Today’s
Scripture Reading (April 19, 2017) Jeremiah 25
When
I was a child I am not sure that I knew there was another purpose for dominoes
other than to set them up and knock them down. The idea of playing a game with
them (and I loved games) was the furthest thing from my mind. What I wanted to
do was to set them up in a row, or better yet to set them up in some sort of a
design and then knock that first one down and watch the rest of them fall. It
is still the way that dominoes are most often represented in our culture.
Dominoes never seem to be portrayed with an image of a group of people sitting
around a table playing “Chicken Foot,” it is Sheldon Cooper (The Big Bang
Theory) setting them up and knocking them down. We even have a name for it. A
small event that sets other events in motion is called “The Domino Effect.”
And
in 2008, we watched another phenomenon, one that we might call “The Domino
Cycle.” As the economies of the world struggled, we stood around helpless to do
anything but watch the dominoes fall. And the dominoes did not just fall once,
but in a daily cycle as each market reacted to the financial struggle of the
market that closed in the time zone in front of it. The financial world spiraled
downward as the dominoes continued to fall.
In
this passage, God almost likens the spreading of the Babylonian Empire to the
Domino Effect. It seemed that as one nation fell after another, the Empire
picked up speed – and the dominoes fell faster and faster. And the reality is
that there are only two ways to stop the falling of a chain of dominoes. If the
dominoes are set up properly, either the dominoes have to reach the end of the
line – the last domino to be set up – or the one watching the dominoes fall has
to intercede and stop the process.
God
places Israel on alert. The dominoes are not only properly set up, but they are
starting to fall. And unless God intervened, the Dominoes were not going to
stop falling until they reached the end of the chain – and that chain would not
end until long after Israel had fallen. And while God could stop the dominoes
from falling, he had no intention in doing anything of the sort.
The
truth that God was trying to communicate to Jeremiah and the people of Israel
was that the Babylonian Empire did not exist outside of God’s providence and
will. Israel was not about to fall because God fell asleep at the wheel. God
knew exactly what was happening, and in order to bring Israel back to him, God
was willing to do anything – even if that meant letting the dominoes fall.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 26
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