TWO WORRIES keep me up at night. My dying dog, and what appears to be my dying country.
I JUST ERASED Israel from the world map.
I did it last week, when I paraphrased Jeremiah chapter 39. God had warned the Jewish nation of Judah that if they didn’t stop sinning, he was going to tear down the nation city by city and evict the Chosen Ones. The Bible says he did it. That was in 586 BC, and with the help of Babylonian invaders from what is now southern Iraq.
My worries
Most any day of the week, I’m working on finishing the paraphrase and maps for the Casual English Bible.® During the workday, I’m focused on that world and I sometimes have to be pestered out of my office to come down and eat or to walk Maizey the Dog.
But when I’m away from work, there are two problems that haunt me and burden me and depress me.
- Maizey, our six-year-old black lab mix is dying. Lymphoma. Chemo may extend her life by months, but I’m told not likely by years.
- The country I thought I knew is dying of moral rot. It’s not the lies that are killing us. It’s the belief in those lies. There’s no cure for cult-like belief in evil people. The evil people have to go.
I can’t do anything of substance about either of those problems. But I will do what I can.
For Maizey, many nights I sleep in a chair to be near her in her chosen safe space, on the basement couches. And sometimes I play melancholy music on the harmonica and cry for her and for me.
When it comes to the USA, I’ve stopped watching most broadcast news because it’s too often little more than a reality show with a script approved by billionaires. I even hesitate to read legit and objective news from professional journalists such as those with the Associated Press, BBC, and Reuters. The honest news these days is repulsive to me. I don't want to accept that we've become a nation of the kind of people who are leading us.
Prophets judging USA?
If what the Bible prophets said about the sins of ancient Israel still applies, we can’t continue down this path and survive. That’s about all the Bible prophets ever talked about: if you keep sinning you’ll die. But it doesn’t take a prophet to see what’s ahead. Somehow we must find our way back to working together, treating one another with respect, and holding corrupt leaders and other criminals accountable.
Right now it feels hopeless to many. Some wonder how we could possibly avoid a bloodbath, since the righteous will not tolerate the evil indefinitely. I don’t think anyone doubts that they’ll fight the battle in the election booths, the courts, and on the streets if necessary.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the last couple of years working in the prophets. They were all about everything we’re doing wrong. Corruption among officials. Self-serving judges on someone else’s tab. Ministers preaching hatefulness. God’s followers refusing to give a darn about the most vulnerable people in the world: the poor, the immigrants, and the orphans.
We check off every box that God hated and for which he erased Israel. What chutzpah to think we’re any better than Israel was the day it died.
What to do
The best encouragement I can offer are the words of a prophet who likely died or was taken captive to what is now Iraq in the summer of 586 BC. That’s the year, give or take a year, when Babylonian invaders leveled Jerusalem, killed most of the politicians, and deported the citizens.
Habakkuk was the prophet I’m talking about. This is what he wrote when he saw a judgment day coming:
When I heard this story of what would happen,
I started shaking all over.
My lips quivered. My legs gave way.
All I could do was lay there and tremble.
I’m waiting now for the inevitable day of trouble,
For invaders to wake and attack.
When fig trees don’t blossom,
Grapes don’t grow,
When olive crops disappear,
Fields produce dirt,
When sheep are taken,
Cattle gone from their stalls,
What will I do?
I will thank God that he is my Savior.
He gives me the strength to go on.
He gives me the sure-footed speed of a deer,
And to higher ground he leads on (Habakkuk 3:16-19).
The song of Habakkuk
I was so inspired when I read what he wrote that as soon as I finished paraphrasing the chapter, I went down to my media room and wrote the first verse of a song he inspired me to write:
I Will Thank God (He's My Savior)
A note about nasty name-calling
One of the Trump-supporting ministers I went to seminary with wrote a note on Facebook a couple weeks ago admonishing those who say Trump belongs in jail to speak more kindly and to not call people bad names. Like “Hitler.”
I agree we should disagree respectfully. However, I also see remarkable hypocrisy in his request. He is asking the other side not to behave like those he voted into power and still supports. It's as though he's saying his side gets to lie, demean, bully, cheat, and steal. But the other side has to play nice.
Let me borrow a few choice words from Jesus to the all-about-me, self-worshiping leaders of his day.
I confess it’s an enjoyable picture in my head imagining Jesus using some of these words in a House in Washington D.C. (I imagine they would call him disrespectful.)
“You snakes! You slithering tangle of poisonous snakes! How can you possibly escape God’s condemnation and punishment?” (Matthew 23:33).
“You hypocrites. You’re in it for you. You’re like a garden graveyard, manicured and presentable on the surface. Down deep, you’re full of dead men’s bones and rotting guts that pollute the dirt” (Matthew 23:27).
“Your father is the devil. And you do the devil’s work. You do what he tells you to do. He was a murderer from the very beginning. And he never could handle the truth. There’s not a drop of truth in him. When he lies, he’s doing only what comes naturally to him, because he is a liar and the father of lies. That’s why you don’t believe me when I tell you the truth” (John 8:44-45).
Should we give a darn?
There's a line in a song I've been learning on the harmonica. It says there's "a time to give, and a time to give a damn." That's not the way we church people would usually say it on a Sunday within earshot of the minister. But it makes the point well.
When it came to leaders hurting the little guys, Jesus gave a, well, you know.
A lot of little guys are getting hurt right now, clobbered by billionaires. I really do wonder what Jesus would say. What do you think?
And what's the Christian thing to do? Should we play nice and be polite. Or should we call a lying snake a "lying snake"?
We know what it got Jesus. A cross. But the cross changed the world. Among some people who call themselves Christians, it changed the world for the better.
The world they touched became:
- more compassionate, less selfish
- more courageous, less fearful
- more righteous, less vicious.
We have been that nation. Perhaps we can be that nation again. But not today.
PS
I hate writing stuff like this. But this is a time when authentic Christians who try to follow the teachings of Jesus need to stand up, speak up, and push back.
It's time to give a, well, you know.
Where is a happy family in the Bible?