Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
For these things means the iniquities that turn away good and the sins that withhold good, wicked men found among God's people lying in wait as setters of snares and setting traps to catch men, houses become full of deceit by which they become great and rich, growing fat and shining and overpassing the deeds of the wicked, judging not the cause of the fatherless yet prospering and judging not the right of the needy, while prophets prophesy falsely and priests bear rule by their means and the people love to have it so. The double question whether He will not visit and whether His soul will not be avenged on such a nation declares that He will surely visit in judgment and punishment and fulfill His word. That avenging is directed against those who will not hear and will not see and who refuse the light sent to them, a condition that exists among God's people and in His churches. It confronts those who act as co-laborers with evil to degrade those God is seeking to uplift, pressing upon them what they will do in the end thereof.
God will call a nation to account for injustice, especially when those with power fail to judge the cause of the fatherless and the right of the needy. Prosperity does not shield from this reckoning. Even the least act of injustice or false dealing will be punished, and no failure to obey His Word or to deal justly and mercifully will be overlooked.
The judgment applies to a confederate system of demanding high wages and seeking advantage for self in sacred publishing work, which is directly contrary to justice and righteousness and is robbery toward God. In His own time God will make the trusted but unfaithful men a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men, and will scatter them. He will blow upon the means they receive so that it becomes as nothing, will take judgment from them, and will forsake them utterly unless they repent and serve His work faithfully and not for gain. This is because He gave His only begotten Son and they walked away from His statutes.
God sees and takes knowledge of selfish unkindness to children and will visit in punishment for it. This reaches one who voluntarily covenanted to mother her husband's children yet withholds love, affection, patient forbearance, praise and encouragement, and instead governs with selfishness, closeness, harsh ways, censure and unsympathizing dislike that withers and blights young hearts and dries up love, hopefulness and joy. For such unfaithfulness to a mother's trust God will leave the offender to herself. He will not prosper and bless the fruit of the selfish union with strength, life and health but will let His curse wither and blight it, will come closer and remove idol after idol until the proud, selfish, unsubdued heart is humbled before Him, and will require a fearful account in the day of God.
God will call a nation to account for its wrongdoing, warning a nation claiming to be Christian that it is answerable for permitting the torture and killing of Black people, including those not proved guilty. The same reckoning answers its condemning them more harshly for sins it scarcely condemns among white people.
For these things means the iniquities that turn away good and the sins that withhold good, wicked men found among God's people lying in wait as setters of snares and setting traps to catch men, houses become full of deceit by which they become great and rich, growing fat and shining and overpassing the deeds of the wicked, judging not the cause of the fatherless yet prospering and judging not the right of the needy, while prophets prophesy falsely and priests bear rule by their means and the people love to have it so. The double question whether He will not visit and whether His soul will not be avenged on such a nation declares that He will surely visit in judgment and punishment and fulfill His word. That avenging is directed against those who will not hear and will not see and who refuse the light sent to them, a condition that exists among God's people and in His churches. It confronts those who act as co-laborers with evil to degrade those God is seeking to uplift, pressing upon them what they will do in the end thereof.
God will call a nation to account for injustice, especially when those with power fail to judge the cause of the fatherless and the right of the needy. Prosperity does not shield from this reckoning. Even the least act of injustice or false dealing will be punished, and no failure to obey His Word or to deal justly and mercifully will be overlooked.
The judgment applies to a confederate system of demanding high wages and seeking advantage for self in sacred publishing work, which is directly contrary to justice and righteousness and is robbery toward God. In His own time God will make the trusted but unfaithful men a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men, and will scatter them. He will blow upon the means they receive so that it becomes as nothing, will take judgment from them, and will forsake them utterly unless they repent and serve His work faithfully and not for gain. This is because He gave His only begotten Son and they walked away from His statutes.
God sees and takes knowledge of selfish unkindness to children and will visit in punishment for it. This reaches one who voluntarily covenanted to mother her husband's children yet withholds love, affection, patient forbearance, praise and encouragement, and instead governs with selfishness, closeness, harsh ways, censure and unsympathizing dislike that withers and blights young hearts and dries up love, hopefulness and joy. For such unfaithfulness to a mother's trust God will leave the offender to herself. He will not prosper and bless the fruit of the selfish union with strength, life and health but will let His curse wither and blight it, will come closer and remove idol after idol until the proud, selfish, unsubdued heart is humbled before Him, and will require a fearful account in the day of God.
God will call a nation to account for its wrongdoing, warning a nation claiming to be Christian that it is answerable for permitting the torture and killing of Black people, including those not proved guilty. The same reckoning answers its condemning them more harshly for sins it scarcely condemns among white people.