Tag: plots

39.r. “The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.”

 

 

Genesis 49:5   “Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

 Psalms 26:9    Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men,

 Psalms 64:2    Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers,

 2 Corinthians 6:14    Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

 Proverbs 1:15-16   my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths,  for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.

 Proverbs 12:5    The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.

Our soul is our honor; by its powers we are distinguished from, and raised above, the beasts that perish. We ought, from our hearts, to abhor all bloody and mischievous men. Cursed be their anger. (Henry)

Simeon and Levi are brothers,…. Not because they were so in a natural sense, being brethren both by father and mother’s side, for there were others so besides them; but because they were of like tempers, dispositions, and manners (f), bold, wrathful, cruel, revengeful, and deceitful, and joined together in their evil counsels and evil actions, and so are joined together in the evils predicted of them, instruments of cruelty. (Gill)

Being in agreement with someone and joining together in an act does not necessarily make that act right, good, or just. It may make us think it is, but that will never make it so. Being angered at an act of another person(s) will surely come to us at some point in our lives, whether it be an act against us, our family, our friends, our community, or our nation. For some reason, anger is a part of our nature, and rightly so. Having the ability to recognize right and wrong, good and bad, just and injustice, and have either indignation or pleasure from it seems to be within our nature. How we treat this recognition in light of our knowledge and application of God’s Word is the difference between that which brings honor and glory to Jesus Christ or not. 

By faith, trust, and reliance on God and His promises we can choose to lay the burden of our hearts about wrongs, injustice, and other sinful actions of others at His feet. Why???

  1. Beloved, never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God
  2. Vengeance is mine; I will repay
  3. Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’
  4. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all
  5. Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.
  6. the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.
  7. For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
  8. “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
  9. for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
  10. I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them.
  11. Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you
  12. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
  13. May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.
  14. O shameless nation, before the decree takes effect —before the day passes away like chaff— before there comes upon you the burning anger of the Lord, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the Lord.
  15. the Lord will repay him according to his deeds
  16. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
  17. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
  18. the Lord is an avenger in all these things 

I think it is good that we can see wrongs and feel indignation and anger. This means we have the ability to know the difference. However, some people may be angered by good. The civil war is an example of two groups of people who saw the same thing, one calling it wrong and one calling it good. When we look at abortion there are those who call killing unborn babies good and those who call it bad. The same can be said about pornography, sex trafficking, LGBTQ, looting and burning businesses in an outcry of retaliation, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, etc…. Let us know that it is from the heart that seeks and desires to honor and glorify Jesus Christ that a person will discern what is right, true, just, and good. Praise God that we have been given the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us unto truth in all matters. Praise God that we have been given discernment. Praise God that we have been given His promises of handling all wrongs, injustices, and cruelty. Praise God who gives us promises that allow us to lay these at His feet and know, in His Holiness and in His time they will be justly handled. Praise God we can rest and have peace when all around us are in fear and anger. Praise God and rejoice for He is God and in Him, we have hope for today and assurance for tomorrow.

Eternal consequences

Psalms 112:10  The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish!

Isaiah 65:13-14     Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;  behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for breaking of spirit.

Luke 13:28     In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.

Psalms 37:12    The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him,

Matthew 22:13     Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Revelation 16:10-11    The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish  and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.

Proverbs 10:28    The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.

Proverbs 11:7     When the wicked dies, his hope will perish, and the expectation of wealth perishes too.

Luke 16:24-26     And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’  But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.  And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’

Revelation 20:11  Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.  Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.  And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

I have heard it said “we don’t get out of this world alive”.  That is true.  What doesn’t get talked about much is the fact that there is consequences for our actions, choices, thoughts, intents.  These are eternal consequences with two totally different outcomes.

Joh 3:16  📝  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Choosing to reject the gift of eternal life through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ is choosing to be unforgiven and your soul found wanting on the day of judgement.  There is no second chance once breath has ceased in this life.  All that is waiting for the person who rejects Christ, is eternal punishment.   We come to Christ for salvation, redemption, joy, peace, strength, hope, refuge, and love, by and through faith (believing, trusting in, relying on, and clinging to) Him alone.

Pay Attention

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”

” let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

Psalms 56:5  All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.

Job 16:20   My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,

Matthew 22:15   Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words

Luke 11:54   lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

Jeremiah 18:18   Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

Luke 22:3  Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.  He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them.  And they were glad, and agreed to give him money.  So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

Isaiah 63:9   In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Hebrews 11:13   These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Malachi 3:16   Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name.

Psalms 126:5  Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy  He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

Revelation 7:17    For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

It is obvious there are those who seek God and those who do not.  For those who do not, they have closed their ears, eyes, heart, soul and mind.  they have closed all of these to His creation, His word, and what He has placed within our heart about Him.  Their heart and mind have hardened to the point of not only rejecting God’s call but to reject, mock, and cause issue with those who walk by faith in the one true God.  In Romans it says that they have chosen to reject God because He has made it clear to them through creation and by placing initial knowledge of Himself in their heart and mind.  Romans continues to say that because they have rejected Him, He has given them over to this debase and eternally harmful mindset.  For those who have chosen to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey there is another course/path for their lives.  God is ever present in their heart, mind, and soul.  They know there is more to life than what is experienced this side of eternity.  They hold on to that which is promised – not seen. They come to God with their heart cry and know He is their strength, rock, refuge, joy, peace, and place of rest.  They live this side of eternity with hope and expectation of eternity promised with God.  Keep strong, stand firm, seek God, and CHOOSE to keep your heart, mind and soul focused in this life on Him.  Do not allow your heart and mind to be pulled away by things of this world and culture.  Do not get so busy that you lose sight of God and eternity.  Do not neglect His word.  Keep your life in check with His word.

Known by his acts

“By steadfast loveand faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.”

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness”

Psalms 36:1   Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil.

Proverbs 20:11   Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.

Matthew 7:16  You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?  So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.  A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Matthew 12:33  “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.  You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Titus 1:16   They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Proverbs 8:13   The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

Ecclesiastes 12:13   The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Romans 3:18   “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

The heart of man is deceitful and full of arrogance and pride.  We can know this and always be on guard for when it wants to raise its ugly head. Or, we can say it is not there and never be looking.  How sad is it when we choose to deny there is any thing wrong with our thoughts, intents, words and actions?  Out of the abundance of our heart our mouth speaks.  It is also true that what fills our mind and thoughts feeds our heart.  How is a person to recognize right and wrong thoughts, intents, speech, and actions?  A live time could be spend on what it means to Love, and the same for Joy, or Peace, or Patience, or Kindness, or Goodness, or Faithfulness. The only way to understand our own heart is to examine it in light of scripture and seek God to reveal that which is opposing to living, acting, speaking in such a way that humbly serves, honors and obeys Him.  Filling our mind with His word on a daily basis will start this never ending  growth in our service to Him.  Rejecting or putting off time with His word allows our heart to become complacent and hard.  We are unable to grow, unable to display fruits of His indwelling in our lives, unable to serve Him,  and unable to honor and glorify Him.  Our actions, thoughts and words are a direct reflection of our walk with God.  David wanting to humbly serve, honor and obey God put it this way. “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”  You know you are on the right path when your prayer is in line with this.