Devotional meditation

The fifth vision is a flying scroll which represents the curse going to the house of those who steals and swears falsely by the name of God or rather misused and abuse the name of God. This may include those who use the name of God for their own sake or selfish reasons as it goes hand in hand with the sin of stealing. Stealing comes from greed and wanting more than one can afford at the moment so they use the fastest way on the cost of others’ for their own benefits. It all comes from the form of idolatry as they put themselves first before God. If they truly worship God, they would have think about the consequences of going against God’s will and think from God’s perspective first. Idolatry in the form of paying offerings to the images or the statues that were created by the hands of men may have rooted out of greed of wanting more than what they offered for protection, wealth, health. If one refused to take care of their health, finances but live lustfully in sexual defilements or prostitution, how can they be exempt from the sexual disease and keeping their finances in check as they paid more and more their fleshly pleasure. Then they spread the disease from their own sins to the people close to them and they had to pay the price even when it’s not their fault. If they would have been faithfully building their own family they then could enjoy the pleasure in a faithful covenant of marriage and their wealth and health would be protected. This is the blessing of marriage that God has bestowed on human being that many does not appreciate as their greed or their selfishness took the lead in their lives. Then there’s the greed of those who feed the greed for money and power as they gain more blackmailing information on their clients. There were some even more wicked than that was they as the predator hunt for preys, those who are weaker and without protection fell into sexual abuse and domestic abuse. From the root, it was always idolatry and greed which then lead to death.

As a believer of God, it is another reason to praise God and rejoice in His righteousness and executing justice. Those who were unpunished shall receive curses on their houses for they will be utterly consumed & destroyed even to the point of timber and stones. The seventh vision was very interesting, as the angel force the lead covering to compress on the wickedness, a heavy oppression upon it then send it back to Babylon, Shinar just like the saying, what goes around comes around. The land of Babylon was not spared from the injustice and wickedness that they have done towards others and The Lord definitely saw everything.

This is a great reminder that there are consequences from actions and if we want good consequences we should sow the actions of goodness, kindness, just, righteous and merciful. However a deeper reflection is to examine our hearts whether we do it for the sake of self-idolatry or we truly worship God out of the appreciation and love towards Him because when we were unworthy of saving, Jesus Christ died for our sins and provided an eternal salvation for us to be reconciled to God, our Father in Heaven. The actions that flow out of our hearts should be rooted out from awe, love, gratefulness and worship towards God who was willing to save us when all others forsake us.