Daily Devotionals
Devotional: 22nd of Av
I will put my trust in him [Yeshua] (Hebrews 2:13).
A recent survey asked professing followers of Yeshua if they believed in absolutes of right and wrong. The majority said they did not. Some years back, Joseph Fletcher, a liberal Episcopalian priest considered to be the father of situational ethics, argued that morality was simply a matter of what is "right" at any given moment. Take, for example, Mrs. Throckmorton, who is told that unless she commits adultery, the guards at the political prison will kill her husband. What is the correct thing to do? According to Fletcher, it is to commit adultery, for the Torah, in his opinion, only provides guidelines for what is right in ordinary situations. Our society has come to agree with Fletcher. Thus, without the Torah in absolute terms, love has devolved into mere humanistic sentiment.
The ends never justify the means. Human calculations of ends and probabilities may be considered, but are only legitimate within the boundaries of the Torah. The prison official who asked Mrs. Throckmorton to commit adultery is certainly untrustworthy. He may kill her husband anyway. There is only safety in trusting God and obeying his Torah. Then we will have God's promised supernatural backing and we maximize the potential for good. Our confession should be, "Even unto death, I will not deny my faith or God's Torah." Perhaps God will intervene as he did with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Joseph. There is a God in heaven and in Israel who is capable of delivering us.
...commit to fully obeying God.
DJ