Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your prayer has been heard with reverence and with sorrow for the innocent blood that pollutes the land. You have rightly turned to Psalm 106:38, where the psalmist says they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. The language is stark because the sin is stark. Life belongs to God who creates it, and to take innocent life for the sake of an idol, whether an ancient god like Molech or a modern idol of comfort, success, or self rule, is to profane what God calls holy.
Scripture is clear that God forbids this. You recalled Leviticus 18:21, Deuteronomy 12:31, and Jeremiah 7:31, where the Lord says such a thing did not even enter His mind. His commands are not burdens to restrict us but protections to preserve life. When His people abandoned those commands and followed the practices of the nations around them, they corrupted themselves and they defiled the very land He had given them. Sin is never only private. It spreads and brings judgment, and as you prayed, it calls for justice.
Yet even in judgment God shows both justice and mercy. Strict justice alone would have consumed us from the beginning, but God in kindness has made room for repentance. He is not harsh for its own sake. His anger burns against what destroys His creation because He loves His creation. He disciplines to call His people back to life and blessing.
That call is answered only in Jesus Christ. The idols of Canaan demanded the blood of children, but Christ, the innocent one, gave His own blood willingly for us. As we hear in the Gospel, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in you, but whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life. This is not impossible and it is not optional. It is necessary and it is given to us. His sacrifice does not take innocent life, it offers His perfect life once for all to do away with sin and to cleanse us.
Therefore we pray with you that God would sanctify His people through His truth. Right doctrine concerning God and His gift of life sanctifies the soul. We ask that He would make us holy by His Spirit and by His word, that we would not compromise with the values of the world but would cherish what He cherishes.
We join you in asking the Father to help us recognize the dignity of every person made in His image, to turn from every way we have sacrificed what is precious for worldly gain, and to stand for those who are vulnerable and have no voice. We ask Him to bring justice like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream, to heal the land that has been desecrated, and to grant repentance to those who perpetuate violence, that they might encounter His grace and turn from destruction.
Continue to listen to these truths with stillness and awe. The word of God works like medicine. Even when we hear the same truth many times, each hearing deepens its work in us. A tree may receive many strokes before it falls, and a sickness may need many applications before healing appears, but God is faithful to bring fruit in due season for those who keep coming to hear Him. Keep bringing these burdens before Him, trusting not in our own goodness but in the blood of Jesus alone for salvation, and walking in the way He has set for life, in holiness, in marriage as He ordained it, and in purity within it.
We thank God for your hunger for His word and your love for what He loves. May the power of Christ's sacrifice transform your heart, strengthen you to act justly and love mercy, and give you hope as you labor for a culture that cherishes life.
Scripture is clear that God forbids this. You recalled Leviticus 18:21, Deuteronomy 12:31, and Jeremiah 7:31, where the Lord says such a thing did not even enter His mind. His commands are not burdens to restrict us but protections to preserve life. When His people abandoned those commands and followed the practices of the nations around them, they corrupted themselves and they defiled the very land He had given them. Sin is never only private. It spreads and brings judgment, and as you prayed, it calls for justice.
Yet even in judgment God shows both justice and mercy. Strict justice alone would have consumed us from the beginning, but God in kindness has made room for repentance. He is not harsh for its own sake. His anger burns against what destroys His creation because He loves His creation. He disciplines to call His people back to life and blessing.
That call is answered only in Jesus Christ. The idols of Canaan demanded the blood of children, but Christ, the innocent one, gave His own blood willingly for us. As we hear in the Gospel, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in you, but whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life. This is not impossible and it is not optional. It is necessary and it is given to us. His sacrifice does not take innocent life, it offers His perfect life once for all to do away with sin and to cleanse us.
Therefore we pray with you that God would sanctify His people through His truth. Right doctrine concerning God and His gift of life sanctifies the soul. We ask that He would make us holy by His Spirit and by His word, that we would not compromise with the values of the world but would cherish what He cherishes.
We join you in asking the Father to help us recognize the dignity of every person made in His image, to turn from every way we have sacrificed what is precious for worldly gain, and to stand for those who are vulnerable and have no voice. We ask Him to bring justice like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream, to heal the land that has been desecrated, and to grant repentance to those who perpetuate violence, that they might encounter His grace and turn from destruction.
Continue to listen to these truths with stillness and awe. The word of God works like medicine. Even when we hear the same truth many times, each hearing deepens its work in us. A tree may receive many strokes before it falls, and a sickness may need many applications before healing appears, but God is faithful to bring fruit in due season for those who keep coming to hear Him. Keep bringing these burdens before Him, trusting not in our own goodness but in the blood of Jesus alone for salvation, and walking in the way He has set for life, in holiness, in marriage as He ordained it, and in purity within it.
We thank God for your hunger for His word and your love for what He loves. May the power of Christ's sacrifice transform your heart, strengthen you to act justly and love mercy, and give you hope as you labor for a culture that cherishes life.
