The principle holds true for observing the work of God in my life. From my 57-year perch, I now see that rebellion bore fruit for evil in the long run, though in the short run I seemed to have gotten away with it:
“But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? . . .” (Zechariah 1:6).
God’s words “overtake.” They catch up. They are living words. Put them on the shelf and they will vibrate till they jump off, or smoke till there’s a fire.
But I can trace also in my life the finger of His mercy, which at every juncture blunted the full impact of evil and brought beauty from ashes.
A day is coming when many of us will moan to see that “not one word” of God has failed—all those words we watered down, we relegated to poetry, we tamed into liturgy, we dismissed as culturally conditioned, we claimed had ceased in our day, we shunted off into the millennium, we submitted to the judgment of man rather than submitting the judgments of man to the Word of God.
Hold fast, indeed, warns Joshua (verse 8). Slipping away is easier than you think. Beware of the "nations" and don’t [spiritually] intermarry (verse 12). This is what we’ve done in America. It’s the frog in the pot thing.
Andree Seu
