"This is what the Lord says: ‘For the many crimes of Moab, I will punish them. They burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. So I will send fire on Moab that will destroy the strong buildings of the city of Kerioth. The people of Moab will die in a great noise, in the middle of the sounds of war and trumpets. So I will bring an end to the king of Moab, and I will kill all its leaders with him," says the Lord." (NCV)
This doesn’t seem to make much sense unless we look at the history behind it.
Years before, the Israelites, the Jews, and Moabites were fighting. The Israelites had made a treaty with the Jews and the Edomites and they were all fighting against the Moabites. Their combined armies went to Moab to fight a battle there. God laid a trap for the Moabites who weren’t expecting the combined armies.
"When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too much for him, he took seven hundred men with swords to try to break through to the king of Edom. But they could not break through. Then the king of Moab took his oldest son, who would have been king after him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. So there was great anger against the Israelites, who left and went back to their own land." (2 Kings 3:26-27 NCV).
The Moabites, in smoldering anger and revenge for what they thought the Edomites had forced their own king to do, came back again with another revenge and desecrated the body of the late Edomite king. Revenge against revenge.
"He/she made me do it."
Rather than take responsibility for our own actions, we often blame others for backing us into a corner where we feel we have no choices and then wanting to take it out on them because "they made us to do it."
No one—NO ONE—ever makes us do anything. We are creatures of free will. We choose how we will respond in any given situation. Our choices may seem limited, but we always have a choice. When we are cornered, when we are placed in situations of great distress or great hurt, we have the choice to react with the fruit of the Spirit or with anger and revenge. We have the choice. When we are accused, we can try to manipulate the situation to present ourselves in the best light or we can react with honesty and truth regardless of the outcome. When we are rejected, we can react with quietness and love or we can lash out, protecting ourselves.
The Moabites found themselves in a terrible situation. They were alone, ganged up upon by the Israelite, the Jewish, and Edomite armies. It’s possible the Edomites were former allies who now had chosen to ally with the Israelites instead. Friends who had betrayed them and were now enemies.
They were alone and afraid.
They were tricked. The Lord had laid a trap for them and the Edomites walked right into it. They felt foolish.
They were desperate. Their king, in an effort to appease their gods and win the battle, took his own son and sacrificed him . . . to no avail. They were angry and wanting revenge.
Rejected . . . feeling foolish . . . desperate . . . angry. They allowed their anger to fester until they were willing to do anything to get revenge against the Edomites. And so they desecrated the tomb of the Edomite king, dug up his body and destroyed it. They did what they thought would hurt the Edomites the most.
Tit for tat.
Anger unchecked and uncontrolled can lead to horrible results. Have you ever met someone who, because of their anger (and what they thought was their right to be angry) backed themselves so far into a corner that there was no escape? Have you watched them do more and more horrible things as their anger (and their pride) continued to control their decision-making? I have. It’s sad and horrible to watch.
As Christians, we need to do two things. First, we need daily to give everything to God Who is in absolute control and trust Him to deal with every situation so that we don’t find ourselves being that person. Second, when we find ourselves involved with such a person, a person who is angry beyond measure, we need to try to back off and give them space to recoup themselves. That is humility. That is kindness. That is gentleness. It’s easy to be gentle when someone is nice. It’s more difficult to be gentle when the other person is mean and vindictive.
We can choose our response. Today I want to learn how to choose to be gentle . . . even when it seems like I’m losing. I can’t lose. For Christians, life is always win-win because God is always in control. I need to start living like I believe that.
© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.
For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment