“O God, do not be silent! Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God. Don’t you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don’t you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up? They devise crafty schemes against your people; they conspire against your precious ones. “Come,” they say, “let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of its existence.” Yes, this was their unanimous decision. They signed a treaty as allies against you— these Edomites and Ishmaelites; Moabites and Hagrites; Gebalites, Ammonites, and Amalekites; and people from Philistia and Tyre. Assyria has joined them, too, and is allied with the descendants of Lot. Interlude Do to them as you did to the Midianites and as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River. They were destroyed at Endor, and their decaying corpses fertilized the soil. Let their mighty nobles die as Oreb and Zeeb did. Let all their princes die like Zebah and Zalmunna, for they said, “Let us seize for our own use these pasturelands of God!” O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind! As a fire burns a forest and as a flame sets mountains ablaze, chase them with your fierce storm; terrify them with your tempest. Utterly disgrace them until they submit to your name, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and terrified forever. Let them die in disgrace. Then they will learn that you alone are called the Lord, that you alone are the Most High, supreme over all the earth.”
Psalms 83:1-18 NLT
It seems to be a cardinal rule of human existence that those who are called God’s people will be the enemy of men. Even though the world had been blessed by the spread of Christianity and the stark reformation it created in the hearts of wicked, that same reformation only became a cradle of ease from which to birth more hatred for God and his people. For Christians, this has been cycled enough times for 2000 years that a clear pattern has emerged. God’s love overpowers man’s tyranny through great sacrifice. Men flourish and forget about God. Men become tyrants and war against God. And the cycle repeats. For those nations who have flirted with God, this is a choice. For the Jewish people, this cycle is not a choice. Time and time again they find themselves being persecuted as collateral damage. They are caught in the ebbs and flows and flow of a war between the gods to try to steal power and dominion from the supreme deity, YHWH. There is no easy peace for them. They are forever at enmity with their world because they are marked as God’s chosen people. From Assyria to Hitler to Hamas, they will find no peace until God finally nails the coffin on the story of earth and its wayward heavenly hosts, and treads out the grapes of wrath, before the judgment. Lord hasten the day for the sake of your people.
JOSH McGARY.COM 