AUGUST 30

NEGATIVE ROOTS DISCOVERED

“Never may there be man, woman family, or clan among you, whose heart turns from the Eternal our god to go and worship the gods of these nations! Never may there be any root within your soil that bears such bitter poison.” (Deut. 29:18, Moffatt)

Sad, but true, however, in tracing back our roots in Israel of old, we find there were those “roots” among them that sis bear such bitter poison as to go and worship after other gods, and taught their children the same.

People speak of “finding a skeleton in the closet,” when they go looking back into their ancestry, that there may have been a black sheep among them, one who pursued evil in one form or another. We have tried to hide these things, and in our false sense of pride have glossed over and covered up these roots, and whatever trait of that root we find in our own nature. But “now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” (Matt. 3:10).

The axe cannot be laid to the root of the tree until first that root has been uncovered. Never in all history of mankind has there been such a universal uncovering as in these days. That which has been done in secret is being shouted from the housetop. Headlines blaze with scandal. Suddenly people are discovering that “the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it.” (Isa. 28:20). Man is being exposed for what he is, there is no rest to the wicked, there is no covering sufficient to hide his nakedness any longer.

When there is found a “root of bitterness” (Heb. 12:15), or any other type of root which is not bearing good fruit, it is cut down and cast into the fire. And why the fire? To consume the dross, to purge out the evil, to purify and cleanse, until that which would defile is no more. The fire IS FOR OUR GOOD, that we might be cleansed and found to His praise.

Ray Prinzing