Daily Lesson for August 17, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 21:

27 When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, who had seen him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd. They seized him, 28shouting, ‘Fellow-Israelites, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place; more than that, he has actually brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.’ 29For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 30Then all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.31While they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33Then the tribune came, arrested him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; he inquired who he was and what he had done. 34Some in the crowd shouted one thing, some another; and as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. 35When Paul came to the steps, the violence of the mob was so great that he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36The crowd that followed kept shouting, ‘Away with him!’

A story with relevance for today, touchstones with current events I will note in a numerical list:

1) Racially/religiously-motivated zealots protecting what they see as "sacred", and willing to resort to violence in order to preserve it.

2) The zealots are mostly outside agitators, not actually from the place where they are fomenting a riot.

3) Zenophobia is a prime motivator for the mob.

4) The Roman officials are either unable or unwilling to determine the moral legitimacy of the parties involved in the crisis, arresting Paul, who is the victim rather than the instigator of the violence.  In fact, later the order is given to have Paul flogged for fomenting disorder in the city.

Karl Barth said, "Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible."

So here then is what the Bible tells us about the news and times we live in: It really doesn't end well for cities or for countries governed by mob rule.  When the wind is allowed to be sown then the whirlwind is reaped. That is why local, state, and federal governments with moral clarity and legitimacy are so necessary to intervene for the protection of life, property, and establishment of order. 

#ThisIsSerious 

#ATimeForMoralClarity 

#DoNotPlayWithFire