The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Psalm 106:35-43, “But they mingled with the nations and learned their practices,
36 And served their idols, which became a snare to them.
37 They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,
38 And shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols
of Canaan; and the land was polluted with the blood.
39 Thus they became unclean in their practices, and played the harlot in their deeds.
40 Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against His people and He abhorred His inheritance.
41 Then He gave them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were subdued under their power.
43 Many times He would deliver them; they, however, were rebellious in their counsel, and so sank down in
their iniquity.”

Were your parents ever truly angry with you? If they were, it was undoubtedly an indication of love that you had ignored. There were children in our town with whom my mother would not allow me to associate. She never spoke ill of them, but it was clear to me that they engaged in something (I was never told what.) that she did not want in my life.

This was precisely the position of the LORD with respect to Israel’s foreign neighbors. What He had known to be their practices, ultimately found their ways into the lives of His people; and “they mingled with the nations…and served their idols…” In time, the Hebrews thought nothing of sacrificing their own children to idols and demons.

What loving parent would not have become viciously angry at his children, who turned their backs on his deliverance and engaged in such reprehensible, heathenish practices? Thus, the LORD in His righteous anger, gave them into the hands of the heathen.

If we were not focusing on Scripture, we might be thought to be referencing things in our own land. For what the Hebrews experienced in a heathen land is not far from what we are experiencing today in our own land. Go back and read the biblical verses above and think of our own nation as you read them. Do we envision the LORD God Almighty as our leader? Are we absorbing His incomparable Word each day? Are we obeying His commands and directives? Or are our lives being so lived as to give Him reason to visit Divine Judgment upon us?

It is easy to blame leadership; yet it’s our rejection of the LORD’s leadership that has produced the human leadership under which we groan today. How like the Hebrews we are! How like the LORD we ought to be! Many times in the past, He has delivered us. He will deliver us yet again, if we will but repent and yield in obedience to His commands. Start by reading His Word daily! Start by confessing sin. Start by committing ourselves to Him!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom