As I lay thinking what law-abiding citizens can do in the face of blatant disregard for the rule of law by many of our public officials, I began praying to God to intervene. Then the following scripture occurred to me.
From Isaiah 59: [NLT]
13 We know we have rebelled and have denied the LORD.
We have turned our backs on our God.
We know how unfair and oppressive we have been,
carefully planning our deceitful lies.
14 Our courts oppose the righteous,
and justice is nowhere to be found.
Truth stumbles in the streets,
and honesty has been outlawed.
15 Yes, truth is gone,
and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.
The LORD looked and was displeased
to find there was no justice.
16 He was amazed to see that no one intervened
to help the oppressed.
So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm,
and his justice sustained him.
17 He put on righteousness as his body armor
and placed the helmet of salvation on his head.
[Other relevant scripture: Isa 59:4; Isa 5:23; Isa 10:1; Isa 10:2; Ps 82:2-5; Eccl 3:16; Jer 5:27; Jer 5:28; Jer 5:31; Amos 5:7; Amos 5:11; Mic 3:9-11; Mic 7:3-5; Hab 1:4; Zeph 3:1-3.]
It seems that the Lord has given the world a fresh example of what it looks like when His laws are blatantly disregarded; when self-righteous people rely upon themselves to establish laws and uphold them, as though any law had a foundation without Him.
We are obviously under the kind of judgment that the apostle Paul described in Romans 1; and like is stated in Proverbs:
From Romans 1:
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles….
25 They traded the truth about God for a lie… 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other… Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved….
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
From Proverbs 1:
1:30 They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them.
31 Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way,
choking on their own schemes.
[See also: Prov 22:8; Job 4:8; Isa 3:10; Isa 3:11; Jer 2:19; Jer 6:19; Gal 6:7; Gal 6:8.]
What are Christians and law-abiding citizens to do?
2 Peter 3:
3 Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” 5 They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. 6 Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. 7 And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
8 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. 9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
[Also see: that there. 1Tim 4:1; 1Tim 4:2; 2Tim 3:1; 1John 2:18; Jude 1:18
scoffers. Prov 1:22; Prov 3:34; Prov 14:6; Isa 5:19; Isa 28:14; Isa 29:20; Hos 7:5
walking. 2Pet 2:10; 2Cor 4:2; Jude 1:16; Jude 1:18]
In accordance with the above: we ought to pray for those who have wickedly turned from God’s law, mocking Him and oppressing us. We also ought to repent and humble ourselves before God, as these current problems are from His hand.
And He will punish the wicked mockers that think His word is meaningless; but He will relieve the oppressed [as Dr. MacArthur stated in the most recent post in this blog].
The Bible calls people to repent and turn from their sin countless times; refer to any Bible concordance.
The “last days” began after Christ’s ascension and continue until His return.
The way wickedness is ramping up, as can be seen on the nightly news (those outlets who actually report facts), Christ’s return may not be far away; therefore, the most urgent need we all have is to acknowledge our sin, repent and seek the Lord while He may be found — at some point, one’s opportunities to repent expire; then all that is left is judgment.
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