I had a teacher in undergraduate school who used to quote Shakespeare and say, “O consistency thou art a jewel. O Inconsistency thou art a reality.” Shakespeare and my teacher hit on insightful truths. One is that being consistent is a rare and valuable commodity, and the other is that we are generally inconsistent in our lives.
One of the most profound examples of inconsistency is the story of David and Bathsheba. The two committed adultery and conceived a child, and David went to great lengths to cover up the sin, even to the point of having Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, killed in action. The Bible describes David as a man after God’s heart, yet even this great man had inconsistency. Notice the Prophet Nathan’s exposure of David’s sins and inconsistency in 2 Samuel 12:1-7 (NKJV, emphasis added):
“Then the LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: "There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him." So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity." Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!”
In the story of David and Bathsheba, we see an illustration of today's inconsistencies. Nathan symbolizes David's deeds as the rich man who wrongly took the poor man's only lamb. Though he had multiple wives, David felt justified at the moment to take the only wife of one of his most loyal subordinates for himself and then have his subordinate killed in battle to cover himself.
Our world is inconsistent, to say the least. People are unemployed so we shut down the Keystone pipeline, putting more people out of work on every level of the oil industry. We are in an energy crunch so the Regime sells our national oil reserves. The WHO, our own CDC, and NIH have given us mixed messages regarding Covid. Masks don’t work (which we have found to be true by trial and error as well as “science”), then, masks work, and double masking is even better. The shots work, the shots don’t work (which actually is being proven as we speak with the current rise in Covid even among the “vaccinated”). We cannot even be consistent on what gender we are, though God said He created us male and female.
We are inconsistent with the way in which we treat others. Do we “love our neighbors as ourselves?” The powers that be have no qualms in mistreating the poor. The Regime uses the people through bribery, taxation, and control to make themselves richer and more powerful. They are like the wicked shepherds of Israel Ezekiel 34:1-4 (NKJV) describes them:
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.
Our forefathers knew the potential for inconsistency with the government. That is why the Constitution limits government power and control. The job of the government is not to regulate any and everything in our lives, it is to protect our rights and liberties. However, Liberty goes deeper than a form of government. Liberty comes by consistently following our Maker and Redeemer. In other words, we need God in America and in Americans. Listen to John Adams’ statement on June 21, 1776:
"Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.
"The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty."
In a letter to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813, John Adams wrote:
The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.
The U. S. House Judiciary Committee of Congress stated in 1854:
Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle… In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity… That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.
How do we accomplish the consistency that leads to Liberty? God gives us a solution in the almost identical passages of Exodus 29:39 and Numbers 28:4 (NKJV). Listen to the latter:
4 The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, the other lamb you shall offer in the evening,
Consistency and constancy are the sources of all blessings. This verse underscores the most powerful framework of spiritual life without which that life begins to wither and die. The Hebrews began and ended the day with God. Do we? Charles Spurgeon wrote a devotional book entitled, “Morning and Evening” in which he gave devotional thoughts for the bookends of the day. That is a beneficial challenge for us, too. In addition, the Hebrews reflected on God throughout the day, as Paul alludes to in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when he says to “pray without ceasing.” Life with God is an all-day event.
Personal consistency leads to the national character, not in outward forms of government, but in the inward qualities of self-government under God. Our Forefathers knew it; we have forgotten it, or worse, don’t believe it. Listen to two more quotes from our national ancestors:
Patrick Henry
Righteousness alone can exalt [America] as a nation…Whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in others.
Benjamin Rush:
The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world.
As we close, let’s Keep The Light of Consistency with God Burning!
GodNAmerica.com
