The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace of Judah. – Jeremiah 32:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 26, 2017) Jeremiah 32

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. The order allowed Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones which, in turn, cleared the way for the United States to declare the Western Coast of the nation as a restricted zone. The result was that Japanese Americans who lived on the coast could be detained in relocation centers. By the end of the war, over 100,000 people of Japanese descent were held in these centers – and 62% of these detainees were American citizens.

The incident became one of the black mark incidents against the United States that occurred during the Second World War. Specifically, the incident has resulted in numerous court cases asking the same fundamental question – are there any boundaries placed on a nation with regard to the actions that are permissible to be taken against its own people? What moral limits exist on the treatment of people during times of conflict? The question hovers around the central tenet of law stating that a person is innocent until proven guilty. For the vast majority of the detainees, there were no legal charges ever even considered, let alone laid and established. Innocent Americans had their rights suspended without any deliberation or objective reasoning. The rights were suspended merely because of their race – and the belief that some might be in league with a foreign power. In retrospect, the hope was that we would never return to those days. But the reality is that in times of stress, it is amazing how swiftly a nation will turn on its own.

As much as we want the question to be an easy one, it seldom is. Some firmly believe that during extraordinary moments of war, extraordinary measures are necessary. But those on the other side of the argument are just as adamant – no circumstances can ever be used as an excuse to take action against innocent citizens of the nation. To do so would be an immoral act.

Jeremiah was a citizen of Jerusalem, but as the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Army begins, Jeremiah finds himself in his personal relocation center. The reason for the detainment is found in the prophecies of Jeremiah. In his effort to faithfully carry the message of God to the national leaders in Jerusalem, he makes himself an enemy of the state. The leaders simply did not like the what Jeremiah felt God was telling him. Jeremiah would have considered himself a patriot of Judah, but the king questions his loyalty and detains the prophet.

For the leaders of the nation, they could not believe that God would subject them to the same exile that their northern brothers had suffered. They were different, and no good could come out of a Babylonian exile. While I am not sure that Jeremiah really understood, he had clearly heard the voice of God and realized that God intended good out of everything that was about to happen – even a defeat in war at the hands of the Babylonians.

We sometimes face numerous challenges, but if we learn the lesson from Jeremiah, even the bad things in our lives God can use for good - if we will let him.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 33