What is the appropriate response to the blowing of the
trumpet to gather the people to announce the Lord's judgment against them? A fast, complete with sackcloth and
ashes. Such mourning is appropriate not
for the loss of the crops but for sin. Sin
is death, it is separation from God and it is the thing we should mourn. In our worship we "acknowledge and
bewail our manifold sins and wickedness", the "remembrance of them is
grievous unto us, the burden of them intolerable." That represents what should be our attitude
towards sin in our lives, we should be intolerant towards it. Here, the trumpet call has gone out for a
gathering but not a festal gathering, a call to gather to mourn. The result is that the Lord renews His love
for the people and the Land, just as He promised He would if His people would
repent.
The Lord is holy and righteous and is intolerant of sin but
His desire is for the repentance of sinners.
Sounds a lot like hating the sin but loving the sinner. I just read an article about homosexuality in
sports by a woman who admits that she is a lesbian and when it became known on
her sports team she heard much of this talk of loving sinners while hating
their sin. She became offended by it
because she didn't consider it a sin, considered it improperly judgmental of
her teammates. When we refuse to accept
God's Law and His Word, when we attempt to diminish or redefine the authority
of God's Word, we are in sin and therefore we are in need of confession and
repentance. It is when we refuse its authority
that we come under God's judgment as rebels.
A failure to tell the truth to ourselves and others about sin is less
than loving.
The rider on the white horse who is faithful and true
appears to complete the victory. He is
the one who will judge in righteousness and the unrighteous will perish. They are so inured to sin they are at war
with righteousness, that which is faithful and true. We can become so hardened to sin, so in love
with it in fact, that we are no longer willing to hear the Word of God, which
is what this rider is called. It
requires drastic measures to reawaken us to the Word and its power and control
in our lives. Here, there is no
remaining hope, there is only judgment.
The battle lines are clear and the now the kingdom will be won or lost.
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