THE FEAR OF THE LORD

DAY 58

Leviticus 19:14 You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

For anyone to qualify as a safe bet to be in partnership with us in any sense, we often seek for inherent and visible virtues: honesty, respect, and love, among others. But one virtue is highlighted today which can birth many of the others we seek:  ‘the fear of the Lord’.

In the warning to Israel today, two actions which when not executed signified the absence of the fear of the Lord are highlighted: ” cursing the deaf and placing a stumbling block in front of the blind”. In both instances, neither the deaf nor blind can do anything by their own power. The deaf does not hear the curses, and the blind has no chance of seeing the obstacles except they are helped.

We have been commissioned to love our enemies and pray for those persecute us, but scripture is also clear “be gentle as doves and wise as serpents”. There is therefore a place for circumspection and wisdom when we identify those men who will go all out to intentionally do us harm, even with knowledge of what is harmful to us.

Beloved, it is unwise to continue mingling in such company- wisdom would advise to avoid such because they are those who have no fear of the Lord. So today, I pray this prayer for you: ‘ that you may be delivered from perverse (improper, unrighteous) and wicked (actively malicious) men, for not everybody has faith and is held by it.'(2 Thessalonians 3:2)

#sly