Rev. Don Campbell
Jeremiah 4-6
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 8, 2019
“LOOKING FOR AN HONEST MAN”
When Abraham bargained with the Lord to spare Sodom and Gomorrah, he started the negotiations by asking if there were 50 righteous persons in the cities, would he not spare them. God agreed, and Abraham reduced the number to 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, and finally 10. We don’t know if he was confident that there were 10 righteous persons there or he was embarrassed to go any lower.
Perhaps God would have gone lower because centuries later he said concerning Judah: “‘Run up and down every street in Jerusalem,’ says the Lord. ‘Look high and low; search throughout the city. If you can find even one just and honest person, I will not destroy the city’’ (Jeremiah 5:1, NLT). An honest man could not be found among the priests nor the prophets, nor the man-on-the-street: “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in this land—the prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand. Worse yet, my people like it that way!” (Jeremiah 5:30-31). It was not just the low-level characters: “From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed. From prophets to priests, they are all frauds” (Jeremiah 6:13, NLT).
Dr. Gregory Jantz, “wrote: “As a nation, we’re accustomed to being lied to. In some ways, we’ve come to expect it. We’re also accustomed to lying and, it appears, we’re passing this trait along to our kids. A recent ethics study among teenagers found that 48% of boys and 35% of girls lied to save money and 80% lied to a parent about something significant. Of course, it was difficult to get completely accurate numbers because 25% admitted they’d lied on at least one or two of the survey questions — they lied about lying. There was a silver lining — 92% of them felt satisfied about their personal ethics and character. Our kids may lie but at least they’ve learned to still feel good about themselves” (A Nation of Liars: Caught Up in a Tangled Web.” Huff Post 8/12/11)
Paul urges, “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:22-25).
CONNECTIONS
1. Do you believe that some people would rather believe a lie that validates their prejudices and predilections than believe the truth and give up their prejudices and practices?
2. People often lie to themselves. Why is this kind of deception worse than another person lying to us?
