UNRIGHTEOUS DECREES: Devotion for Monday June 20, 2016
Text: Isaiah 10:1 – 4 Memory Verse: v 1
Our
text today is a continuation of Isaiah Chapter 9. If you actually want to
understand this text well, then start reading from Chapter 9. Isaiah indicts
wicked oppressors. They are charged, with making wicked laws and edicts: They
decree unrighteous decrees, contrary to natural equity and the law of God and
what mischief they prescribe, those under them write it, enroll it, and put it
into the formality of a law. It is bad to hurt someone, but it is worse to do
it with design and deliberation.
Again, they were charged with perverting
justice in the execution of the laws that were made. No people had statutes and
judgments to righteous as they had, and yet corrupt judges found ways to turn
aside the needy from judgment, to hinder them from coming at their right and
recovering what was their due, because they were needy and poor, and such as
they could get nothing by nor expect any bribes from. The third charge against
these oppressors is that they were enriching themselves by oppressing those
that lay at their mercy, whom they ought to have protected.
Can
we find any of these accusations similar in our present day society? You, in
leadership position, do you make Draconian laws targeted at the poor, needy,
widows, etc? Draco is an Athenian legislator who made harsh laws. If you make
harsh laws, you are like the lawyers berated by Jesus Christ in Lk 11:46
(compare Matt. 23:1–4). Repent today because the Day of Judgment is coming when
you cannot escape the anger of God.
Food for Thought: Leaders should protect the rights of the less privileged
ones and the poor, and not to abuse them.
Prayer: Lord God, grant me the grace that in any leadership position I find myself, I will not make laws that will infringe on the rights of the poor and less privileged.
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