Psa 2:2-4 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, (3) “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” (4) He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
Those of you who have been targets of evil know that most people ultimately choose to ally themselves with the oppressor rather than stand with the oppressed. Part of the reason for this of course is that many of them are evil themselves and, well, birds of a feather, you know.
But there is another reason that is very, very common. Let me explain.
Have you ever been in the middle of a conflict between two people who were both your friends? One of them confides to you that they have been seriously wronged by the other. Let’s say that the two parties in the conflict are family members – husband and wife perhaps. And you are close friends with both.
Well, the one confides in you about what has been happening and it is quite plain to you that they are indeed telling the truth. And you tell them so. You tell them that they are right and that they have been wronged. You validate their story based on sound testimony and evidence. No doubt about it. They have been wronged – perhaps even abused for a long time – and now you know it.
What are you going to do?
If you are a righteous person who hungers and thirsts for justice, you will stand with the wronged friend and you will be willing to confront the other. If you are a righteous person….
Why then do most people, even though they have heard the truth and the facts, reject those facts and choose to stand with the wrongdoer rather than the one wronged? I can tell you. Because they know that there will be a price for them to pay if they stand with the victim. It will cost them more to go the route of justice than to blow off the victim, minimize the crime, wash their hands of the thing, and walk away. Which action of course is to side with the wicked.
So often it is the wicked who hold power. It is the wicked who have the money, or the position, or the influence. It is the evil one who is an adult while the victim is a child. It is the evil one who is a pastor or influential member of the church, while the abused one is, well, a kind of nobody.
Peter made just this kind of sinful wrong choice, didn’t he:
Mat 26:73-74 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” (74) Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed.
Now, notice the foolishness of this cowardice. Peter feared the human powers that be and chose to deny the Son of God who holds all power!! This is nothing but plain old unbelief. And that is what professing Christians are guilty of when they refuse to stand with a victim for fear of becoming hated by the oppressor. They choose to disbelieve and disobey God Almighty Himself. They fear men instead of the One they should fear.
And this brings us down to why a person’s response to an abuse victim is soooo telling about the real state of their soul.
Heb 3:12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
Spot on, Pastor!
We and these allies of evil are made in the image of God and SHOULD thirst after righteousness and justice just like He does. These are the foundations of His Throne. Righteousness and justice.
Instead, they deny Him, His commands, His nature and His POWER TO JUDGE THEM and send them to hell by their actions and inactions.
Judith Herman (a secular expert and author about Trauma says that all it takes for a person to ally themself with the abuser is to do NOTHING. (Which we Christians know is complicity in evil itself.)
But she says to ally themself with the known victim of that abuser means they have to “do something”. Might have to confront the abuser/evil. Might have to stop associating with abuser/evil. Might have to pay the cost of being also targeted by that known abuser/evil. Might be an outcast from the “cultish group” or a family clan.
Go along to get along most conveniently for THEMSELVES.
We victim/survivors took the courage and the many “costs” of exposing and “doing something” about stopping our abusers. We thirsted after righteousness and justice as God does. And we are suffering in so many ways because of it.
But “He Who sits in the heavens laughs. He holds them in derision.
How grateful I am, even in my suffering, NOT to have my God laugh at me and hold me in derision! And their end will be death, ruin and destruction. Eternal hell, unless they fully and sincerely repent.
Instead, He will Himself take me to Himself into glory! That will be my end. And in the meantime, He will be with me on earth every moment of every day to endure the suffering and injuries inflicted by evil.
Thank you again for the validation, Pastor.
Thank you Pastor and Z for the comfort in your words. This all happened to me recently in my life. People who I knew loved me all of my life turned on me with snarling teeth. Slandering me, acting like Satan himself. No other pain on earth hurts as much as this. If it were not for the Psalms and the wonderful Christian counselor I had, I would have gone into deep depression. The Lord saw it all. What they did to me, and the ones who just stood by the side lines not contesting the horrible wrong done against me. After all it would have “cost” something to firmly rebuke the evildoers. One of the scriptures says it all: “Who will stand up for me against evildoers? Who will take his stand for me against those who do wickedness”? PSALM 94:16 And I marked next to this verse with my highlighter “no one” and dated it. I can not wait to see how this all plays out in front of the Lord someday. I cringe.
MARANATHA!!!!
Dear walkinginlight,
Being betrayed by those you call loved ones / those who always loved you, in such a wicked way as slandering you intentionally is incredibly hurtful.
Just to say you’ve been heard and seen and all I can do is pray for you.
May the Lord shine His light even more on you,
C
Thank you for this post, this community. I tried to get help from the church, without sharing all the details here, in the end I left that church. Needless to say then that I was not helped at all. My husband who was there before me is still there fully active in ministry, still doing extra work in pastors’ homes. I struggled a long time with the thought that they didn’t help me because they didn’t really understand versus they don’t want to lose him because he does so much for them it would be too inconvenient.
However i can not read this post without seeing how what you expose here Pastor Jeff, matches my experience and it is truly shocking, what an affront to God. It is a wickedness I just could never have imagined.. oh Jesus help! sometimes that’s all i can pray. Thank you so much for all you do to reach out to people like me. God bless you.
Thank you DC. Yes, in fact there is more to it than they don’t understand. Underneath that, they don’t WANT to understand.