Out of Sight

How great are your works, O Lord! 
Your thoughts are very deep! 
The stupid man cannot know;
the fool cannot understand this: 
that though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they are doomed to destruction forever;
but you, O Lord, are on high forever.  
For behold, your enemies, O Lord,
for behold, your enemies shall perish;
all evildoers shall be scattered

-- Psalm 92:5-9

I knew an old hillbilly farmer who, back in his time, could cradle wheat ten hours a day.  He was relating some of the work he had done cutting his place out of the brush, plowing with a team and a double-shovel, cutting stave bolts with a crosscut, and fighting drought and depression.  There was no hyperbole, no exaggeration, yet it would have made Hercules think twice about signing up.  The old man shook his head as he ended his tale, "I could put in a good day's work, but I never was the man my pap was."    My father would say the same thing, as would I, most certainly. 

There is a tendency in the better class of people to look back upon our predecessors and think that the world is degenerating, that the next generation will not be up to the task.  We all have a kind of apocalyptic vision built into us, believing that, as Paul said, "[E]vil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse".  Things always seem to be on a downhill slope in an avalanche of destruction.  While I do think this was a better country when I was young, I can also remember the '70s and some bad times in the early '80s, Chevy Vegas and Chrysler K-cars, the Captain and Teneille and Donny and Marie on television.  I lived through the Jet Age and the Space Age but also through the Polyester Double Knit Age.  I survived the Carter Administration and Debby Boone singing "You Light Up My Life".  Really, is that insipid song from the Titanic movie any worse than that?

No, some things are actually better than they used to be or at least not any worse.  Television only seems worse because there is so much more of it, but we have alternatives.  We no longer are limited to Cronkite's version of "the way it is", and streaming audio and the MP3 file have freed us from the shackles of tape and vinyl and allowed us to flee the FM radio plantation.  Technology has the potential to give us greater liberty.  I do not much fear RFID chips and scanners for I am confident that anything that man can create, man can hack.  They are going to herd us with drones, are they?  Your drones will be occupied playing three-dimensional demolition derbies in the sky above the Pentagon.  The better the oppressors' technology, the easier it is to turn against them. 

Antichrists and false prophets do not cause me to lose sleep nor do I fear that atheists will soon rule the world and run me into a psych ward.  While traitors are to be despised when not pitied, they are, like Judas, merely pawns upon the board who will suffer according to their understanding of who or what it is they have betrayed.  Nevertheless, in the last several days I have been very unsettled as I consider the situation in this nation and the rest of the world.  Oppression and tyranny have temporarily gained the upper hand.  We are under the control, for the moment, of oligarchs, plutocrats, and fascists demagoguing the votes of the masses who care nothing for freedom but are content to live as slaves given a certain amount of free stuff.  I won't say the Lord spoke to me, but a statement did seem to come to mind out of nowhere:  The wicked shall be removed.

I was not sure what to make of that.  It could be a warning to me to shape up, to get the wicked impulses and inclinations out of my life and thought.  That's certainly applicable.  Before I could think too much about it, I reached the point of reading chapter 17 of Second Kings in which the Ten Tribes of Israel were taken into captivity by the Assyrians.  Three times it speaks of the Lord removing or casting Israel "out of His sight". 

Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight (v. 18)

And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. (v. 20)

Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. (v. 23)

He says the same of Judah with regard to the Babylonian exile in chapter 24, verses 3 and 4:   Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; [a]nd also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the Lord would not pardon.

I am not saying that the "wrath of God" is going to fall on America or any other country.  I am not suggesting that we are about to see some kind of Sodom-and-Gomorrah-like judgment fall upon San Francisco or Amsterdam or Rio.  Such things are certainly possible, and I cannot say the Lord would not be just if He rained fire and brimstone down on Washington, D.C., or a thousand other dens of iniquity around the planet. 

I am saying that ... the kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of you (Luke 17:21).  I am also reminded of something else Jesus said, that the meek will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).  The earth will not be left to the unrighteous and the evil but to the just and the merciful and the gentle.  How God's will is to be accomplished none may know but the Lord Himself; however, we may rest in the assurance that the wicked will be removed and Christ will reign over all in truth and righteousness. 

Back in Leviticus 16, we read of the infamous scapegoat, more literally the goat for Azazel — "azazel" meaning entire removal.  The high priest was instructed to take two goats and cast lots between them.  It's not like one goat was going to be lucky.  The "winner" was the one for which the lot fell to the Lord.  It was sacrificed as a sin offering.  The lot for Azazel fell to the other goat.  The priest would lay his hands upon the scapegoat's head and confess upon it the sins and iniquities of the nation.  A designated person would then lead that goat out into the wilderness, carrying away into oblivion and forgetfulness — "out of sight" — the sins of the people.  In some remote area the goat would be released never to be seen again. 

Christ was our sacrifice and His blood was shed as our perfect sin offering.  He was also, though, the one for the entire removal of our sins.  As He was buried and descended into hell, He took those sins out of the Father's sight, carrying them away so that they might not only be paid for and forgiven but entirely and eternally forgotten. 

This leaves humans with a choice.  We can accept and believe that our wickedness has been removed, or we can reject the work of Christ and find that the wicked shall be removed.