Psalms 119:126 It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law.
Now just what is it for someone to make void the law of God?
Void – Of speech, action, etc.: Ineffective, useless, leading to no result.
The adjective void can apply to many different
things. I have selected the above
definition of void since it applies
to speech and God’s law is His speech, His spoken word to men. Now when it comes to the prophecies and promises
of God’s word there is no man that can make those ineffective. Everything God says will come to pass. And every commandment that God has given to
the sons of men to keep will be enforced.
Proverbs 19:21 There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.Isaiah 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.Isaiah 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
So just how can men
make the law of God ineffective and useless?
The following passages give us an idea.
Jeremiah 8:8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
If something is made in
vain it is made to no effect or purpose, that is, it is made void.
Matthew 15:3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?4 For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.Jeremiah 23:16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.Jeremiah 23:28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.
Men make void the law of God when they reject it for
something else. Instead of being governed
by God’s law, as He commanded, they are living as though the law had never been
given to them. They make it ineffective
and useless to themselves. They might as well have no Bible at all for
the difference it makes.
Now there are any number of things that men put in the place
of the law of God and thereby make it void.
They can choose to follow the tradition of men instead of the commandment
of God as was the case in the passage cited above from Matthew’s gospel. Or they can choose to follow the words of a
false prophet claiming to be speaking the words of God when in reality he is
but speaking his own words, as was the case in Jeremiah’s time.
When we look at the society in which we are living, people, whether
they profess God or not, have made void the law of God. God’s laws regarding sex have been abandoned wholesale
as men do whatever seems right in their own eyes, no matter how perverse God’s
law may declare it to be. It reminds us
of the graphic description given by Paul in Romans 1:20-32 of degenerate
cultures in which men “changed the truth of God into a lie” thus making God’s
law void. Even the churches that profess
to follow the words of God are following a perversion of those words. Rare is the church that holds to the King
James Bible of 1611, which is God’s pure, preserved word in the English
language. As I said in the last
meditation, this is a subject all unto itself.
And, of course, throughout the history of Christendom human tradition
has displaced the commandment of God in both true and false churches. Consider the traditions of observing Christmas
and Easter that have absolutely no sanction in the word of God. These celebrations originated in paganism and
were adopted by the Roman Catholic church to be celebrations of the birth and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Professing
Christians will zealously observe these traditions while treating as
indifferent the Scriptural order for such things as baptism and the Lord’s
Supper. And where is the church that
practices a Scriptural discipline of its members? The passages of Scripture that deal with this
subject might as well have never been written as they are wholly ignored. And on and on we could go with examples.
Living “in the midst of such a crooked and perverse nation”
one is driven to cry with the psalmist: It is time for thee, LORD, to work. Things had reached such a pitch of wickedness
in the psalmist’s day that he wearied of it.
He wanted it to end and He knew the One that could end it. When the efforts of God-fearing people to
stem the tide of corruption seem powerless, God’s power remains unchanged. We can always appeal to the Lord when there
is nothing more we can do. No matter how
bad things are, they are never beyond the reach of Almighty God to do something
about them.
And when God arises to work, things will change. Pharaoh will be overthrown in the midst of
the sea. Oppressive regimes like Assyria
and Babylon will
fall. Sodom
and Gomorrah
will be reduced to ashes whilst God’s servants escape. Or better, a persecutor of Christians like
Saul of Tarsus will be overpowered by the grace of God and become a preacher
“of the faith which once he destroyed” (Galatians 1:23). The enemies of truth will be rendered
powerless and the word of God given such free course as to convert the heathen
and turn the world upside down.
Acts 17:6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also….Acts 19:17 And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.Philippians 1:12 But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;13 So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places….2 Timothy 2:8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
Just as we can go on and on with examples of how men make
void the law of God, so we could go on and on with examples of the mighty works
of God in dealing with those who make void His law.
In closing, let us anticipate the ultimate answer to the psalmist’s
prayer when God arises to work in that day called “the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” when God “will judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given
assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Romans 2:5;
Acts 17:31). When God raised Jesus
Christ from the dead, he gave assurance unto all men that a time is coming when
He will work. And when He performs that
work, you do not want to be one of
those who make void God’s law! Might I
urge each of you who read this meditation to make reading, learning, and
obeying the law of God the top priority in your life.
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