Passage Read: Leviticus 19-22
Meditation Verses: 20:4-6
Thought
The Lord gave all these laws and judgments so that the community would know how to walk in righteousness, how to encourage their neighbors to walk in righteousness, and how to punish the one who does not walk in righteousness. When one of the community sinned, they were to execute judgment so as to preserve the holiness of the community. If they failed to execute judgment, that's already a problem. So the Lord would cut off anyone who wasn't punished, so that that person or family suffered until they ceased to exist in Israel. If the whole nation gave way to wickedness, they could be completely rejected by the Lord and their place, their land, their homes given to another people. They could be completely cut off from the face of the earth. How many times has this happened in history. The family that walks in wickedness slowly destroys itself, even when community justice doesn't punish them. How many families have been wiped from the face of the earth, leaving no descendants to inherit anything? How many people groups, ethnic groups, nations have been wiped out and their land given to others because they didn't walk in the ways of God their Maker? To the untrained eye, it is just man hating man. But how much of it is really because the Lord not only withdrew His protection and blessing, but actively turned against them to cut them off from the face of the earth for their wickedness. That has to be so much more often than anyone realizes. Every one of us, before we humble ourselves before Jesus Christ, deserves to die. God has every right to destroy any of the wicked. It is His mercy that any one of us survives to believe in Jesus Christ. And He is just when he removes an individual, a family, a community or a nation from existence.
Application
There are no innocent people, except those who have come to believe and obey Jesus Christ. The world hates them and did all out can to punish and destroy them. The rest, the so-called innocents who die before their time, whether from random accidents or attack by criminals or warfare or anything else, these have all suffered judgment from God for their evil ways. There is no one innocent. All deserve death, and the Lord knows those He has chosen. The rest receive judgment from the community or from God Himself. If they learn and repent, they can endure. If they repent so as to believe in God, they will enjoy life forevermore. If they continue in sin, even though nothing bad happens to them, yet they are sowing their own destruction and the end of their family by what they impart to their children. The Lord does judge people, especially when the community doesn't, and the evidence is all around us. There are people slowly destroying themselves and their families, walking in ways they are blatantly illegal or just ungodly, and unless they repent, they will suffer in one way or another in this life, and eternally in the next. They will destroy themselves, their families and even their nations. It is a mercy if they hear the Gospel; it is salvation if they truly believe it. If they never hear or never believe, it should be no surprise to me when they perish. Rather, it should be a warning and a cause for warning others, "Unless you repent, you too will perish." God isn't playing games.