How is your medal?

Jeremiah 6:22-30

What if on this Sunday morning a man stands before the nation, and he’s not just any man, he is a man of integrity who has walked with God and he proclaimed on all the countries media the following: “Thus says the Lord: 

“Behold, a people is coming from the North Country, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.  They lay hold on bow and javelin; they are cruel and have no mercy; the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride on horses, set in array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion!”  But he does not use the word Zion, it is replaced with your nation, what are you going to do, what is your battle plan?

Many who have resources will do as the Saudi’s did when Saddam’s Iraq was about to attack them.  They got their gold and wives and got on their private jets leaving for Europe, until the U.S.A. under President Bush’s leadership stopped the invasion with our military might and a coalition of nations, then they returned.  Some in your nation will do the same, but most will do like the general population of Judea and say as they did in verses 24-26, “We have heard the report of it; our hands fall helpless; anguish has taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in labor.  Go not out into the field, nor walk on the road, for the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side.  O daughter of my people put on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.”  That sounds like a people who have lost hope, they no longer trust the leadership, or the military, they are living in total fear, for they long ago looked to only the little gods, the false gods of materialism and pleasure and when they fail all hope will fall with them.

We, as Americans, are still looking to the little gods; sports, material goods, sex, and the most corrupt of governments but a time is coming when they will not bring hope, and then who will you turn to?  I would hope it is a wake-up call for a nation like ours, to return to the only God who has shown grace to this country, but it is clear to many of us that His hand is being withdrawn and judgment has began.

This was the message to Judea; “I have made you a tester of metals among my people, that you may know and test their ways.  They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron; all of them act corruptly.  The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed.  Rejected silver they are called, for the Lord has rejected them.”  Jeremiah was God’s appointed assayer of His people.  He was not testing medal but the quality, the integrity of His people.  The evil people were the dross and they could not be separated from the others, for all were evil.  How is your medal, how will your tests go, not before man, but an all-seeing God?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice