The Curse Of Meroz

The Curse of Meroz

There are three types of people in the world—those that wonder what happen, those that watch things happen, and those that make things happen. Thus it is with the Church of God today. There is a rich mixture of the three classes here mentioned. There is nothing wrong with any of these classes; they seemed to be involved in some type of activity. However if we analyze the activities that the wondering person, watchful person, and the working person are engaged, we will discover that the most productive is the working person. Nonetheless, if you were to really look at the three categories of individuality, you will soon find that each has a character flaw.

The wondering person is that “thinker” or “dreamer” to busy contemplating and in awestruck over the things that he could possibly do and not really at thought at the potential he could exploit of his/her self. The watchful person is that “spectator” or “couch potato” and is usually the one who asks the question “Did you see that?” That spectator is missing out on the opportunities that would be accessible to him if he weren’t so busy watching others take the advantage. Then there is the working person that “busy bee;” yes, he has a flaw too. He is so busy working and carrying on that he isn’t aware of what’s going on neither does he have time to reflect on anything that he just may have accomplished.

I noticed that if they were somehow connected and amalgamated, they would form a total package, a complete individual. For if you take the person who wonders what happens, who watch what happens, and make things happen and could somehow throw them in a huge human mixing bowl, you will come out with a person who wonders at what he has watched happen so that he may be able to know how to make things happen.

[INTRODUCE TOPIC & PRAY]

Paul, in so many words, illustrates this point when he talks about the body of Christ. In I Corinthians 12:13-27 [READ]. We are parts of the body of Christ. You and I. We have been placed here by God. It would be highly embarrassing if the feet of Christ were to travel to an evangelistic outing and when they got there the mouth wouldn’t say anything. The eyes aren’t the only organs of the body that rejoice in what is being watched. The body of Christ is a single unit composed of many components that come together to perform a singular goal.

Today, it is evident that the coagulation of the body is broken. Not broken in so much that each body part is doing something separate from the body but that when the body has asserted itself and has placed itself in a position to do something, it may find itself suffering from atrophy which is caused by some uselessness of certain faculty parts. Atrophy sets in because that body part is not connected to the Head, which is the center of control the nerve endings cease to function in that body part. So the body part sits there useless and inoperable ready to wither and become deformed.

In the days of the Judges of the children of Israel, we find that when it came time to perform the children of Israel experienced some atrophy in the body. In Judges 5:23, we find this vindictive statement:

Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.

This curse came in the middle of a beautiful song of deliverance and praise sang by Deborah, a prophetess and judge of Israel. There is a certain deliberation going on in the mind of this fearless leader, which causes her to pause in the height of celebration over a decisive victory and prophetically recalls the angel of the Lord cursing Meroz and its inhabitants.

Deborah and Barak had gained a great victory in the Plain of Esdraelon and along the skirts of the mountain of Little Herman. Their enemy Sisera, captain of the Canaanite host, had fled away completely routed and this fierce strong leader of a woman who “judged Israel in those days,” and captain of the Israelite army, Barak, sang a splendid, proud song of the triumph. In it they recount the tribes who had come up to their duty, who had shared the labor and the glory of the war. And then, in the midst of the torrent of song, there comes this other strain of fiery indignation. One town, or village, Meroz, had hung back. Hidden away in some safe valley, it had heard the call, which summoned every patriot, but it knew it was in no danger. It had felt the shock of battle on the other side of the hills, and nestled and hid itself only the more snuggly. “Curse ye, Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord; curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” It is a fierce vindictive strain. It bursts from the lips of an exalted furious woman. But it declares one of the most natural indignations of the human heart.