Who Is On The Lord’s Side?

Way back in the book of Exodus

A question to a people was posed

“Who is on the Lord’s side?”

Was the Moses’ conducted poll.

In a matter of forty days

Things had really changed

And when he came down from the mount

He met a people most deranged.

All the way from wretched Egypt

He had led them through the Red Sea

Now just “the man” is all he is

In their present controversy.

He had been called up to the mount

To receive instructions from Almighty God

That would direct these chosen people

And protect them from Satan the fraud.

But on retuning he had found out

That they had made a golden calf

And the number that worshipped this idol

Was certainly more than half.

As a result he conducted a poll

To ascertain who was on the Lord’s side,

Consequently there was God’s judgment

And there was no place to hide.

No place to hide for the dissenters,

About three thousand were put to the sword,

For the priestly tribe of Levi

Did according to God’s word.

And so let us now fast forward

Thousands of years to the present

Cognizant of the reality

That we have a similar lament.

The difference, however, is critical

Since the sides have made a change

In the exodus it was the Lord’s side

But our anthem has had this rearranged.

  

“The Lord has been the people’s guide

For past three hundred years,

With Him still on the people’s side

We have no doubts or fears.”

The first stanza you would recall

Spoke to our fore fathers’ achievement,

The second stanza introduces God

But on the “people’s side” is the intent.

The emphasis is now changed

As it propositions the people’s side,

It is no longer we who must take focus

But God who must now decide.

That may not have been the intent

But it surely comes over that way,

God may have been the people’s guide

But it is the people that hold full sway.

With “the people on the Lord’s side”

Would have been a better demarcation,

Since God has no need to choose a side,

His is an eternal position.

He does not have to make amendments

He is the one that changes not,

We are the ones that are dependent

And without God we would simply rot.

It is not uncommon these days to hear

When seeking to win an argument,

“I know the Lord is on my side”

To put down the other person’s dissent.

So God must choose; so we declare

And He had better choose our side:

“Command ye me,” the Lord has said,

Isaiah 45:11 cannot be denied.

Taken out of context as in so many cases

We use God’s word for our own ends,

And so He is on the people’s side

It’s on the people that He depends.

We had better get our theology right

As we respond to Moses’ question,

“Who is on the Lord’s side?” Note!

And not the affirmation of our anthem.

For in the final analysis

Only them on Lord’s side will be saved,

It doesn’t matter your golden calf

Or how much you rant and rave.

Jesus makes it particularly clear

In Luke chapter 11 and verse 23

Concerning the matter pertaining to sides

“He that is not with me is against me.”

So who is on the Lord’s side?

Stand up today and be reckoned,

Bear in mind there is still His amnesty

And to one and all he beckons.

Stewart Russell © July 2017