Daily Devotional – June 8, 2020

Well, a very happy Monday to you. I trust you had a good weekend, hopefully caught up on a little bit of rest, maybe worked on a project you've been putting off all winter and spring and wait till summer comes along and had a good weekend to get some of those projects done.

I especially hope you were able to worship together with God's people yesterday. If you couldn't do that at church and gather with people, I hope you were at least able to watch an online service and be encouraged in the things of the Lord.

One way to keep our wits about us these days is just by regularly being reoriented, reoriented to eternal truth. I think that's so important and so valuable. We're bombarded with all kinds of news and messages and, you know, strife and conflict and stuff that can just send our hearts into turmoil, our minds into a tailspin, and we really need the truth of God's Word to keep us oriented.

So when you went to church yesterday, one way or the other, did you uncover any gold nuggets, any treasure? I hope so, but it reminds me of a great story that just came out over the weekend of the discovery of a buried treasure.

I'm gonna have to save that one for tomorrow or the next day maybe, but it's really a good story and has some biblical application to it. But today I got something else on my mind because of what I read in my devotions this morning.

Dishonest Rhetoric and Proverbs 16:28

Well, thankfully this past weekend, you know, there are all kinds of protests all over the country, thousands and thousands and thousands of people. But thankfully those protests were significantly quieter than last weekend, the previous weekend.

Again, there were still a lot of protests, but fortunately there wasn't the violence. Now, I don't know if it was because of stepped-up level of law enforcement in their presence or the retreating of rioters or a combination of the two.

I don't know what it was that allowed for a bit more of calm, but I'm thankful for it. I have suspicions. You know, you're a little cynical going on here, but you know, this is an election year and I'm convinced that all of the mayhem that's been happening in 2020 is somehow connected to elections in November.

I think we're gonna see that borne out as time goes on. But whatever the case, with last week's violence as kind of a backdrop, I was reading this morning in my devotions a couple of verses from Proverbs 16, and they just popped right out at me.

The first one is verse 28. First part of the verse says, a dishonest man spreads strife. A dishonest man spreads strife. And boy, have we seen that played out in Living Color, haven't we? It's like if you stand up and shout long and loudly enough and you get enough people to join you in shouting, it doesn't much matter how accurate what you're saying really is.

Your rhetoric is going to succeed in dividing people. For example, as I'm sure you well know, there's a movement afoot to defund police. I can't imagine what in the world the thinking is there. I mean, I know the rhetoric, but the the practical thinking is...

I mean, there's just a vacuum when it comes to that, it seems. Well, the Minneapolis City Council voted yesterday, I think it was, to do just that in their city, to defund the police. Why? Why? Well, because police are the problem.

That's the rhetoric. Because police are inherently racist. Because police are violent, and they don't trust the people. Now, is there any truth to any of that? Well, I would say that there is a small element of truth in the sense that...

Are there bad cops? Yeah, nobody's denying that. Are cops inherently racist? Well, probably as many as there are bad cops. Are cops violent? Again, as many as there are bad cops. But are all cops bad?

No. Are the vast majority the vast majority good? Yes. But this is the rhetoric. Is it honest? I don't think so. It's dishonest, and what it does is spread strife. Incidentally, I heard an interview with the president of the City Council, who was asked this question.

What if my house gets broken into? Who do I call? It's a pretty good question, don't you think? Well, the president of the City Council replied. She said this. She said, I hear that, but that comes from a place of privilege.

Because for those of us for whom the system is working, I think we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done.

Well, is that truly an honest representation of reality? Maybe one in every thousand times? I don't know the statistics. I'm just throwing that out there. But is that really an honest representation of reality?

Or is it simply a bit of dishonest rhetoric that is polarizing and stirring up strife? Well, I think we'll see. We'll see if the changes that the City Council are envisioning for the city of Minneapolis won't end up being greatly modified when the city experiences the vacuum that having no law enforcement personnel with handcuffs and guns and holsters on their side to enforce the law.

See what happens when that is gone. Well, the second verse that struck me related to last week's violence is verse 29 of Proverbs 16. It says this, a man of violence entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good.

A man of violence entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good. Well, again, this biblical truth just smacked us in the face last week, didn't it? Over and over again, we heard that during the day there were these protest marches going on and they were overwhelmingly peaceful.

Sure, people were shouting and they were even using some of the dishonest rhetoric and some pretty foul language, expressed terrible disrespect for the police and a good bit of anger as well, but they avoided violence.

But then late in the afternoon or into the evening hours, a few people started acting up. They had frozen bottles of water and they hurled them at the police. And then bricks started being passed around and hurled at law enforcement.

A couple of thugs started tearing off plywood from boarded up stores and they used hammers and baseball bats and sometimes even sledgehammers to break windows. And before you know it, a mob shows up to loot the place or a mob is throwing water bottles and bricks.

I actually saw a video of just a few guys with sledgehammers who were trying to smash in the bulletproof window of a Wells Fargo bank branch, one of the drive up windows. And they're smashing and smashing, trying to break through those windows.

And just a couple of guys doing this and everybody else is just kind of standing and watching. And they finally succeeded, broke through that window and ripped the window off of the face of the wall there.

And then the mob came plunging into, crawling through that window to loot the place. Did they really think they were going to get any money out of there? I don't know. But anyway, the point is, just a few individuals were inciting this.

And before you know it, you had a whole mob involved or one person uses a skateboard to bash in a police car window. And then before you know it, there's a dozen hoodlums joining in, jumping up and down on the car and destroying the whole thing.

Now this whole dynamic was verified by one of the rioters who was arrested for attacking police cars in Miami. According to the article I read, 21 year old guy named Marco Lopez confessed to the crimes.

And then he told the police that he belonged to a group called Southern Slaves. And he told the officers that the group, quote, actively recruits people to violently protest the government. So here are a few people of violence who are actively recruiting others to violently protest the government.

And the guy went on to say this. He said, quote, walking around the city won't do anything. Sooner or later, you have to turn to violence, end quote. A man of violence entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good.

Interestingly, what this verse warns against is the very thing that really sparked all the unrest, isn't it? The police officer Derek Chauvin was known to be a man of violence. He had several, several complaints against him for using excessive force over his career.

Many, many complaints. And yet the police union, not the police officers or not the police force, but the police union stepped in, protected his job, and he's still on the force until a couple of weeks ago now.

And now a couple of weeks ago, this man of violence enticed three other cops, two of them rookies, fresh on the job. He enticed them to stand by while he exercised violence on George Floyd's body. He expected them to follow his lead, leading them to a place that was worse than not good.

These individuals, the three individuals who followed his lead, their consciences are mutilated. They've got to be in shreds. Their careers, done. Their families, I can't imagine the damage, the destruction to those families.

And then the national chaos, because a man of violence was followed and led to all of this, to a place that wasn't good. So I read that this morning and I heard the challenge. Be careful who you're following.

Be careful to whom you're listening. When you're tempted to allow someone's rhetoric to inflame you, ask, find out, is this really true? Is it all true? And the person who is sharing this, what are they really after?

Are they after a solution or are they engendering strife? And whatever you do, don't allow someone's violent anger, this passage told me, don't allow someone's violent anger to lead me down a path of misery, their path of misery.

So Proverbs is a book of wisdom. Maxims, that if followed will lead us in a good way, lead us in a good path. Here are a couple of good warnings from this book of wisdom and how timely in this day of strife and violence.

Prayer for Wisdom and a Closing Blessing

Well, let's ask God to protect us and give us wisdom to follow his word, shall we? Our Father and our God, we do thank you for the very practical instruction of your word. I pray that you would give us your people who love Christ and love your word and want to live for Christ.

Give us the wisdom to follow it. Give us wisdom to discern, not to follow and pay attention, give heed to dishonest rhetoric that stirs up strife, not to follow the lead of violent men who will take us to a place that we really don't want to go.

Grant us that wisdom, we pray. This we ask in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, well, I hope your week is getting off to a good start and will just continue to go well for you. God will bless you richly and all that you have to do and meet your every need.

So you have a rest of your, a good rest of your day today and look forward to seeing you here tomorrow, Lord willing.