Jun | 04 | Will the Heron be in heaven?

CLEAN

Will the Heron be in heaven?

Leviticus 11:9-17
'These you may eat of all that are in the water: whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers — that you may eat. But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you. They shall be an abomination to you; you shall not eat their flesh, but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination. Whatever in the water does not have fins or scales — that shall be an abomination to you. 'And these you shall regard as an abomination among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the kite, and the falcon after its kind; every raven after its kind, the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after its kind; the little owl, the fisher owl, and the screech owl;

Until the Jackdaw attacked it, did not see the waiting grey ghost hid silent and sentinel like amidst the dense green canopy of enveloping tree tops above me. Reluctantly it was forced out of its waiting place and opening its vast wings somehow was able, with quietness and with great winged dexterity, to navigate itself through the roof top foliage and out across the open water and away, to find another spear snipering position, where, no doubt, in unbreathable stillness, this patient, unrelenting, voracious and seemingly ever inwardly angry carnivore would wait once more to consume its prey.

I dislike the Grey Heron. It worries me with waiting death, and seems to be a sleek salesman of the same. To me, it is a wayward glazier that breaks windows in the darkness only to then go and offer repairs of the same in the day. It is a grey coat tailed killer and a cut price undertaker all rolled into one, which, like cold standing stone, just sits and waits to spear its customers, with cauldron bubbling anger, just sits there and waits and then waits some more.

 I don’t like Heron and as it is on the list of abominations, I wonder if we shall find the Heron in heaven? An abomination is something which should be regarded as disgusting and to which the appropriate response is a proper aversion to the same. I of course have my own personal and extended list of abominations: Wooden lollipop sticks; deep fried chicken claw; hairy oily men wearing nothing but ‘budgie smugglers’; and Hershey’s Kisses, to name but four of the nasty things on my personal list of abominations. No matter to you though, for these are my personal abominations and frankly, what is an abomination to me may be a delight to you! You weird, wood sucking chicken clawed, chocolate-poo fat hairy thing you!

However, surely what God the Creator regards to be an abomination matters. So we do well to take note that God commands certain things and actions to regarded as abominations to His people: Yes, He demands certain things to be regarded as disgusting and defiling to us and to which our response should be a personal aversion and thorough avoidance.

The reasons for these commands of regarded abomination and for those subsequent lists of abominations are sometimes protective in terms of good health, sometimes preventative in terms of avoiding perversion and consequent destruction, sometimes pictorial in the avoiding spiritual pollution and sometimes, are just plainly indicative of those practices which God Himself abhors! There are some things, you see, which God hates almost as much as I hate deep fried chicken claw. Almost.

Look now; God made the Heron but He does not hate it. God made shrimp and He does not hate them either, but for whatever reason, the consuming of these creatures was to be regarded as an abomination to His people, that is, was to be regarded as something disgusting and consequently something which should produce in them a strong aversion to the same.

 In addition to ‘things’ there are, in particular, certain lifestyle practices, which, in olden times we lined up with the Bible and called sins, which God also abhors and places on His very own abomination list and to which, He calls His people to also regard as a disgust to them and a repugnant aversion: Pride, homosexuality, incest, bestiality, lying lips, fork tongues, evil and hurtful schemes and devices and Biblical injustice.

 On reflection, God does not hate shrimp nor the Heron and so maybe we shall see them both in heaven. However, these perverted pracices, these sins, He most thoroughly abhors, yes, He detests with a loathsome disgust and hatred and there is, according to the Bible, no way that we shall the grey ghost propagators and the lay in wait practitioners of the same in heaven.

What abhorrent practice on God’s abomination list do you need to repent of today? 

Listen:- These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren. Proverbs 6:16-19

Pray: -  Father, not that we would be defiled by hate; not that we would be ruled by hate neither consumed by it; but let us, even so, hate those practices which You hate and especially abhor that great abomination of ‘sowing discord’ amongst Your people. Amen and amen.

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