From Jim McGuiggan... Earth's witness against hidden crimes

Earth's witness against hidden crimes

Pip, who had shown himself fickle and self-serving for so long before the eyes of people who had been good to him but who couldn't help noticing his character flaws, was now trying manfully to right great wrongs and was balancing a number of things that had to come together if he was to manage the complex situation. At a critical moment and in an isolated place he was captured by Orlick, a long time enemy, and the drunken man swore he was going to end Pip's life. Not only would he kill him, but since they were at a limekiln he would dispose of Pip entirely so that absolutely nothing of him would be found.

Having every reason to believe he was right on the brink of destruction Pip's mind raced through all the letters he had written, arrangements and promises he had made to make things right. Finally, when he had purposed to do what was right in the face of great danger and loss to himself, he was about to vanish and no one would know where he went.

I can't read this section in Great Expectations without thinking of the great wrongs of the ages. I can't help but think of the countless thousands of nameless men, women and children who were hurried to mass graves by heartless brutes, of vanished children taken by unknown predators and lie where no one knows and the voiceless millions in past generations that went down to unmarked graves with no one to speak for them. The vanished people! Taken in the night and hidden in the rivers and seas, in dark tunnels and deep pits or in weed-covered ditches. The hidden people; dragged to lime pits and ploughed under in fields or herded off to secret prisons—all out of sight. The powerful of all the ages, of all the countries, of all the cities and towns and villages, who used and use that power to treat people like animals, butchering their bodies and minds—these will meet God one day! (Does the thought of this not show this "give me ALL my 'rights' right now" spirit in a different light?)

There is a day coming when all wrongs will be righted! Prophets of OT and NT speak of judgment when slayers will run to the rocks and caves and mountains—anywhere in creation—and beg to be hidden (Revelation 6:16 and Isaiah 2:10-21) but the creation will not heed them. As surely as the ground cried out with the blood of Abel in it so will the earth uncover all its dead and refuse to hide the ruthless and brutal. It will give up its dead; those the brutal and heartless were sure were gone forever, and those silent rivers and seas and rocks and fields that the ruthless used as secret graves will witness against them. As surely as the land vomited out the impenitent transgressors (Leviticus 18:25, 28) so will it refuse to be a refuge on that day for those sly and cruel gutless wonders who make mortar out of human bones. Nina Simone (and others) sings this truth for us in the traditional: Sinnerman.

O Sinnerman where you gonna run to?
Sinnerman where you gonna run to?
Where you gonna run to
All on that day.

Well I run to the rocks
Please hide me
I run to the rocks
Please hide me
I run to the rocks, please hide me Lord
All on that day

But the rock cried out I can't hide you
The rock cried out I can't hide you
The rock cried out I ain't gonna hide you
All on that day.

So I run to the river it was bleedin'
I run to the sea it was bleedin'
I run to the sea it was bleedin
All on that day.

So I run to the river it was boilin'
I run to the sea it was boilin'
I run to the sea it was boilin'
All on that day.

So I run to the Lord
Please hide me Lord
Don't you see me prayin'
Don't you see me down here prayin'

But the Lord said go to the Devil
The Lord said go to the Devil
He said go to the Devil
All on that day.

The Judge of all the earth will do right! He will do right not only in regard to the predators; he will do right about their voiceless and defenceless prey.

Think noble things of God!

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, theabidingword.com.