On Israel

"And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount... And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men" (Exd. 32:19,25-29). You may note from this passage that Moses did not leave any room for neutrality in this dire circumstance at Mt. Sinai, but rather he made it clear that the people were either on the Lord's side or they were the enemy of the Lord and were to be killed. Not only so, but Moses made it clear that everyone who was deemed the Lord's enemy in this situation was to be killed, including family members and close friends of those who heeded his cry and joined themselves to Moses. Let's understand also that all of these people were God's people, and all of these people had been delivered from Egypt and had crossed the Red Sea together miraculously. I would like for you to also consider that this was a man who was saying that if the people were on God's side then they needed to gather themselves to the man, meaning Moses. The reason for this is evident, that being that Moses was on the Lord's side and he was the leader among the people. So the point I want to get to here is that the whole idea of being neutral in a conflict that we are either a part of somehow, or affected by, is non-existent. The Lord gave me a saying a few nights ago directly after my son and I were reading about and discussing the ancient Greek philosophers and their sayings, many of which were very good in fact. What the Lord showed me was this: "He that refuses to take a side in a conflict that involves him somehow, or that he is affected by, is taking the wrong side."

This present generation is so neutral minded and so against the whole idea of judgment, and therefore is totally blind to the way things really work. Everyone has been conditioned to think that the important thing is to 'not hurt anyone's feelings,' and have thereby thrown the reality of executing righteous judgment right out the door. If there is some kind of conflict that we are involved in, even if we aren't major players; and it affects our lives somehow, then we need to take the right side of that conflict and be against the wrong side. In some cases there may be some wrong on each side of a conflict, but whichever side the main part of the right is, that is where we want to stand. Reason being that God is with the right and against the wrong, always. The test of faith is always about not being afraid of being contrary to someone else, maybe someone we are close to. We need to be afraid of being contrary to God in any situation, and not worry about being contrary to man. When David's son Absalom rose up against him and tried to take over the kingdom, to many it appeared that God was with him, so they joined themselves to him. Others however believed that it was not God who was overthrowing David, and they went with David (II Sam. 15 & 16). It made a major difference as to who chose to side with who, because the truth is that God was with David, and against Absalom. Not only so, but David was restored to the kingdom and Absalom was killed. Also those who helped David were remembered by him and rewarded accordingly. In addition to these things, taking the wrong side in this conflict cost David's wise and trusted counselor Ahithophel his life (II Sam. 17 & 18). Another example of this is Eli the priest, whose sons were priests as well, and were guilty of sins against the ministry of the Lord. Instead of casting his sons out of the priesthood he only verbally reprimanded them, so God sent a prophet to Eli to let him know that his sons would be killed together in the same day, and that his seed after him would be cursed (I Sam. 2:12-17,22-36). Eli thought he was choosing neutrality when he did not take the Lord's side in the matter, but it was actually that he favored his sons over the Lord, even as the prophet told him he had done. That failure to take the right side in that matter cost both of his sons their lives, as well as his seed after him being cursed with premature death.

The apostle Paul scorched the elders in Corinth because they had not judged and excluded a man in the congregation who was having sex with his step-mother, but they rather continued to worship God and rejoice, holding to 'neutrality' in the matter. Paul made it clear to them that they were opposed to the Lord and that they were bringing a curse on the entire congregation by not taking a side against this man and his wicked deeds, and casting him out from among them (I Cor. 5). There are many today who are in Christ who believe that in the event of a civil war in this country, that believers should remain neutral and not be involved in any way. I've got news for you, if such a thing takes place we ARE involved because we live here. Let's say that this were to take place and that it was over gun control, or abortion, or homosexuality in some way; or maybe all of the above. If we don't have the brains to know which side of that conflict that God would support, and which side he would be opposed to, then maybe we should just move to a hut somewhere in Tahiti. But if we were to choose to be 'neutral,' we would actually be choosing to support the things mentioned above, all of which are hated by God. We would also end up on the wrong end of the stick in such a matter. But whatever the conflict is, on whatever level; if we are involved in any way or affected by it in some way, there simply is no such thing as being in a neutral position. Trying to be neutral in such circumstance is truly choosing the wrong side, and choosing the wrong side of any conflict cannot lead to blessing. It never has and it never will. I believe the saying seen so often today, "Only God can judge me," pretty much sums up the despising of judgment that is so prevalent in this generation. Do you know what the result of that will be? I'll tell you if you don't: It will be judgment from God on a catastrophic level for those who have refused to judge righteously, and have refused to be judged righteously by anyone. So don't be afraid to execute righteous judgment and don't be afraid to take the right side of a conflict. The Bible tells us that the love of God casts out fear, and the love of God also will teach us how to execute righteous judgment in our lives (I Jn. 4:18; Jn. 7:24). With godly fear we should always remember the words of Moses at Mt. Sinai, which I repeat: "Who is on the Lord's side? let him cone unto me." Amen.