“Sigh and Cry”
Introduction. Who could have dreamed our world would change so much and so fast? When using technology to chart the magnitude of these changes, one older member once told me: “I have lived from the days of the horse and buggy to putting a man on the moon.” Truly, the innovations in medicine, entertainment and in the quality of our lives are astonishing. But there are other more sobering changes that are just as astounding.
How could anyone have imagined the amazing changes in the moral values of the American people? No one born before 1970 could have predicted in their wildest imagination how the culture would change. Who would have believed in 1972 after the court ruling of Roe vs. Wade swept away the laws of the land that only 38 years later over 52 million women would have chosen to kill their unborn child? When television first entered our homes who would have foreseen its terrible influence for evil. Many consciences have been coarsened, hardened or seared. The “sexual revolution” of the 1960's brought so much “freedom” that our country is now filled with immodesty, premarital sex, gay rights, gay marriage, and pornography.
Many of us can remember how foreign the world of Noah and Lot seemed just a few decades back. Now we empathize with them and even feel the anguish and sorrow of Elijah and Jeremiah.
What happened? How did our world become so wicked so quickly? First, consider those who have little faith in God and none in the inspiration of Scripture. Without convictions people can be easily influenced in their moral views. This is captured by a poem written over three hundred and fifty years ago.
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace. Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
So through television, vice was shown often enough and in such a way that it was first endured and then it was pitied. Finally it has been embraced and is no longer vice at all, but seen as normal behavior. Not long ago, pornography, prostitution, homosexuality, drugs, and gambling were considered vice. Now many in our society have already made or are working toward making them legal. What was once a “frightful mien” is no longer frightful at all to a large group of people.
Paul summed this up more succinctly: “Evil company corrupts good habits” (NKJ) “Bad company ruins good morals” (ESV) (1Cor 15:33). While the rest of the county is becoming “evil” and “bad company”, the pressure on our own “good morals and habits” has intensified. What was intolerable and disgusting has become normal for so many that our democracy has seen fit to pass laws that sanction and protect them.
What About Religious People? This pressure has caused enough of the denominational world to join in that even “religious people” condone them. Divorce, homosexuality, abortion, gambling, and sexual promiscuity have been accepted by many in the religious realm. This leaves those of us who believe in the inspiration of Scripture more and more isolated.
The “peer pressure” to conform or accept is now enormous. Our schools are teaching our children these things are normal. They give them condoms, access to abortion and sex education, and no longer even need to inform parents what they do. Even among the Lord’s people some are succumbing to the pressure. Things that were unheard of are now common. Divorce has become so acceptable to the world that many even among us are teaching anyone can remarry for any reason. Drinking, dancing, gambling, and R-rated movies are no longer seen as the vile and wicked behavior they once were. The principles of modesty, sobriety, holiness, and purity are slowly eroding.
How do we feel about these things? Am I being too strict? An old “fuddy duddy” who doesn’t want others to have any fun? Actually how our conscience responds to these truths is our barometer to gauge the health of our own “good habits” and “good morals.”
Do we still feel as we did when these things first started to change? Are we still of Lot’s disposition? “For that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds” (2Pet 2:8). If we have not been influenced by “evil company,” then this is exactly how we should feel. The world has become evil and it is both disgusting and frightening.
We must not fall into the category of those “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Rom 1:32). Perhaps we have not yet reached the level of “doing the same”, but what about our approval? Remember the poem: “First we endure, then we pity, then we embrace.” Lot saw vice as unendurable and it “tormented his righteous soul.” But through the TV, many today now “endure” these vices. We are coarsened enough that a little nudity or foul language is endured as the price we pay to be entertained and our “righteous indignation” is lost. Our morals are ruined enough that we allow our children to go to a prom where others will paw and make sexual advances to our children under the guise of dancing.
When was the last time we turned off a movie because the language or content became so disgusting we could no longer be entertained by it? Has our tolerance of sinful behavior begun to impact our conscience?
Lessons from History. We all know in our hearts that God will not long tolerate this behavior. He sees all sexual immorality as a sickening abomination. He told Israel “Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. ... lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (Lev 18:24-28).
Later, this is exactly what happened to Judah. God had sent Isaiah, Micah, and then Jeremiah to say the same things said in this article. But the people wouldn’t listen then. Just before the fall of Jerusalem, God gave Ezekiel a vision. He showed him seven men assembled near the city of Jerusalem. Six had “his slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man in the midst of them clothed in linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side.” First God spoke to the man with the writer’s inkhorn “and the LORD said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it. 5 To the others He said in my hearing, Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. 6 Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark;" (Ezek 9:1-6)
What About Us? If God did this today in America would any of us receive that mark? Do we “sigh and cry over all the abominations” done today? This is exactly why God “delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked.”
“Son of man, when a land sinneth against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand upon it, and break the staff of the bread thereof, and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast; 14 though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ezek 14:13-14)
So what about us? Is our attitude toward “vice”, “evil company”, and “those who practice such things” like Lot’s? Do we “sigh and cry” over the abominations on TV, at work, and in the schools? Our lives and our eternal souls can only be delivered by our own righteousness. Paul said “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; 12 for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of” (Eph 5:11-12).
How could anyone have imagined the amazing changes in the moral values of the American people? No one born before 1970 could have predicted in their wildest imagination how the culture would change. Who would have believed in 1972 after the court ruling of Roe vs. Wade swept away the laws of the land that only 38 years later over 52 million women would have chosen to kill their unborn child? When television first entered our homes who would have foreseen its terrible influence for evil. Many consciences have been coarsened, hardened or seared. The “sexual revolution” of the 1960's brought so much “freedom” that our country is now filled with immodesty, premarital sex, gay rights, gay marriage, and pornography.
Many of us can remember how foreign the world of Noah and Lot seemed just a few decades back. Now we empathize with them and even feel the anguish and sorrow of Elijah and Jeremiah.
What happened? How did our world become so wicked so quickly? First, consider those who have little faith in God and none in the inspiration of Scripture. Without convictions people can be easily influenced in their moral views. This is captured by a poem written over three hundred and fifty years ago.
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace. Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
So through television, vice was shown often enough and in such a way that it was first endured and then it was pitied. Finally it has been embraced and is no longer vice at all, but seen as normal behavior. Not long ago, pornography, prostitution, homosexuality, drugs, and gambling were considered vice. Now many in our society have already made or are working toward making them legal. What was once a “frightful mien” is no longer frightful at all to a large group of people.
Paul summed this up more succinctly: “Evil company corrupts good habits” (NKJ) “Bad company ruins good morals” (ESV) (1Cor 15:33). While the rest of the county is becoming “evil” and “bad company”, the pressure on our own “good morals and habits” has intensified. What was intolerable and disgusting has become normal for so many that our democracy has seen fit to pass laws that sanction and protect them.
What About Religious People? This pressure has caused enough of the denominational world to join in that even “religious people” condone them. Divorce, homosexuality, abortion, gambling, and sexual promiscuity have been accepted by many in the religious realm. This leaves those of us who believe in the inspiration of Scripture more and more isolated.
The “peer pressure” to conform or accept is now enormous. Our schools are teaching our children these things are normal. They give them condoms, access to abortion and sex education, and no longer even need to inform parents what they do. Even among the Lord’s people some are succumbing to the pressure. Things that were unheard of are now common. Divorce has become so acceptable to the world that many even among us are teaching anyone can remarry for any reason. Drinking, dancing, gambling, and R-rated movies are no longer seen as the vile and wicked behavior they once were. The principles of modesty, sobriety, holiness, and purity are slowly eroding.
How do we feel about these things? Am I being too strict? An old “fuddy duddy” who doesn’t want others to have any fun? Actually how our conscience responds to these truths is our barometer to gauge the health of our own “good habits” and “good morals.”
Do we still feel as we did when these things first started to change? Are we still of Lot’s disposition? “For that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds” (2Pet 2:8). If we have not been influenced by “evil company,” then this is exactly how we should feel. The world has become evil and it is both disgusting and frightening.
We must not fall into the category of those “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Rom 1:32). Perhaps we have not yet reached the level of “doing the same”, but what about our approval? Remember the poem: “First we endure, then we pity, then we embrace.” Lot saw vice as unendurable and it “tormented his righteous soul.” But through the TV, many today now “endure” these vices. We are coarsened enough that a little nudity or foul language is endured as the price we pay to be entertained and our “righteous indignation” is lost. Our morals are ruined enough that we allow our children to go to a prom where others will paw and make sexual advances to our children under the guise of dancing.
When was the last time we turned off a movie because the language or content became so disgusting we could no longer be entertained by it? Has our tolerance of sinful behavior begun to impact our conscience?
Lessons from History. We all know in our hearts that God will not long tolerate this behavior. He sees all sexual immorality as a sickening abomination. He told Israel “Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. ... lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (Lev 18:24-28).
Later, this is exactly what happened to Judah. God had sent Isaiah, Micah, and then Jeremiah to say the same things said in this article. But the people wouldn’t listen then. Just before the fall of Jerusalem, God gave Ezekiel a vision. He showed him seven men assembled near the city of Jerusalem. Six had “his slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man in the midst of them clothed in linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side.” First God spoke to the man with the writer’s inkhorn “and the LORD said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it. 5 To the others He said in my hearing, Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. 6 Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark;" (Ezek 9:1-6)
What About Us? If God did this today in America would any of us receive that mark? Do we “sigh and cry over all the abominations” done today? This is exactly why God “delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked.”
“Son of man, when a land sinneth against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand upon it, and break the staff of the bread thereof, and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast; 14 though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ezek 14:13-14)
So what about us? Is our attitude toward “vice”, “evil company”, and “those who practice such things” like Lot’s? Do we “sigh and cry” over the abominations on TV, at work, and in the schools? Our lives and our eternal souls can only be delivered by our own righteousness. Paul said “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; 12 for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of” (Eph 5:11-12).