THE DAY OF INSPECTION
Hypocrites, you know how to examine the outward appearance of earth and sky, but how is it you do not know how to examine this particular time?
Luke 12:56
The biblical prophets.. like many of us.. looked around them in their time and saw so much that was wrong and foolish in the world around them. They saw mankind living as beasts.. competing against each other for prestige and position.. the stronger dominating over the weaker.. and fights over territory.. possessions.. and opposing ideas.. occurring continually in the form of wars. The herd instinct and clinging to outdated traditions “the great idea” was seen to be the dominant factor.. while any healthy signs of individualization were being trodden-down by wagging tongues.. hatred.. and persecution.. by those who would rather stay close to the herd for their own security (a false sense of security) than to move on and make the changes necessary to create a better world were all are truly equal and are truly loved (Please see.. The Dream - by Dostoyevski if you don’t know what I mean here).
I’ve found it’s interesting to watch TV documentaries about the higher animals.. especially the apes and their social structure.. and compare their ways with ours. This way we can easily see just how beast-like we still remain.. and just how much more we have to evolve spiritually.. in order to leave our base primitive social instincts behind us.
Some Examples of the Prophets Examining Mankind
If I have sinned, what can I accomplish against you, the Observer of mankind? Why is it that you have set me as your target, so that I should become a burden to you?
Job 7:20
God is in his holy temple. God in the heavens is his throne. His own eyes behold, his own beaming eyes examine the sons of men. God himself examines the righteous one as well as the wicked one, and anyone loving violence His soul certainly hates.
Psalms 11:4
For you have examined us, O God; you have refined us as when refining silver.
Psalms 66:10
The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but God is the examiner of hearts.
Proverbs 17:3
I have made you a metal tester among my people, one making a thorough search; and you will take note and you must examine their way.
Jeremiah 6:27
And I shall certainly bring the third part through the fire; and I shall actually refine them as in the refining of silver, and examine them as in the examining of gold. It, for its part, will call upon my name, and I, for my part, will answer it. I will say, 'It is my people,' and it, in its turn, will say, ' You are my God.'"
Zechariah 13:9
NEW TESTAMENT
And when he got nearby, he viewed the city and wept over it, saying: "If you, even you, had discerned in this day the things having to do with peace - but now they have been hid from your eyes. Because the days will come upon you when your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side, and they will dash you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave a stone upon a stone in you, because you did not discern the time of your being inspected."
And he entered into the temple and started to throw out those who were selling, saying to them: "It is written, 'And my house will be a house of prayer,' but you made it a cave of robbers."
Luke 19:41
But a physical man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot get to know them, because they are examined spiritually. However, the spiritual man examines indeed all things, but he himself is not examined by any man.
1Corinthians 2:14
Maintain your conduct fine among the nations, that, in the thing in which they are speaking against you as evildoers, they may as a result of your fine works of which they are eyewitnesses glorify God in the day for his inspection.
1Peter 2:12
