Dirty Words

Profanity, vulgarity, cuss words, filthy language.  We all have our moments when even if the words aren't dirty four to twelve letter epithets, our velvet tone and vocabulary covers the vilest of cruel hatreds.  I have no intention of talking about civility or clean language today.  I do however find myself trapped in a chapter of Jeremiah that speaks directly to our present situation in regards to governance choices for our nation, and it necessitates talking about the third Commandment:

You shall not take the name of the LORD you God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. (Exodus 20:7 ESV)

Taking the Lord's name in vain.  The truest essence of this violation is captured in Jeremiah 34.  I'm not typing out that whole chapter here, if you've read this far you care enough about the topic to get your own Bible out and read it for yourself.  I'll be brief as possible here and share with you how this chapter captured me and became the object of my meditations for the past 24-48 hours.  It seemed pretty mundane, Jeremiah's been saying all along in a dozen different ways: Israel (Judah in particular) is going to Babylon,  for some core reasons you can read for yourself.  The truth is this 22 verse chapter captured me at the end of verse 21.  I'm working through the ESV translation this time through the Bible, so everything today will be referenced from that translation (all emphases mine).

Here is what captured me, the last phrase of verse 21:

...into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has withdrawn from you.

WHAT?! - wait a minute here, the word of the LORD came in the front end of the chapter saying the city was getting burned down and the king was going into exile - but now Babylon's forces have withdrawn?  And then more direct words from the LORD in verse 22:

Behold, I will command, declares the LORD, and will bring them back to this city.  And they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire.  I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.

So they had a fighting chance, Babylon had withdrawn, might have been on the run with the right military tactics.  How did that change between the front end of the chapter and the last verses?  The answer lies in verses 8 - 10:

...King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them, that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother.  And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again.  They obeyed and set them free.

Just that quick, at least as the reading of the words go, Judah had three fortified cities successfully fighting for their life and putting the Babylonians back on their heels.  Babylon had withdrawn.  All because of that dirty word OBEDIENCE.  So why verse 22?  Well those answers and the tie in to the 3rd Commandment, we read in verses 13-16, God's direct words to them, and I believe inspirationally/applicationally to us today in some key ways:

...I myself made a covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, at the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you must set him free from your service. [see Leviticus 25:35-46]  But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me.  You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name, but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.

They went back on their word when they had a glimpse of relief.  So we find the truest essence of taking the name of the LORD in vain, and Jeremiah records how the  consequence in the second phrase of the 3rd Commandment unfolds starting in verse 17:

Therefore, thus says the LORD:  You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor, behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine...

The LORD brought Babylon back with a vengeance.  Confirming once again Psalm 24:1 "The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein."

So where is my hair-brained tie in to today's governance situations as applied to the United States of America?  How is it I think as Paul wrote in 1Corinthians10:11 that "these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction..."  It's just this, that even in the midst - or because - of great turmoil, God opens our eyes and ears to see and understand how far we've departed from Right paths.  But we, like Judah in Jeremiah 34, face a dire consequence should we go back on the lessons we've painfully learned these last 6-8 years.

He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ears by adversity.  He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping and what was set on your table was full of fatness. Job 36:15-16

Many of us have had some "come to Jesus" moments over the last few years through various dire circumstances.  We've individually faced God or turned away, many of us praying earnestly for Truth to shine forth and hearts to be opened and set free to see the reality of the situations.  My fear is that we will get one glimpse of relief from what we've been facing with our lawless president and electorate and fail to persevere in right actions and behaviors and self governance.  We will have repeated Judah's action in profaning the name of the LORD. 

Choose wisely beloved, not just tomorrow, but every day, and stay the course of vigilant obedience to those things you know to be right.  Repent when you know you have done wrong and turn to the LORD for mercy and redemption, we have the promises that the "blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness" if we will but call on His name - and to as many as call on His name and receive Him, who believe in His name, He gives the right to become children of God.  We are facing a host of issues today, all of them linked directly to the issues of loving God and loving each other.  Extrapolate them yourself and see if I'm not right... because if I am then the only solution is that dirty word OBEDIENCE.

Led Zeppelin probably didn't mean it this way, but there are two paths you can go by, and for now there's still time to change the road you're on.  In every facet of your life you will find that ultimately all roads lead back to a narrow gate leading to a path of life for those who will enter it and persevere.  Otherwise you are left to the liberty of destruction.

Be blessed my friends.