.
Jeremiah 26: “When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the Lord
bade him speak to all the people, the priests and prophets laid hold of
him, crying, ‘You must be put to death!’” What Jeremiah said was not
popular because it did not affirm the ideology of those in power at the
moment. The response was strong. He spoke an opinion the leaders did not
want to hear, and immediately Jeremiah wa
s publicly criticized; calls were made to silence him fully: “You must be put to death!”
. Do we live in similar times? There is no amicable discourse in
the public arena these days. A business leader or religious figure
speaks a message that the prevailing leaders do not want to hear, and
the response is immediate and powerful: silence him, quiet her, label
him as a bigot, discredit her for intolerance. Would not Jeremiah’s
critics have said, “If the business leader disagrees with us, let us ban
that business from our midst!”
. In his day, those who held
power for a time were trying to move their society far away from the
traditional values of their faith and culture. Jeremiah – an ordinary
person, not clergy – stood up and pointed out how wrong this direction
was. Labeled a bigot and decried for his intolerance, every effort was
made to push him quickly off the playing field and to paint his remarks
as those of a fringe element.
. Does this bear any resemblance
to our day? Have we only two polarities: far left and far right, and are
we quick to label and push someone to one side or the other?
.
Perhaps we should read the Bible for a more pervasive message: follow
the ebb and flow of faith and culture throughout the times of the
prophets, and realize that – even when faith was weak and values were
lost – the people were never more than a generation or two away from a
return to deep faith and confidence in God. God is never far away, and
society has never totally fallen apart for those who trust confidently
in God’s care and providence. The intolerance of leaders toward Jeremiah
– in any age – is but one part of a longer story, and for those with
faith, the story always has a happy ending.
. So, trust in God. Read the Bible. Pray. And speak the truth in love.
