The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The story of Ananias and Sapphira is a shocking one. They lied and said the money they donated to the church was the whole amount from the field they sold, and God struck them dead. Everyone who heard about it was terrified.
It seems inconsistent. Most of us have told a half-truth or a lie sometime in our lives, and we're still here.
I wonder if this was an important part of the beginning of His Church. A lesson to all the believers, then and now, that God in all His grace still does not tolerate sin. A sharp example to us all of how God could react when we take his calling lightly and sink into self-service. It makes it easier to fear God, knowing that sometimes He chooses to mete out justice as soon as it's deserved.
We serve a God who hates sin and loves justice. That should make us tremble.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Struck Dead
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2 comments:
It's an interesting thing - people today are uncomfortable with many Bible stories in part because in so many of them He seems to be overreacting. Yet the most serious allegations against God in our era are for the opposite crime: for failing to put a stop to great evil. I wonder if there's a lesson in there somewhere?
and easier to serve God in seeing how abundant his grace to us is - knowing we all deserve to have been struck dead long ago...the fact that we live and breathe and have life, if because of his grace...
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