Jeremiah 18:17 – Disorientation Defeated
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy;
I will show them the back and not the face
In the day of their calamity.”
"The tumult of battle," narrates Edward Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire's fifth volume, "allowed no time for doubt or scrutiny."
What Edward Gibbon sees in retrospect as the crumbling Roman Empire's defenses, God's prophet foretells an advanced in Jeremiah 18:17. In fact, he already had, connecting the corruption of the culture to cowardice on the battlefield which soldiers could not rely on themselves or each other.
In fact, God already foretold this eventuality so far in advance that Moses spoke of it at the end of Deuteronomy. An aspect of blessing, He said, was that small bands of His people would drive multiples of their enemies to flight. Conversely, as He withdraws individual peace and resulting communal protection, His people would be so seized with panic that they would be beyond even an orderly retreat.
Jeremiah, he whose face God said He would set before his cultural adversaries, says, in turn, that none in the culture to whom he speaks will have such courage. Panic will be so total and consuming that, God says to Jeremiah, they will see that the backs and not the faces of the countrymen God might have otherwise used to stand with them in courage and faith.
In such a predicament, people are not seen as individuals, instruments in the hand and image of God, as even a Philistine king can perceive David's courage. They are, instead, seen as faceless, a blip in a discouraging trend, one more reason to give up. The darkness of the eye and the darkness of the soul are connected, Jesus says.
Satan isn't very original. He doesn't have to be. He pours out panic on a culture because it works. He causes us either to place complete, unreasonable trust in each other, or to completely disallow that God can use our neighbor to reflect His image and extend His hands into our lives. This is personified Powerlessness, but on the other side of the cross, the Christian has a choice.
He has seen, has savored, what the Godhead can do within the vulnerability of a willing human frame. That great courageous, redemptive act has been done once and for all by Christ. What Can He not do through those He empowers to stand?
Ours, then, is to resolve with Dr. Tiffini Morris, ""I will meet you, Powerlessness, but I will not allow you to take up residence in my heart and soul." The same grouping impulse is there, to be sure. The same evidence surrounds us that our frail, fleeting community is a poor answer to the enemy's intentions.
Yet, God is in our midst where two or more are gathered in faith. Opportunities open and close, He has pledged Himself, where two or more of His own agree. He has broken the curse of cultural panic.
Edward Gibbon allows, still in the fifth volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, "If courage be not wanting, the instruments of defence are seldom deficient." Let us, then, be another day wiser in using these instruments.
We have before us the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith. We have also been gathered by His grace in communities of faith to encourage and challenge one another while it is still called today.
Where we see one another's flaws and potential or past panic, the true enemy of our souls sees what CS Lewis's fictional Screwtape does, an Army fearsome with banners stretching back through the ages. Stand, Christian. You are part of a great and glorious host.
I will show them the back and not the face
In the day of their calamity.”
"The tumult of battle," narrates Edward Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire's fifth volume, "allowed no time for doubt or scrutiny."
What Edward Gibbon sees in retrospect as the crumbling Roman Empire's defenses, God's prophet foretells an advanced in Jeremiah 18:17. In fact, he already had, connecting the corruption of the culture to cowardice on the battlefield which soldiers could not rely on themselves or each other.
In fact, God already foretold this eventuality so far in advance that Moses spoke of it at the end of Deuteronomy. An aspect of blessing, He said, was that small bands of His people would drive multiples of their enemies to flight. Conversely, as He withdraws individual peace and resulting communal protection, His people would be so seized with panic that they would be beyond even an orderly retreat.
Jeremiah, he whose face God said He would set before his cultural adversaries, says, in turn, that none in the culture to whom he speaks will have such courage. Panic will be so total and consuming that, God says to Jeremiah, they will see that the backs and not the faces of the countrymen God might have otherwise used to stand with them in courage and faith.
In such a predicament, people are not seen as individuals, instruments in the hand and image of God, as even a Philistine king can perceive David's courage. They are, instead, seen as faceless, a blip in a discouraging trend, one more reason to give up. The darkness of the eye and the darkness of the soul are connected, Jesus says.
Satan isn't very original. He doesn't have to be. He pours out panic on a culture because it works. He causes us either to place complete, unreasonable trust in each other, or to completely disallow that God can use our neighbor to reflect His image and extend His hands into our lives. This is personified Powerlessness, but on the other side of the cross, the Christian has a choice.
He has seen, has savored, what the Godhead can do within the vulnerability of a willing human frame. That great courageous, redemptive act has been done once and for all by Christ. What Can He not do through those He empowers to stand?
Ours, then, is to resolve with Dr. Tiffini Morris, ""I will meet you, Powerlessness, but I will not allow you to take up residence in my heart and soul." The same grouping impulse is there, to be sure. The same evidence surrounds us that our frail, fleeting community is a poor answer to the enemy's intentions.
Yet, God is in our midst where two or more are gathered in faith. Opportunities open and close, He has pledged Himself, where two or more of His own agree. He has broken the curse of cultural panic.
Edward Gibbon allows, still in the fifth volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, "If courage be not wanting, the instruments of defence are seldom deficient." Let us, then, be another day wiser in using these instruments.
We have before us the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith. We have also been gathered by His grace in communities of faith to encourage and challenge one another while it is still called today.
Where we see one another's flaws and potential or past panic, the true enemy of our souls sees what CS Lewis's fictional Screwtape does, an Army fearsome with banners stretching back through the ages. Stand, Christian. You are part of a great and glorious host.
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