Friday – Prophets

Reading – Micah 3-4

Highlight Verses:

WARNING – GRAPHIC

“but you are the very ones who hate good and love evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh from their bones. Yes, you eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and break their bones. You chop them up like meat for the cooking pot.”
‭‭Micah‬ ‭3‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Did you know that the Bible contains such graphic language?

Surely, I thought, this is figurative.

Then I realized that, as a prophet, Micah was predicting the torture that Jesus would receive.

I am in the middle of reading a novel by Christian mystery/suspense writer Steven James.

The villain performs such cruelty that almost pushes the book from crime mystery to horror.

At times it gets so intense I have to put it down for a while.

The cruelty in that novel is light compared to what Jesus went through.

In case you didn’t know, the whip used on Jesus was tipped with jagged pieces of metal.

It literally ripped the skin off His back.

It may have whipped around his body and done damage that I will refrain from elaborating on further.

Add crucifixion to that and it was unimaginable cruelty.

And the people inflicting it were so messed up that they thought they were doing God a favor.

There are accounts in the Bible where God allows peoples to be slaughtered in order to protect His chosen people.

In some cases, the people enacting that slaughter behaved very cruelly.

But that cruelty is from those people, not from God.

Throughout history, there are many who have used the name of God as an excuse to cruelly pursue power.

Partly because of this, there are many today who see God as a cruel deity seeking to harm any who disagree with Him.

They may have also seen what they perceive as cruelty from those claiming to follow Jesus and conclude that God must be cruel too.

As followers of Jesus, we are still human and subject to imperfections, selfishness, and self righteousness that can come across as cruel.

There are times when we would do better to bite our tongues than to say what comes to mind when we see sinful behavior.

I’m not saying to ignore sin, but too often we attack the sinner instead of the sin.

Instead of condemning the drowning sinner, we should be throwing them a lifeline of loving truth.

Of course, there are those who will see any type of righteousness as a cruel imposition.

But with love, prayer, and patience, even the most jaded “sinner” can eventually see the light.

I’ve seen it happen.

How do you think you can best reach those around you with the good news of how Jesus rescued us from sin?
How do you overcome cultural obstacles to bringing the good news?