Jeremiah 21:11-12 – Downstream from Theology
11 “And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, 12 O house of David! Thus says the Lord:
“Execute judgment in the morning;
And deliver him who is plundered
Out of the hand of the oppressor,
Lest My fury go forth like fire
And burn so that no one can quench it,
Because of the evil of your doings.
"Kings would do well," admonishes Will Durant in Rousseau and Revolution, "to visit the peasant huts now and then and see the poverty that pays for the royal pomp."
So concurs God's edict in Jeremiah 21:11-12. Judah's king has inquired of the prophet for purposes of state expediency. He would see his people spared the siege Jeremiah has foretold. Yet the king is unaware of the constraints already upon his people, the internal oppression which already goes on.
He hasn't, as Durant would suspect, visited the peasant huts and submitted to the Lord's prompting to serve those at the bottom of society by defending their freedoms to serve the Lord.
Though we will likely never where the king's royal finery, we do need to be aware of the blinders that come with the prerogatives we were born into. Robert F. Kennedy isn't talking of royalty but of the middle class when he is quoted in Sons of Camelot with the indictment, "They don't see the poor, and they don't want to."
Our gripes, as with Capt. John H. Miller in Saving Private Ryan, go up the chain of command, and never down, to those who can deliver us rather than those we can deliver. We look at those who seem to have power over us, as the king asks Jeremiah to seek relief from the impending invasion. We don't factor in the power we have in which we exert almost unconsciously over others for our own convenience. The two are connected, establishes Jeremiah 21:11-12.
The injustice the elites impose on their vulnerable countrymen, says the Lord through Jeremiah, is one of the aspects of society God is about to judge with fire. Even now, Jeremiah urges, using leadership opportunities to be the poor man's advocate can avert that. If the king isn't that irrepressible advocate, the Lord will be, with unsettling consequences to an unjust society. Cautions Proverbs 21:15, "When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers."
Of course, gestures of social justice can be undertaken with manipulative noblesse oblige which reinforces the prideful heart. Tim Keller warns against this as well, admitting in God's Wisdom for Navigating Life, "We will never embrace the poor with love and respect for them until we see that we were spiritually poor and live only by God's grace."
The Christian, too, intercedes with the day in mind of the great siege that threatens the current social order. He or she can be distracted into simply asking for its preservation and prolonging. May it be in Heaven as we enjoy it at others' expense on Earth. As we respond to the Jeremiah 21:11-12 pulses of the great heart we pray to, we start to see our own state. We start to realize the grace extended to us, and with it the responsibility.
We start to take seriously the words of Jesus that we can prepare today for our reckoning before Him. We have been positioned by grace to honor Him with what we do to comfort the least of these among us, those otherwise overlooked that we begin to see as we remember He was rich and for our sakes became poor.
Trusting that He is coming and His lasting rewards are with Him, we can be like Moses in Hebrews' faith reckoning and refuse to be defined by our social position in the current order. Our royal prerogatives are from the coming order and are best exercised this day by lessening the burden on others.
“Execute judgment in the morning;
And deliver him who is plundered
Out of the hand of the oppressor,
Lest My fury go forth like fire
And burn so that no one can quench it,
Because of the evil of your doings.
"Kings would do well," admonishes Will Durant in Rousseau and Revolution, "to visit the peasant huts now and then and see the poverty that pays for the royal pomp."
So concurs God's edict in Jeremiah 21:11-12. Judah's king has inquired of the prophet for purposes of state expediency. He would see his people spared the siege Jeremiah has foretold. Yet the king is unaware of the constraints already upon his people, the internal oppression which already goes on.
He hasn't, as Durant would suspect, visited the peasant huts and submitted to the Lord's prompting to serve those at the bottom of society by defending their freedoms to serve the Lord.
Though we will likely never where the king's royal finery, we do need to be aware of the blinders that come with the prerogatives we were born into. Robert F. Kennedy isn't talking of royalty but of the middle class when he is quoted in Sons of Camelot with the indictment, "They don't see the poor, and they don't want to."
Our gripes, as with Capt. John H. Miller in Saving Private Ryan, go up the chain of command, and never down, to those who can deliver us rather than those we can deliver. We look at those who seem to have power over us, as the king asks Jeremiah to seek relief from the impending invasion. We don't factor in the power we have in which we exert almost unconsciously over others for our own convenience. The two are connected, establishes Jeremiah 21:11-12.
The injustice the elites impose on their vulnerable countrymen, says the Lord through Jeremiah, is one of the aspects of society God is about to judge with fire. Even now, Jeremiah urges, using leadership opportunities to be the poor man's advocate can avert that. If the king isn't that irrepressible advocate, the Lord will be, with unsettling consequences to an unjust society. Cautions Proverbs 21:15, "When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers."
Of course, gestures of social justice can be undertaken with manipulative noblesse oblige which reinforces the prideful heart. Tim Keller warns against this as well, admitting in God's Wisdom for Navigating Life, "We will never embrace the poor with love and respect for them until we see that we were spiritually poor and live only by God's grace."
The Christian, too, intercedes with the day in mind of the great siege that threatens the current social order. He or she can be distracted into simply asking for its preservation and prolonging. May it be in Heaven as we enjoy it at others' expense on Earth. As we respond to the Jeremiah 21:11-12 pulses of the great heart we pray to, we start to see our own state. We start to realize the grace extended to us, and with it the responsibility.
We start to take seriously the words of Jesus that we can prepare today for our reckoning before Him. We have been positioned by grace to honor Him with what we do to comfort the least of these among us, those otherwise overlooked that we begin to see as we remember He was rich and for our sakes became poor.
Trusting that He is coming and His lasting rewards are with Him, we can be like Moses in Hebrews' faith reckoning and refuse to be defined by our social position in the current order. Our royal prerogatives are from the coming order and are best exercised this day by lessening the burden on others.
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