HOW CAN WE BE SO SELF-DESTRUCTIVE?

People interpret the same events so differently, even when it leads them to their promised destruction. For example, God had explained that he had destroyed Judah and Jerusalem because of the obstinacy of His rebellious people:

·       “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of the evil that they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to make offerings and serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods.” (Jeremiah 44:2-5 ESV)

Jeremiah therefore warned the Jewish remnant who had subsequently escaped to Egypt, against the counsel of God, that they faced further destruction unless they repented and returned to God. After all that they had suffered and lost, we should expect them to be humbled by their suffering, but they were not. Instead, they responded:

·       “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” (Jeremiah 44:16-18)

Their analysis was diametrically opposed to God’s. Nor would they return to God, although they had sought His counsel through the Prophet Jeremiah. How could this be? They knew that he was a prophet along with the others who had been sent to them to prophesy their doom.

The Book of Revelation prophesies that it will also be this way in the end, before Jesus’ return. No matter how much the people of the earth would suffer, they would still shake their angry fist in God’s face:

·       The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. (Revelation 9:20-21)

It was as if they were addicted and had no intention of challenging their addiction:

·       They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds. (Revelation 16:9-11)

I cannot understand such blind, self-destructive stubbornness, especially in light of the fact that they could have confessed their sins and have received relief and hope. God had not asked them to betray the truth or their conscience. He was merely asking them to come to Him to acknowledge their very obvious guilt. I might not understand this, but I accept this as the condition of the human race, dominated by their hatred of God.

However, hatred is a powerful force. It is a tornado, which removes everything from its path. It knows no boundaries and has no fears as it consumes. Even as a six year old, my hatred and anger ravished me. Our front door was on a spring and it slipped out of my little hand and caught my thumb causing me to scream. However, the pain was nothing compared to the hate of my failure to successfully open the door. In anger, I brought the door back again on my thumb, again and again, until my nail fell off and I was crying in rage.

Why the rage against God, even to our own detriment? Some suggest that it is because God had disappointed them by not answering their prayers. Others suggest that it is because He deprives them of their freedoms. However, I think that the answer goes even deeper. Those who hate Him are intuitively aware that He will judge them:

·       Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:32)

Perhaps this also helps us to explain why our Western elites hate the peaceful-seeking Christian faith even while they shelter violent Islam. Secretly, they look down on Islam and don’t credit it with any moral authority. They regard it as worthy of their pity. It makes them feel superior to condescend to their pathetic estate, even while it is plain that Islam intends to destroy them. However, our elites have arrogantly blinded themselves to this threat.

Meanwhile, they have a deep intuition of the truth and authority of the Biblical God, and this reminds them of their deserved judgment before Him.