service genset jogja
Zechariah 1:15-17, Psalm 32

The Joy Of Forgiveness

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 22, 2023

Israel had suffered at the hands of all its enemies. They indeed brought their problems on themselves when they turned away from the God of their fathers. Even though God was angry with His own people, the evil of the nations around them aroused even deeper anger. He promises to turn His wrath away from Israel and spend it on the nations that cursed His people. He will once again have mercy on Israel. He will once again restore their glory and prosperity. Thus, the Lord, recognizing the plot of His own people, speaks comforting words again to them again and again, reassuring them that they are his chosen people. Zechariah 1:15-17 tells us, “And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for a while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’”

God had promised to bless those who bless Abraham’s descendants. He also promised to curse those that cursed Abraham’s descendants. Assyria and Babylon had conquered Israel and subjected them once again to slavery. When God brought Israel back to their own lands, the nations that were already there continued the persecution of Israel. As He witnessed this, God declared mercy on Israel and restoration of its former glory and prosperity. Their sins would be forgiven, and they would be restored to God’s favor once again. With God’s favor comes prosperity. The word is not used here of prosperity in the financial and material way but of joy and peace and comfort. God wants to bless repentant people with joy.

Repentance is followed by forgiveness with God. Forgiveness will change one’s future for the good. It is a reason for great celebration. Psalm 32, written by David after he confessed his sins, is all about the joy of forgiveness.  He opens his psalm of joy with “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” Allen Ross, my Hebrew professor, writes about Psalm 32, “The distinctive message in this passage is the great joy and relief that comes from being forgiven, and this is presented in stark contrast to the spiritual depression and sorrow under divine discipline that comes from stubbornly refusing to confess sin. In view of the great sorrow for unconfessed sin, and the great joy of forgiveness, the psalmist appeals to the people to avoid the mistake he made and seek the LORD’s forgiveness. Thus, the second half of the psalm takes on a didactic tone—it is the urgent advice from one who learned the hard way.” Ross concludes his study on the Psalm with this comment: Having experienced divine chastening and then forgiveness for sin, the psalmist encourages others to seek the LORD who deals graciously with sinners because the bliss of forgiveness is life-changing.”[1]

[1] Ross, Allen P. 2011–2013. A Commentary on the Psalms 1–89: Commentary. Vol. 1. Kregel Exegetical Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic.

Tags: ,
Permalink
Haggai 2:1-5, Ezra 3:12-13

Do Something!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 21, 2023

The remnant that returned to Judah after their captivity in Babylon faced many enemies in the land. The task assigned to them was daunting, and their detractors in the land made it even more difficult. They were afraid of the Canaanites and the Samaritans that occupied the land. All this opposition may have contributed to the fact that the new Temple did not measure up to the one Solomon had built, and the people lost motivation to work on something that seemed, in their eyes, to be lacking in so many ways. Instead of focusing their attention on rebuilding the Temple and the worship system to the Lord, they turned their attention to their own homes and their own situations to provide security for themselves and their families. This sounds very much like the normal thing to do, but it wasn’t why God brought them back to the land of their forefathers. He wanted them to reestablish the worship of the one true God. Haggai 2:1-5 tells us, “In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.”

 Ezra, who led one of the migrations back to the land for the purpose of rebuilding the temple, spoke about this disappointment of the older generation. In Ezra 3:12-13, he says, “But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.”

 There is always opposition. It doesn’t matter how good you are at your job or how successful you’ve been. There will always be those who will oppose you and detract from your efforts to be productive. The temptation is always to settle back and live a private life concerned only about your own affairs, build your own houses if you will. Doing something, they say, is always better than doing nothing. Your task might not be as glorious and famous as Solomon’s was, but it is important to you. God has not deserted you.  Haggai constantly reminds them that God is with them and that the presence of His Spirit should embolden us to move on with our lives. “Be strong!” He exhorts them because God is with them just as He was with their ancestors of old. Just as He was with Moses at the Red Sea, He is with them as they rebuild a lesser Temple. He is also with us as we pursue the duties and deeds that God lays before us today. We can’t do everything, but we can do something. Like the man walking along the beach after a storm throwing starfish that washed up back into the sea. An observer said, “You won’t be able to save every starfish.” The man replied, “True, but I can save this one.”

 

 

 

 

Tags: ,
Permalink
Zephaniah 1:12-13

A Matter Of The Heart

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 20, 2023

Zephaniah prophesied the economic collapse of Jerusalem. The marketplaces will be vacant, and the comings and goings of tradesmen will stop. Business will be at a standstill, and hard times will fall on everyone because of their apostasy. They have fallen from faith and confidence in the one true God who cares for them all. He is the God that protects them from harm and blesses them with good things. They have taken matters into their own hands and then denied the existence of God. They blame God for not acting for either good or bad. God did not come to their aid when they thought He should have. God did not destroy their enemies as they thought He should have. They became bitter with God. They thought they could harbor ill will for God because He did not act like they wanted Him to. They could hide such attitudes from God. But God searches our hearts. Zephaniah warns the people of this danger and tells them they can’t hide from God. In Zephaniah 1:12-13 he says, “At that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill.’ Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.”

 God doesn’t do what I think he should do. He doesn’t judge evil but allows the wicked to prosper. He doesn’t reward the faithful but allows them to be persecuted. I’m unhappy with how God operates, and I give up on expecting anything from Him. This is the character of a bitter heart. Harboring bitterness with God is the sure way to live dissatisfied lives. I think this is why Paul tells us to “get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice” (Ephesians 4:31).  The writer of Hebrews tells us, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (Hebrews 12:15). Bitterness, someone has commented, is like cancer. It eats away the host. Harry Emerson Fosdick was a famous Baptist preacher who focused his preaching on Love. He said, “Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.”[1]

It is a matter of the heart. “The word heart occurs over 600 times in the Old Testament and at least 120 times in the New Testament. The extensive use of the word heart in all its varied implications places it in a position of supreme importance in Biblical psychology.”[2] God isn’t that impressed with how much we know. He doesn’t care about how much we have. A person’s popularity, celebrity status, or anything else cherished in the world finds God indifferent. Wiersbe writes, “The Lord wasn’t impressed with Solomon’s royal splendor, for the Lord looks on the heart and searches the heart. It was Solomon who wrote, ‘Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life,’ yet in his old age, his own heart was far from the Lord. Since the discovery of the circulation of blood by William Harvey in the 17th century, everybody knows that the center of human physical life is the heart. But what’s true physically is also true morally and spiritually. We are to love God with all our hearts and receive His Word into our hearts. God wants us to do His will from our hearts. If our heart is wrong toward God, our entire life will be wrong, no matter how successful we may appear to others.”[3]

[1] Water, Mark. 2000. The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations. Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd.

[2] Chafer, Lewis Sperry. 1993. Systematic Theology. Vol. 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.

[3] Wiersbe, Warren W. 2002. Be Responsible. “Be” Commentary Series. Colorado Springs, CO: Victor.

Tags:
Permalink
Habakkuk 1:6-7

God Judges Nations and People

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 19, 2023

God’s people are struggling with the prosperity of the wicked. But God calls them to trust Him, and He will resolve the injustices in His own time. As a matter of fact, He will deal with the problem in a way that you might not ever consider. As Assyria was prospering and threatening the peace and stability of God’s people in the Northern Kingdom, Habakkuk explained that there was another kingdom that He was raising up to bring His judgment on Assyria. It will be thorough. Habakkuk uses the rest of Chapter One to describe the army from the south that he is raising up to bring judgment on the Assyrians in the north. He begins his description of them in Verses 6 and 7. He says, “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.”

 I believe the word “Chaldeans” is another way of referring to the Babylonians. This is the kingdom that will conquer the southern kingdom under King Nebuchadnezzar over a hundred years later. They are vividly described as bitter people. That is, they are fierce and cruel towards those that they conquer. They are hasty. They are impetuous in their decisions and rapid in their movements and don’t take time to consider the concerns of others. They are terrible and dreaded people. The people of the nations are seized with terror and dread whenever the armies of the Chaldeans approach them. They are self-exalting in that they dignify themselves. They are self-willed. They will do whatever they want to do without any moral or ethical restraint. They are strong enough to force their will on anyone and do so with rampant disregard for others.

This may have sounded like good news to the northern kingdom of Israel at the time. I guess we all long for the defeat of our enemies. It might sound good to them under their current circumstances, but in the long run, it was actually bad news. Guzik observes, “We understand the idea of something ‘too good to be true,’ but that isn’t what God is talking about here. This is something ‘too bad to be true,’ a work of judgment so astounding that Habakkuk would have a hard time believing it.”[1] God allows man’s wickedness and violence to reign in the world. He destroyed the world in Noah’s day because of the violence, but now He works specifically with individual nations. No one can answer for God’s ways! I’ve tried to, but never come out with a satisfactory answer. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. What God chooses to do, God chooses to do. Why did he make us with two arms instead of three? I don’t know, but He did. Why does he use wicked nations to accomplish his will? I don’t know, but He did. Barber acknowledges, “What history revealed in the case of the Chaldeans has been practiced numerous times since. All one need to do is reflect upon the activities of Germany at the beginning of World War II or of Russia in more recent years. Poland, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Afghanistan have suffered in much the same way as Judah of old. Although God has seemingly permitted such unbridled aggression to go unpunished, the fact remains that God eventually calls each nation to account for its actions.”[2] This applies to the individual as well. The author of Hebrews reminds us that we will all die. After which will come the judgment.

[1] Guzik, David. 2003. Habakkuk. David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible. Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

[2] Barber, Cyril J. 1985. Habakkuk and Zephaniah. Everyman’s Bible Commentary. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

Tags:
Permalink
Nahum 1:10-11

Triumph Over The Muck Of Life

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 18, 2023

Nahum wanted the Ninevites to know that there was a judgment from God coming to them if they did not do as the previous generation did when Jonah came to preach to them. He wanted them to repent and turn from their plans to invade God’s people. But the nation of Assyria and its many counselors just confused things to the point that it was impossible to straighten them out. It’s like a rolled-up ball of Christmas lights. It’s easier to throw them out and get new ones than straighten out the ones we have. Not only do the counselors add to the confusion, but they have also become so decadent that they cannot think for themselves. Nahum tells them in Chapter 1, verses 10-11, “For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.  From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a worthless counselor.” One commentator argues, “This must be one of the most difficult texts in the Old Testament. No satisfactory translation of the passage has been offered to date.”[1] So many different opinions have been offered that this passage has been dubbed “hopelessly corrupt.” The writer goes on and says, “Although numerous conjectures have been put forward, none has met with scholarly consensus or proved to be entirely satisfactory.”

All the images seem to imply a profound hopelessness. You cannot untangle thorn bushes. You cannot deal with a drunkard in the middle of his drunkenness. You cannot unburn the stubble when it’s consumed by fire. The commentator continues, “The point of the comparison in all three seemingly unrelated cases is that of total consumption: the bush by its thorns, the drunkard by his drink, the stubble by fire.” It does seem to focus on the “impossibility of God’s enemies ever rising again after He has judged them.” He will make a complete end, a total destruction, of those that destroy His people. Those that set their hearts on the total destruction of God’s people will themselves face total destruction.

This is seen very often in the Bible and in History. God had promised to bless the people that bless His people. He also promised to curse the people that curse His people. The cursing here has to do with the idea of total destruction. In human relationships, it’s akin to murder. The total elimination of the one that I hate. Pharaoh tried it and drowned in the red sea. As McDowell observes, the Book of Esther tells us of another attempt, “A plot to destroy the Jews was made by an evil man named Haman, who was eventually hanged when his plot backfired. The Jews were allowed to avenge their enemies, and this victory was celebrated with the establishment of the Feast of Purim to be observed in commemoration of their being saved from total destruction.”[2] Nahum is warning the Assyrians that there will be no recourse if they carry out their plans to destroy Israel utterly. They did not listen, and it didn’t take long for Babylon to conquer and destroy them. Babylon, of course, followed the same fate. We could move on through the history of man’s attempts to destroy the Chosen people of God. Hitler, with the Nazi hate for Jews, is another attempt that ended with their own destruction. I like what Ralph Davis said about God fighting for His people. Elsworth quotes him in his commentary on Joshua, “Dale Ralph Davis says of this passage: ‘… the writer wants us to see that it is Yahweh who is the fighter; he is the warrior, he is the victor who crushes the enemy.’ He proceeds to say, ‘It is too bad much of the church has lost this vision of God or Christ as the warrior who fights for his people.… No mild God or soft Jesus can give his people hope. It is only as we know the warrior of Israel who fights for us (and sometimes without us) that we have hope of triumphing in the muck of life.’”[3]

[1] Patterson, Richard D., and Andrew E. Hill. 2008. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 10: Minor Prophets, Hosea–Malachi. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

[2] McDowell, Josh. 1997. Josh McDowell’s Handbook on Apologetics. Electronic ed. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

[3] Ellsworth, Roger. 2008. Opening up Joshua. Opening Up Commentary. Leominster: Day One Publications.

Tags:
Permalink
Micah 1:8-9, Ephesians 4:19

Sin And Leprosy

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 17, 2023

Micah addresses the serious sins of the nation of Israel in the north, as expressed in the capital city of Samaria. God promises judgment on all of Israel because of the sin of “Samaria.” Incorporated into the worship of Baal and Molech were every imaginable sexual perversion, as well as child sacrifice. These were normal practices of the Canaanite tribes that surrounded Israel.  Ahab, the King of the Northern Kingdome, and his wife Jezebel had incorporated Baal worship into the practices of Jews. It was detestable to God! Sexual perversion and abortion are not unknown in the world today and are a major battlefront for the hearts of the people. This is true as we live it out in 2023 in the United States. All sexual perversions are being applauded, and our children are offered up to the gods of prosperity, appearance, and convenience. It makes God weep! Micah expressed God’s emotions over this grievous sin in Chapter 1, verses 8 and 9. He says, “For this, I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals and mourning like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.” This horrible worship and practices of the pagan nations around the Northern kingdom had spread south to the very heart of Israel’s worship of the true God. Ahab and Jezebel’s son, Jehoram, became the king of the southern kingdom of Judah and reigned in Jerusalem. He brought his parent’s sins to the Temple and the sacred city of God.

It will do no good.  It has advanced to the stage that is not curable. Furthermore, the contamination has spread to the very heart of the people. In their rejection of the morality of God expressed in the Scriptures, the nations have adopted the secular values of the nations around them. The abhorrent practices have become so acceptable in Israel and then Judah, that it became their religion. Commenting on the sins of Samaria, Charlie Dyer says, “This could refer to their deviate sexual aberrations (cf. Gen. 19:4–5). The sin of Samaria, though not specifically stated, was her idolatry. But Jerusalem’s sins were so vile that, in comparison, the sins of both Sodom and Samaria seemed almost like righteous deeds!”[1]

That Micah uses the phrase “incurable” leads us naturally to think of some kind of sickness. Leprosy was a disease that was incurable in the ancient world. It’s interesting that the Bible compares sin with leprosy often. The sin of Samaria had become so ingrained in the lives of the people that it had become incurable. It was also very contagious. It spread all the way from Samaria in the north to Jerusalem in the south. Like leprosy, sin destroys the whole man. Both are corrosive in their effect, working slowly and surely, until finally, they break out in an angry display that eventuates in death. No man ever went wrong overnight. Leprosy does not kill in a day—it is not like a heart attack. The leper’s life was a walking death. Just so, the sinner is also dead even while he lives. McGee says, “Leprosy does not produce sharp and unbearable pain as some other diseases. Leprosy keeps the man sad and restless. Likewise, sin produces restlessness and sadness in man, which is evident in our culture. Folks want to be amused and want to be made to laugh because they are sad. Crowds flock to places of amusement, to nightclubs, to be entertained. Look at the sad faces with vacant stares. Watch the cars filled with restless folk going nowhere fast. We have a generation with itchy feet. It is leprosy. They lapse into a state of sad contentment. They can reach the state of having a “… conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim. 4:2).”[2] Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:19 that consciences seared by sin will eliminate all feeling. He said, “Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” But Paul also says, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world …”

[1] Dyer, Charles H. 1985. “Ezekiel.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 1:1258. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

[2] McGee, J. Vernon. 1991. Thru the Bible Commentary: The Law (Leviticus 1-14). Electronic ed. Vol. 6. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Tags: ,
Permalink
Jonah 1:7, Various

Direction or Description?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 16, 2023

A great storm threatened the lives of the crew on board Jonah’s getaway ship. They did all they could do to lighten the load to save themselves and the ship. When that failed, they then cried out to the many different religions represented by the crew. None of their gods would help them. Again, they turned to take matters into their own hands and came up with another plan to save themselves. Jonah 1:7 tells us, “And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.’ So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.”  The crew was convinced that the storm they were in was brought on them by someone on board that had violated the commands of their god.a No one would admit to being the guilty party, so they had to find a way to help them identify the culprit. They chose to cast lots. There are several references to casting lots to help with decision-making in the bible. “Before the establishment of a hereditary monarchy, for example, lots were cast in choosing a king.  The practice continued into the New Testament period: the Roman soldiers cast lots for the clothes of Jesus, whom they had crucified.  When the disciples were seeking a replacement for Judas Iscariot, the lot fell on Matthias.”[1] One website reports that there are “At least 88 accounts of casting lots in the Old Testament and seven times in the New Testament, and it was something that God did not condemn.”[2]
We still cast lots today. We flip a coin before every football game to see who gets the choice to receive the ball or defend their goal. As kids, we would flip a coin to determine who gets what. We used to play rock, paper, and scissors to settle who gets the last bottle of coke when I was growing up. When the government brought the draft back for the Vietnam War, they cast lots, so to speak, to give each person a number that would indicate the order in which they could be called up. It was supposed to be non-biased, objective means by which men would be sent to war. There is something to be said for flipping a coin or casting lots when making some decisions like these. Even Solomon, the wisest man in the world, supported the practice. He said in Proverbs 18:18, “The lot puts an end to quarrels and decides between powerful contenders.” Solomon also says in Proverbs 16:33, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

John Wesley would cast lots or throw the dice, trusting God to determine the outcome of decisions he sometimes had to make. Mormons still use the practice in a way. They are used during “Disciplinary councils to select high councilors who will speak for and against the accused. The exact mechanism, in this case, is to write the names of members of the stake high council on pieces of paper and then draw the names out of a hat or box.”[3] On the other hand, George Whitfield, a contemporary of Wesley, was against the practice. Some will associate lots with witchcraft, consulting a medium, palm reading, and other forbidden practices in the Bible. Most evangelicals today are against it also. One commentator says, “Today, there is no need to cast lots, and most certainly to consult with mediums, palm readers, or diviners is an abomination to God. We have direct access to the throne of heaven by Christ Himself, Who is our Mediator, so there’s no need to cast lots, flip a coin or roll the dice.”[4] It was practiced in the bible. But that in itself does not make it a directive for our lives today. “We must understand the difference between ‘prescriptive’ and ‘descriptive’ material.  Prescriptive: information that provides the reader with principles that they are to apply to their lives. Descriptive: incidental material that describes the way something was done but is not necessarily meant to encourage the reader to do the same action.”[5]

[1] Nixon, Rosemary A. 2003. The Message of Jonah: Presence in the Storm. Edited by Alec Motyer, Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. England: Inter-Varsity Press.

[2] What is Casting Lots? Should Christians Cast Lots Today? (whatchristianswanttoknow.com)

[3] What Is Meant By The “Casting Of Lots?” – FAIR (fairlatterdaysaints.org)

[4] What is Casting Lots? Should Christians Cast Lots Today? (whatchristianswanttoknow.com)

[5] Patton, C. Michael, Seven Common Fallacies of Biblical Interpretation, February 8, 2010,  http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2010/02/seven-common-fallacies-of-biblical-interpretation/

Tags: ,
Permalink
Obadiah 1:10-11

Standing Aloof

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 15, 2023

Edom was bad, so God sent Obadiah. He brought some bad prophecies against the nation founded by Esau. Some argued that it meant the total annihilation of the nation. Some even took it further to include an afterlife. What was so bad about what the Edomites did? Obadiah tells us, “Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.” The charge that Obadiah is leveling against the nation of Edom is that they “stood aloof” when the people of Israel were being killed, the city of Jerusalem was being sacked, and survivors were taken away as slaves. Obadiah calls Edom “brothers” to the Israelites. Edom was the descendant of Log, who was Abraham’s nephew. They were related, and Abraham delivered Lot from the alien peoples of the land in the earlier chapters of Genesis. All of Lot and his family were taken captive, but Abraham mustered his forces and delivered his nephew from the violence of foreigners. Lot’s descendants just stood by and watched as Israel’s enemies sacked the city. According to Obadiah, “Standing aloof” while others suffer unjustly makes you as guilty as the perpetrators. You’ve heard the sayings. He who stands by and lets evil prevail is the same as those who carry out Evil. The only thing necessary for evil to prevail in the world is for good people to stand aloof and let it happen.

We see that horribly played out in the holocaust, where Germany attempted the genocide of the Jewish people. Not many people stood against the Nazi SS when they put whole Jewish families on trains to extermination camps. There were a few, but they paid for their lives at times. One of the better-known resistance groups was a group known as the White Rose. “Run by a small group of university students in Munich, the White Rose produced anonymous leaflets, calling on intellectuals and professionals to unite and stand against the Nazi regime.” The leaflets “Used passages and ideas from a range of classic texts, including the Bible, philosophical works, and German poets. They also criticized and condemned the Nazi reliance on terror, euthanasia, and slave labor. One of their volunteers, 23-year-old Hans Scholl, accused the Nazis of bringing shame on the German people. The Gestapo spent weeks searching for the creators of the White Rose pamphlets. In February 1943, a tip-off led to the arrest of three students, including Hans Scholl and his 21-year-old sister, Sophie Scholl. They were interrogated, tortured, tried, and executed, all within six hours. More arrests and executions followed over the coming weeks.”[1] History makes heroes out of the White Rose members and villains of the Nazis.

It would have been safer for Hans and Sophie to have minded their own business and let the evil happen. An ex-marine was charged with 2nd-degree manslaughter after stepping in to protect travelers on the New York subway system. In the eyes of all those who were protected from the violent outrage of a mentally unstable passenger, they say he is a hero. The left-wing prosecutor is calling it murder and indicted Daniel Penny. The others on the subway defended Penny’s action, but the person who was restrained was black, and Penny was white. It’s been turned into a racial issue. I’m hoping Penny does not suffer the same fate that Hans and Sophie suffered.

[1] Opposition to the Nazis (alphahistory.com)

Tags:
Permalink
sewa motor jogja
© Chuck Larsen 2019. Powered by WordPress.