our good (bright) side and our evil (dark) side. We put our best side forward so all can see, keeping our dark side so very few, if any, ever see. In the game of chess there are light squares and dark squares, along with light pieces and dark pieces. In our world we sometimes manipulate both sides of good and evil, and go across light and dark squares to accomplish our objectives. We justify in our own minds our methods of darkness and light so it will fit in our theology, so we can still call ourselves “good” or “Christian”.

2 Chronicles 1:12

Therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, riches and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.”

Solomon was the son of King David, and is considered one of the wisest men to ever live. He was given the name Jedideiah by Nathan the prophet, meaning favored of Jah (God). Very early in his reign as king, God gave Solomon a choice of anything he asked.  Solomon chose wisdom. God then blessed him not only with wisdom, but also with wealth, riches and long life.

1 Chronicles 28:9

“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.”

Solomon’s kingdom was one like never before, and has never been since. The concentration of riches and wealth have not been duplicated, even to present day. Solomon was organized and ruled through organization and diplomacy. He accomplished great tasks, building the Temple and other great building projects. He maintained peace during his reign as king with all the countries and nations surrounding him. His reputation for wisdom was known throughout the world at that time.

I Kings 11:1

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter–Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.

Solomon truly had it all! He even states in Ecclesiastes 2:10 “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure”. God had promised Solomon if he would keep his heart perfect toward Him, that Solomon’s descendents would sit on the throne of Israel forever. He was given wealth, riches, influence and wisdom. Solomon started depending on his own wisdom. He began marrying women from other lands so he could maintain peace for his kingdom, gain new knowledge of construction, and acquire access for trade and building materials. This decision that Solomon saw as wise would prove to slowly create an environment that would eventually erode away everything he would ever accomplish.

Psalms 18:32

It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.

Each one of us receives from the Creator strengths and gifts, things that come natural to us, that we excel in. We are all given the promise of blessings if we will keep our hearts perfect toward God, but we, like Solomon,  sometimes take ourselves too serious, thinking the light we reflect is our own, not realizing the source of any light we may have is coming from our Creator. Our pride and manipulation becomes “our wisdom” to make life what “we want”. We marry “things” that divert our attention from God. Slowly our own strengths erode our ability to reflect Gods light and it begins to dim.

2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

John 12:26

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

Our goal should be to reflect the Light of Christ, the Source of Light that our Creator has placed in all our lives.  Usually we are more comfortable living in our own strengths that, in the end, will erode to nothing. Our strengths are not the only factors that determine who or what we become. We, like all great leaders, are not tested through our strengths. We are tested through our weaknesses. It is how we survive the dark days of our failures and weaknesses that make us who we are. The wounds we receive in life and what it takes to overcome and survive them, is what creates the character and the grit of who we are. At some point in everyone’s life we all face darkness and realize we have no light of our own. It is only in our weakness and failure that we can truly understand our true source of light and strength.

Isaiah 55:8

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Solomon trusted his own strengths to accomplish what he thought was best for himself and his kingdom. He laid aside the promises of God and opened the door to evil practices that plunged Israel into idol worship that affected them for generations and even to this present day.

As long as we focus on our own strengths and brightness, we will not be able to see Christ as our true source.

You’ve got your best man on the front side You always show your best side And evil’s always on the other side You say this is your strategy But son I hope you take it from me You look just like your enemy You’re full of pride We better trash our idols if we want to be In the army of the Lord And the greatest idol is you and me… Jason Upton – Dying Star

When I grew up in the 1960’s, every boy that was respectable, and had respectable parents, had a crew cut.  A crew cut is basically short hair that does not need combing but maybe once a day when you get out of the shower. Other than that, no other attention is needed.  Then, with the hippie movement of the late sixties and seventies, long hair came in, blurring the established rules in our society of hair cuts for men. The trend then became longer hair for men.  Sometimes it was, and still is, hard to distinguish gender based on hair length.

Genesis 1:4

And God saw the light, that it was good:and God divided the light from the darkness.

When God created this world he divided things.  Things like light and darkness, dry land and sea and male and female.  He set boundaries for the earth and sky.  Everything in creation was in order with separations and boundaries.  Each animal was divided by species, fowl vs fish, etc.  God was, and still is, a God of distinction and order.

Genesis 2:16

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die

Because God had given man “free will” (the ability to make his own choices), there had to be choices.   If God had created man with choice, but paradise without choice, what would be the purpose?  Choice would need to have consequences to make it a “choice”.  If we are deciding to use red paint or blue paint, the choice is still paint.  A real choice has consequences and so God placed an “out of bounds” tree in the garden.  There were many trees that God had planted; trees that were pleasant to the sight and desirable, including the tree of life.  There was only one tree that God forbid and set “out of bounds” of man; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Its fruit was mixed by being both “good and evil.”  There was no distinction.  

2 Corinthians 6:14

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness

The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil represents mixed or blurred lines.  Where does good end and evil begin?  What part of evil has good in it? The Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang, represents this idea.  The symbol kind of looks like two tadpoles, one white and the other black.  The black one has a white eye and the white one has a black eye.  The philosophy basically states that all good has some evil in it, all evil has some good in it.  This mind-set is found in every culture. A lot of movies carry this theme with dark heroes that do good, or good characters balancing “the force”.

2 Chronicles 33:1

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem: But did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord…he (Manasseh) caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom

Manasseh was considered one of the most evil kings in the history of Judah.  The reason Manasseh was considered so evil was because he allowed, or promoted, the worship of Molech, a god of prosperity.  This worship was described as making his children walk through the fire.   This practice was an abomination to God.  It involved sacrificing the first born child in fire, so the parents would be assured prosperity for the new year.  Legend has it that the prophet Isaiah was sawed in half at Manasseh’s orders.  There were other prophets in Judah at the time of Isaiah, but they were on the king’s payroll, and would not say anything negative about what he was doing.

Proverbs 14:24

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.

If you look and consider, every person, nation or society, rises or falls based on their ability to distinguish good from evil.   If human life is sacred and good, then murder is evil and should never be accepted as good.  If treating others as we want to be treated (the Golden rule) is good, then mistreatment of anyone is evil.

Proverbs 20:10

Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord.

There are thousands of injustices in our world that deal with good and evil.  Some things that start out as good somehow become evil.  Insurance is good, and has good qualities.  It helps to off-set losses from sickness, Injury or damage, but with divers (unjust) scales, a person without insurance is charged one thing, while a person with insurance is charged another.

2 Thessalonians 3:10

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat

Poverty used to be defined as when someone did not have basic necessities of life:  food clothing and shelter.  Now, it has to do with technology, cell phones or cable.  Fairness has blurred the lines of the benefits of productivity and hard work. Having a job is good.  It teaches life skills and creativity that leads to building wealth.  Now, because of government assistance, jobs are not needed and there are generations of unproductive people that never develop their true God-given potential.

Genesis 2:24

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife:and they shall be one flesh

Marriage is good and was set up at creation by God.  It was set up to be an unbreakable bond (blood covenant) between man and wife.  This becoming of one flesh, and the life-long commitment, would be the basic foundation of a healthy society. But, because of man’s “free will” in choosing what is good or evil, marriage has become so blurred that we no longer recognize it in its original meaning.  Marriage has become a legal union or contract between two people that can be broken by a simple piece of paper.  Because of the blurring of the meaning of marriage, the many foundations that kept our society healthy are no longer there.

Psalms 127:3

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Having children is good and is a gift from God.  Yet, in our world they are considered a curse, a burden, something we become strapped with for at least eighteen years until child support is over.  Because the foundational lines of family have been blurred, good becomes evil, and blessings become a curse.  Children are now diminished or discarded, so they will not get in the way of our future happiness and prosperity.

Genesis 3:4

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil

When the serpent in the garden told Eve “you shall be as gods”, the idea was that she would know the difference between what is good and what is evil.  How many times have we made a decision for good and then ran into unintended consequences of bad?  How many good laws are passed, then we find out that evil lurks just underneath the surface?  What one generation sees as good the next can see as evil.  When did praying to our Creator become evil? When did saying “one Nation under God” become evil? Is racism ever good? Is utopia really a world with blurred family values? Are we better off as a society if we have no rules or boundaries?

In the 1960’s, pastors and priests were accepted at face value with blind faith and the words of the Bible were rarely questioned, Politicians, on the other hand, were always questioned with suspect.  Adolf Hitler had left a bad memory for everyone.  No one wanted to be led down the path of evil ever again.  Now, this has reversed.  Anything to do with the Bible, pastors or priests, are suspect.  Politicians are now accepted with blind faith, leading us down the politically correct road of “good” that the last generation called evil.

Isaiah 1:18

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:  though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Isaiah wrote these word long before Manasseh was king.  In his lifetime, Isaiah watched the Kingdom of Judah go from very good to very evil.  If all the evil could be blamed on one king, the story would have a simple ending…. get rid of the king. The problem is that somebody had to follow the kings orders to sacrifice the children.  Someone had to sharpen the saw that killed Isaiah. In all of us lies the capacity to do evil.  If we rely on ourselves, we do not have the ability to distinguish between good and evil.  The serpent lied to Eve.  Eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil does not make us gods, it only makes us fools.  God gave us a blueprint for His wisdom.  As we continue on our journey, the Word of God is the only Truth we can depend on. 

For the record, I hated crew cuts.