I said to Diane, “I don’t know what to write for today’s Minute.” Then she turned on the TV, we got the terrible report from Las Vegas, and I said, “Now I know.” She said, “Lord, have mercy.”
It makes you want to withdraw, to find some place to live where this insanity can’t reach you. We identify with Psalm 11: “‘Flee like a bird to your mountain, for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?’”
Read the whole psalm. Withdrawing, flying away is not what we should do. “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.”
In this 500th anniversary month of the Reformation, some words from Philipp Melanchthon are timely. He writes that the commandments of the Second Table, our duties toward mankind, require not only outward obedience but internal obedience. When deepest desires are not obedient to God, confusion results in society. “The opposition and confusion in the order in man’s nature is especially apparent in this life of man in society… Uncontrolled lusts, improper desires, the ravings of the demented are beyond calculation.” So we see it, sadly, in today’s reports and in many others.
Flee away, withdraw? Melanchthon continues, “The first law (in the Second Table) does not say: seek solitude, or your pleasure, or take your ease, but it says, ‘Honor your father and your mother, respect your government, and render obedience.’ Therefore we should learn that the works of the Second Table are truly the worship of God…” And he adds, “When a choice must be made …civil obligations should be placed ahead of ceremonies.” (Loci, 715-716)
In the Bible mercy means good works people do for others.
Lord, have mercy through us.
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