Today’s Scripture Reading (March 5, 2017): Jeremiah 12
As the Stock Markets play with record highs in the past few weeks, maybe it is a good reminder that the Stock Market also hit all-time highs in September 1929. Six weeks before Black Tuesday, the Stock Market reached values that it had never been seen before. And then the crash happened on Tuesday, October 29, 1929.
Contrary to urban legend, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 did not have an immediate effect on the world. No one is recorded to have jumped out a window on October 29, and no breadlines were forming on October 30. The effects of Tuesday, October 29 would not be felt until months and years later. Oh, slowly in late October small brokerage houses began to fold and small banks followed because of people who had defaulted on their loan because of the crash. And bread lines in New York did start to appear in February 1930. The impact that was produced by the Newsreels in the rest of the nation was astonishment. These healthy, well-dressed men did not match with the image of the destitute that was held by most people sitting comfortably in their theaters across the United States.
For most people, the evidence for “The Depression” (then a euphemism meaning “panic”) appeared slowly. It came days, months and years later when the family traded electric lights for cheaper kerosene lanterns. Or the day that beans replaced beef on the dinner table. Maybe it was the all too common occurrence of having extended family move in so that money could be pooled and people could live.
It is easy to blame the panic on the events in the Stock Market in late October 1929. But now we know that the fault extends far past the crash. But part of the blame exists in a people who had put down no roots. They had enjoyed prosperity without ever thinking about putting away for tomorrow (a lesson we should have learned from Joseph in Genesis.) It didn’t have to be this way, but that doesn’t change the reality that this is the way it was.
God’s response to Jeremiah most likely comes as quite a shock to the prophet. As Jeremiah admits that the people have not put down roots and that they say God with their mouths and yet whisper Ba’al with their hearts, God turns and reprimands Jeremiah. According to God, the race was just beginning. If you get tired in the good times, what are you going to do when things get bad? If you are out of breath when you race with humans, what are you going to do when I ask you to run with the horses (remember Elijah running off of Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18:46)? If you are tired on level ground that is free of debris, what is it going to be like when you have to run through the shrubs along the Jordan River? Jeremiah, things are just beginning. Don’t declare your exhaustion quite yet.
I am constantly reminded of the words of Jesus to his disciples just before his death. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Don’t give up yet; the worst is yet to come. But I am with you no matter how bad it might get. Stay with me.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 23
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