Jeremiah 19:4-6 – A Compromised Embassy
4 “Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents 5 (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
Barbara Tuchman comments in her magisterial The Guns of August on the cozy state of Germany's ambassador to England before World War I. He married British. His manners were British. He seemed to think of himself as part of the society he lived among rather than as a representative of the order that sent him.
God's ambassadors and embassy are likewise compromised according to the indictment of Jeremiah 19:4-6. They are no longer distinct from the culture around them. God's regenerative power is such that He established Kingdom soil in the midst of the pagans, a home identified with Him just as much as in diplomacy and embassy is part of the soil of the sending country. Yet, He says His own have managed to make it an alien place, to re-acclimate it to the surrounding, barbarous norms.
They forsook a heritage that was godly, though far from perfect. It wasn't enough to slide back into the errors of their fathers who complained against God on the exodus or fell into the idol worship of the previous occupants of the Promised Land. These, God speaks through Jeremiah, had the impudence to worship novelty itself, to invent new idols to declare themselves independent not only of God but of whatever residual faithfulness remained in His testimony through their forbearers.
Do we, in an effort to fit in an existential age in which it is imperative that each person follow his own star, likewise search in adolescent fashion for ways to stand out for the sake of standing out? Or, distinct from the culture around us, is God our standard in recourse? Do we ride each new cultural current, worshiping novelty itself, or do we read the signs of the times, recognizing with Ecclesiastes that there is truly nothing new under the sun, that each of our actions and cultural signals either moves us closer to Christ or closer to the world?
God through Jeremiah also indicts the extent to which men's current actions are dictated by their attitude toward the future. They are so at faith's hardened antithesis that they sacrifice their own children, in sharp contrast to the steadfast belief which Hebrews says consoled Moses' parents to bring up their son distinctly in an evil age. With a Divine shudder, God says it never crossed His mind that He might be honored by such a slaughter of the young and dependent is emblematic of future hope.
Is it enough for us, then, compromised embassy, to fit in today, to indulge the beliefs of the moment at such grave cost to those who come behind us? Even if we recoil at abortion and denounce it, how much thought do we have, really, to subordinating our own convenience to the rigors of discipleship? No, we don't raise the knife, but do we rouse a watch of faithful men to guard the ways of the next generation's young Josiahs? As then, as in Jeremiah's day, they will not drift toward holiness. They will practice the faith to the extent they have seen it practiced.
God will have His Name vindicated before each generation. He will not leave, Acts assures, any people without a witness. Therefore, if we do not live with the revelation of His greater glory as our abiding hope, the jeremiad of the Jeremiah 19:6 assures that He will clear away willfully compromised representatives to more clearly show the nations His character. As much as ancient Judah, we bear His Name before the nations, but to what effect?
Barbara Tuchman comments in her magisterial The Guns of August on the cozy state of Germany's ambassador to England before World War I. He married British. His manners were British. He seemed to think of himself as part of the society he lived among rather than as a representative of the order that sent him.
God's ambassadors and embassy are likewise compromised according to the indictment of Jeremiah 19:4-6. They are no longer distinct from the culture around them. God's regenerative power is such that He established Kingdom soil in the midst of the pagans, a home identified with Him just as much as in diplomacy and embassy is part of the soil of the sending country. Yet, He says His own have managed to make it an alien place, to re-acclimate it to the surrounding, barbarous norms.
They forsook a heritage that was godly, though far from perfect. It wasn't enough to slide back into the errors of their fathers who complained against God on the exodus or fell into the idol worship of the previous occupants of the Promised Land. These, God speaks through Jeremiah, had the impudence to worship novelty itself, to invent new idols to declare themselves independent not only of God but of whatever residual faithfulness remained in His testimony through their forbearers.
Do we, in an effort to fit in an existential age in which it is imperative that each person follow his own star, likewise search in adolescent fashion for ways to stand out for the sake of standing out? Or, distinct from the culture around us, is God our standard in recourse? Do we ride each new cultural current, worshiping novelty itself, or do we read the signs of the times, recognizing with Ecclesiastes that there is truly nothing new under the sun, that each of our actions and cultural signals either moves us closer to Christ or closer to the world?
God through Jeremiah also indicts the extent to which men's current actions are dictated by their attitude toward the future. They are so at faith's hardened antithesis that they sacrifice their own children, in sharp contrast to the steadfast belief which Hebrews says consoled Moses' parents to bring up their son distinctly in an evil age. With a Divine shudder, God says it never crossed His mind that He might be honored by such a slaughter of the young and dependent is emblematic of future hope.
Is it enough for us, then, compromised embassy, to fit in today, to indulge the beliefs of the moment at such grave cost to those who come behind us? Even if we recoil at abortion and denounce it, how much thought do we have, really, to subordinating our own convenience to the rigors of discipleship? No, we don't raise the knife, but do we rouse a watch of faithful men to guard the ways of the next generation's young Josiahs? As then, as in Jeremiah's day, they will not drift toward holiness. They will practice the faith to the extent they have seen it practiced.
God will have His Name vindicated before each generation. He will not leave, Acts assures, any people without a witness. Therefore, if we do not live with the revelation of His greater glory as our abiding hope, the jeremiad of the Jeremiah 19:6 assures that He will clear away willfully compromised representatives to more clearly show the nations His character. As much as ancient Judah, we bear His Name before the nations, but to what effect?
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