We walk by faith not by sight

 


1Sa 6:19
And He struck the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of Jehovah. He even struck seventy among the people, including fifty chief men. And the people lamented because Jehovah had struck the people with a great slaughter.


Years ago, Hollywood produced a movie called the Wizard of Oz. In the movie, a dog named Toto pulled back the curtain of the great and powerful Oz to expose a salesman from Kansas. A simple and ordinary person just like Dorothy.

Since that time, it appears our society has focused on being Toto and revealing the voice behind the curtain. Politicians it seems, are relentless in appearing godly in character while exposing the devilish side of their opponent. Television news journalist likewise project this better than thou persona on t.v. during their interviews and hope that by their baited questions they may hook their prized fish of controversy. We have reality t.v. that places you the viewer in the judgement seat of approval or dis-approval by normally some kind of voting or other type of communication. All the while we continue the downward spiral of this society while peering down our noses at others and making ourselves jubilant in the fact that at least we are not like that person. It is all well and good until someone pulls back our curtain and we scream,"What you lookin at Willis?"

The unfortunate thing is as time goes by we devalue people and even their worth of contribution to society. We write books even about patriarchs of old with one objective in mind; To bring the patriarch to a position equal to ourselves or with great jubilation if they land lower than us. Thomas Jefferson was just one example. We all heard of the accusation yet never heard of the retraction. Why do we do this? Could it be an attempt by evil men to control society? Or is it simply a way that we can excuse ourselves from contributing to the greater good of society? Are we asking that age old question once again? Am I my brothers keeper? Is there a lesson from the past we can learn from? I believe so.



The men of Beth-Shemesh couldn't help themselves they had to pull back the curtain, so to speak, and see what was inside. By peering inside they found their own destruction. Unbelief and faith cannot coexists on the same plain. It is like trying to make light and dark inhabit the same space it won't happen. What does this have to do with what we were speaking about? Honor. Pure and simple honor. Not to many years ago we had a society that was based on the honor system. There were some things that you just didn't say. There were things that you just didn't do. There were some questions that you just didn't ask. I remember as a child, overhearing a man ask my grandfather, "So, Lemmie just how many cows do you have on your land?" My grandfather replied,"Well, why don't you just ask me how much money I have in the bank?" You see that was just plain rude! Well, it's like someone trying to pull back your curtain to see what was going on in your house. Hm mm.