I will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem. – Jeremiah 15:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 23, 2014): Jeremiah 15

There is this idea in Western Culture that our politicians are elected to carry out the wishes of the people. It is the image that lies behind what we would consider to be true democracy – a political system where every citizens has a vote on every issue that nation had to face. But the problem with true democracy is that it is impractical in our modern nations. For every citizen to have a vote on every issue of our society would be both too slow and too costly. And, if we are honest, we have too little time to adequately research every issue that our nations have to face. So we elect representatives to vote for us. But the reality is that we elect our representatives, not just to vote as we would, but to do the research into the issues that we don’t have the time to do.

It has always been the role of the politicians to do the work that we don’t have time to do. In ancient times, this was the role of the king and his court. The king did not have to do the labor of the common man, so it was understood that he could do the work to understand the needs of the nation – and to act for the benefit of the people. Sometimes the kings, and our politicians, did exactly as they were supposed to do – they did what was best for the nation. But since the beginning of time our politicians have been tempted to follow the opinion polls instead of making the good – and often hard - decisions. And from the beginning of time, the people have rewarded bad decisions with their approval.

There is evidence that this is precisely what Jeremiah was upset about. Jeremiah’s time on the political stage had begun with the reign of Josiah. And Josiah was a good king who had implemented good policy on behalf of the people. But the people had resented the policies of the king. Instead, they refused to follow God and chose to follow their own desires. But as Jeremiah looked back into the history of the nation, he realizes that during the evil days of King Manasseh, the people had approved of the policies of the king. And to Jeremiah, none of this made any sense. How could a nation honor what was bad and rebel against what was good?

Yet that is exactly what had happened, and so God was going to allow the nation of Judah who had sewn dishonorable policies with her kings to reap dishonor. It was really the only thing a holy God could do. Jeremiah reminds the people that because they had chosen what was abhorrent, they would reap what was abhorrent. There was really no other alternative.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 16