(Gen 19:8 KJV) Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
In the passage above we see Lot offering his daughters in exchange to an unruly mob at his front door who sought sexual gratification with the guests at his house, who were new in the town of Sodom… The key sentence is: “as is good in your eyes”… because that is the real cause of all the other symptoms that we wrestle with in this world and in our blindness, more than often, overlook. The problem isn’t the science, the religion, the politics or the sex, the drugs or the rock and roll… the problem is our twisted sense of what is good or right…. and that is the nature of sin.
I have often wondered why Jesus didn’t just grab some land, plant some trees and live a righteous life happily ever after with his wife and kids… he was after all, the second Adam, so why did he choose to spend his short life teaching us how to overcome sin?
The answer is simple (if you think about it)… sin is the root cause of all human suffering and wrong doing… so until ‘sin’ is eliminated, everything else is pretty much a waste of time…. and destined to destruction. History is littered with peoples that have lived supposedly ‘good lives’ in harmony with creation, no doubt in Jesus time, there were many shepherds and fisherman… but how long can such idyllic peace last in a world where ‘sin’ waits crouching in the background?
Even if Jesus had been living the most righteous of lives with his family, how long can any peace last with the threat of occupation and oppression? And why do men, like the Romans try to conquer the world? Wasn’t Italy big enough? Were they right (good)?
Can righteousness (goodness) really be obtained by brute force? Can righteousness (goodness) be obtained by abdication of responsibility (apathy)? And here we see the dilemma… who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?
When I was a child it all seemed so simple, the cowboys were the good guys and the Indians were the bad guys… well that was how it was told to me and I believed it, why wouldn’t I, I was innocent… the storytellers always paint themselves as the good guys. No doubt in Sodom, everyone thought their behaviour was OK, right and good…
When the Jews and the Romans crucified Jesus, he was the ‘bad’ guy and they were the ‘good’ guys… When the ruling authority, the law makers or someone with more perceived power, capability, or a bigger weapon passes judgment, they are always the ‘good’ guys and ‘you’ are always the bad guy… and so it goes on… “do you feel lucky punk, well do yer?”.
Jesus was 100% right and 100% righteous… the problem is never life, sex, chemistry or music… the problem is our misguided minds (‘sin’) and only a received enlightenment into the truth can fix that and set us free… Goodness and the maintenance of life is God’s problem and sooner or later God will deal with it in Gods time, because that is the nature of God and goodness. If you are blessed you may live 80 years in peace. The best we can ever achieve is some kind of synchronicity with Gods timing… otherwise ‘YOU’ could be the bad guy, badly striving to be good, no matter how “good in your eyes” or in theirs.
(John 16:33 KJV) These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
HOW GOOD ARE YOU? (PART 2)