Years ago on a summer mission in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, I walked past my pre-school daughter and her little girlfriends playing on the porch. The two-story bungalow where we stayed fit into the student housing category—meaning it needed work.

The girls were digging at one of the supports holding up a deck on the second floor. With just a stick, they carved out crumbling chunks of wood. One 4×4 already sported a hole I could stick my fingers through. Quite industrious, this trio turned to the next post. After slowing down their efforts with a snack I searched out our landlord.

She first accused these bite-sized hoodlums of destroying her property, but when we inspected the supports she grasped the issue. All the six posts were rotten to the core.

Rot destroys slowly, imperceptibly, and thoroughly. The people of Israel blatantly abandoned God, and the Lord described his wrath in terms of leisurely deterioration: I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool. I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood.

The judgement of the Lord seldom arrives as a raging flood or massive explosion. Mostly we ignore God while moths eat away at our soul. Eventually we notice the damage, but the decay takes years to repair.

A valuable garment worn away by moths goes in the trash pile. Posts designed to bear massive loads are torn apart by children. The Lord never stops trying to garner our attention, whether it be through grace or through rot.

Hosea 5 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Koa’link