Overturning Tables

I was so upset about the proposed new abortion center rules in NC that I spent the day reading the proposal more thoroughly, then writing an article, and then disseminating the article to several online news groups. Next,  I wrote to my own legislators, and then to the Department of Health Services, specifically expressing my dismay. I also mailed a copy to DHS asking that my disapproval of the most odious aspects of the new rules be communicated at the public hearing. If ten people object, the rules will be allowed to be challenged and potentially revised by state legislators. Here is the article I published in  the online newsgroup I write for: http://northcarolinaconservative.net/fox-guarding-hen-house-abortion-rules-committee-abortion-rule-breaker/

I didn't have time to do anything else all day...so I guess God's message to me yesterday was sometimes you must stop what you are doing, and do what you feel you are being called to do instead. Not everyone believes Christians should fight moral issues legislatively. I know that the only real cure to every societal ill is turning to Jesus. However, if we feel we know what is right, and our laws become increasingly wrong, it seems to me we have a moral duty to voice our outrage.

There is also the very valid concern that the rules whether good or bad for the abortion mills are not the issue. The issue is that abortion mills operate in our world at all.  By fighting the rules, are we somehow giving the impression that if the rules were ok, it would all be ok? Of course that is not what we are doing, we who believe in legislatively chipping away at immoral laws if it will save some lives. However, I am not in total disagreement with those who worry that our mission should only be attacking abortion through complete annulment of the law allowing it and nothing short of that. But I do believe that when we see unrighteousness, particularly where innocent lives are concerned as in abortion, we are to challenge to any degree we are able. If chipping away at the ability of the abortionists to practice is all we can do, then I believe we should do so, while not neglecting any opportunity we have to proclaim God's word and chip away at hardened hearts.

Jesus overturned the tables in the Temple of those exchanging currencies and selling doves in payment for sin. He did not say they could not do this odious act outside the Temple grounds, but to do it in His Father's house was a line He would not allow to be crossed without expressing righteous anger. What is interesting is that the people selling were not necessarily believers. According to Biblical scholars, the area where Jesus overturned the tables was in the outer courts of the temple where the gentiles could go. This was where a great deal of secular business was transacted. Jesus Himself never entered the inner courts where the Holy of Holies resided, as only Levitical priests could enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. The money changers were operating outside the inner temple, but still on temple grounds.

Matthew 21:12-13 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.And He said to them, "It is written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER'; but you are making it a ROBBERS' DEN."…

Jesus was concerned with challenging even secular transactions that desecrated the temple. We, as believers are called "the temple of God."  (1 Corinthians 3:16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?). I think a case could be made that any secular transactions that desecrate God's world within the "grounds" of the Temple within us, should arouse righteous anger, and we should perhaps be overturning tables. We may not be able to (yet) overturn the law that legalized abortion, but we can overturn the tables of those who profit by it. Just a thought.

**********

Isaiah 1:17 

Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

Zechariah 7:9-10 

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

Jeremiah 22:3 

Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

Proverbs 31:9

Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Proverbs 31:8-9 

Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.