The Kindness of the Hangman

This week we are asked to meditate on:

Psalm 96:9-10

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”

This verse is a command to us that we are to worship. But the Psalmist is specific as to where it should occur. It should occur among the nations (“heathen” in the KJV). 

This morning as we gather to worship we only do half this task. Yes we will stand before the Lord draped in the holiness of Christ. Wonderful songs will praise Him. But, no one else will hear. 

• As we worship the Lord during these unsettled times our message to the world should be that God is in charge. Nothing that is occurring is outside His control. 

• During these times of racial unrest our message to the world should be that God will judge with equity. 

Speak this message to your unsaved friends. Don’t have any?  Make some. 

This past week Robyn and I ate out and befriended a man who sat near us. His name is Dexter Ford, a former writer for the New York Times.  As the conversation turned toward Christ, he declared himself not religious and for a reason he directed me to the Book of Judges and to the story of Jephthah!  He could not understand why God would require Jephthah to sacrifice his own daughter. Not prepared to speak on Jephthah, I offered to look into it and get back to him.

He continued the conversation, by offering his book, “The Generosity of the Hangman”.  His optometrist was a survivor of the Holocaust and Dexter wrote down this first person account of the atrocities of Kristallnacht, the ghetto of Łódź,  Auschwitz, and Buchenwald. I am almost finished reading the book.

Dexter and I are now friends on Facebook. I have been able to explain that Jephthah made a completely unnecessary vow with God to ensure his own victory. It was a foolish mistake and unlike a victor’s history, which erases mistakes, the Bible includes them and as such it is to be believed. 

God is in charge and will judge with equity.