Righteous Indignation

I have been known at times to have this little problem called righteous indignation.  It’s where you hear something and become enraged over the injustice another person has suffered unfairly.  

I have verbally railed again such things in the past.  I was quick to speak and slow to listen.  I shared the stories of others, who I felt had been treated incorrectly, to let anyone who would listen know, I felt this behavior was wrong.  

I’m sure at this point you may be thinking, and what’s wrong with that.  Sounds perfectly reasonable.  

Well, it does, and it is if you have all the facts correct.  I sometimes don’t get all the necessary information correct before I ranted, then later, I would find out I responded to quickly or incorrectly with the limited or wrong information I had received.  

The facts have a way of setting things straight.  We may not always like the facts, but facts never-the-less speak the truth.

Here are some interesting facts from Zechariah 7:8-10.

Then this message came to Zechariah from the Lord: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.

It’s not easy when our righteous indignation is flaming hot over a current event, but the facts are the facts.  God wants us ALL to judge fairly, show mercy to each other, show kindness to one another, don’t oppress people, and don’t scheme against each other.

Maybe you’re thinking, well who does she think she is to be telling me how I should feel and react to…blah, blah, blah...

You don’t have to listen to me, just listen to the facts.  Here are the verses that follow in Zechariah 7:11-12.

“Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the Lord of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them."

When the Lord of Heaven’s Armies gets upset with us—lookout, now you’re about to see some righteous indignation.

I guess we’d better stick to the facts and judge fairly, show mercy, show kindness to one another, don’t oppress people, and don’t scheme against each other.