All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate him. – Jeremiah 27:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 12, 2014): Jeremiah 27

Benedict Arnold wrote an open letter to the American people on October 7, 1780 (the letter was published in the New York Royal Gazette on October 11.) The purpose of the letter was to give Arnold’s reasons for his action of betrayal during the American Revolutionary War. In the letter, Arnold stressed that he had favored the war of independence because there were some legitimate grievances that the colony had against the British. But that once those problems had been addressed, there was no longer any need for the war to continue. And yet the war did precisely that – it continued. Arnold also objected to the American alliance with France, depicting Catholic France as the enemy of the Protestant Faith. And for these reasons, Benedict Arnold was set to act against the United States.

I am sure that some people turn into traitors for money, but I suspect that most have either personal or ideological reasons behind their actions. There needs to be something more compelling than just money for a patriot to turn traitor.

Jeremiah comes with a message from God, and it must have seemed like just more evidence that Jeremiah had betrayed his nation. Maybe it was just because he was angry with the king and the king’s court. Maybe he felt that he had been cut out of religious structure of the nation. But either way Jeremiah must have seemed like someone with an anger problem against the kings of Judah and the surrounding nations who had decided to back Nebuchadnezzar – probably the very one that the kings were currently trying to band together to protect themselves against.

But in this case, the problem was actually one of allegiance. Jeremiah was not really a traitor to Judah. His allegiance had never been to Judah, even though that was his home. His allegiance had always been to God. And it was God that was sending Judah into exile in Babylon. But Jeremiah’s behavior had never led the power structure in Judah to believe that this allegiance could have been to anyone else but God.

It is the uncomfortable fact of our faith. We may live in a nation – even in a nation that we love. But our allegiance is to our God. It has to be – it can’t be given to anyone else.      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 28