“Righteous are you, O LORD,
when I complain to you;
yet I would plead my case before you.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
You plant them, and they take root;
they grow and produce fruit;
you are near in their mouth
and far from their heart.
But you, O LORD, know me;
you see me, and test my heart toward you.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
and set them apart for the day of slaughter.
How long will the land mourn
and the grass of every field wither?
For the evil of those who dwell in it
the beasts and the birds are swept away,
because they said, “He will not see our latter end.”
“‘If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,
how will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you are so trusting,
what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?’” [1]
Have you ever tried to argue with God? I doubt that things went as well as you might have wished as you attempted to argue with the Lord your God. I suspect that each of us has at some time complained that life was too hard, that we weren’t getting the respect we deserved, that we are surrounded by stupid people. And when we complained to the Lord, I’m likely accurate in saying that He ignored us. If we were fortunate enough to get an answer, it probably went pretty much along the lines of the interaction that is recorded between the Weeping Prophet and the Lord GOD Who appointed him. The particular interaction to which I am referring is recorded in Jeremiah’s prophecy; it serves as our text for this day.
You will remember that Jeremiah was appointed from the womb to a prophetic ministry. He details his call to service in the opening words of the prophecy he wrote and which bears his name. Jeremiah wrote, “Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’
“Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.’ But the LORD said to me,
‘Do not say, “I am only a youth;”
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the LORD.’
“Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,
‘Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”
[JEREMIAH 1:4-10]
God calls His prophet, and the LORD puts His words in the mouth of that prophet. The prophet must not imagine that what he says is of no consequence, for God says that what he will say are precisely the words given by the Living God. God’s words will impact the heart and the mind of those who hear, and even though they may dismiss the man as uneducated and ill-prepared, they will not be able to casually dismiss what is said.
If prophetic preaching consisted of saying pleasant things that pleased those who listened, it wouldn’t be such a bad gig. If every time the man of God spoke, people were eager to tell him what a marvellous job he had done and how very meaningful his words were, it would draw many to want to become such a spokesman. However, if that same preacher doesn’t make people feel good about themselves or if he somehow causes people to confront their own wickedness, then there is certain to be pushback.
Jeremiah realised that speaking on behalf of the Living God would be demanding. There is a reason why the prophets spoke of the burden of the LORD. From Jeremiah’s own writings we read, “When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the LORD.’ And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household. Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ But ‘the burden of the LORD you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ But if you say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the LORD,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’” therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers’” [JEREMIAH 23:33-39].
When the Prophet Zechariah would begin the message that the Lord God had given to him, he would speak of, “The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel” [ZECHARIAH 12:1 NASB95], or he would write, “The burden of the word of the Lord is against Hadrach” [ZECHARIAH 9:1 NASB95]. Whatever the prophet of God was appointed to say was seen as a burden. He had no choice but to truthfully speak the Word of the LORD, but what was said would be weighty.
At one point, Jeremiah complained of the burden he had to bear, writing,
“O LORD, you have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’
For the word of the LORD has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, ‘I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,’
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
For I hear many whispering.
Terror is on every side!
‘Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’
say all my close friends,
watching for my fall.
‘Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we can overcome him
and take our revenge on him.’”
[JEREMIAH 20:7-10]
It was all fun and games until he began to deliver the message that the Lord had given. Then the prophet must know the pain that accompanies the burden. And when a prophet wants to weep with the people, often God will not permit His man to weep publicly.
To Ezekiel, the LORD said, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel—not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house” [EZEKIEL 3:4-9].
Admittedly, the prophets could be stern and austere. They spoke the Word of the Lord pointedly, not sparing the feelings of those to whom they spoke. The prophets never delivered the Word of the LORD in a manner that could be interpreted as conveying an attitude communicating, “Here it is; take it or leave it.” There was never a sense of detachment for the prophet of God. There was no gloating with the prophet of God. There was no air of superiority conveyed when he delivered the Word that the LORD had given him. The Prophet spoke in the full knowledge that his proclamation would unleash the full fury of the LORD against the wickedness of the people.
I suppose one might conclude that Jonah attempted to gloat as he waited for God to judge Nineveh, but it becomes obvious that he didn’t know the heart of the God Who sent Him to warn that wicked city. He learned, to his chagrin, that God is merciful toward those who turn in repentance from their wickedness. We do well to learn in our day that God is compassionate and seeks to turn our society from judgement. We would have to conclude that after that experience with God, Jonah learned humility.
I suppose it is impossible that a follower of the Christ will not have spent long in the assembly of the righteous before he encounters a preacher who is bombastic and combative. Preachers that gloat and boast are advanced to such positions without the warrant of Scripture. The people of God must be cautious about whom they promote to eldership, recalling the words of the Apostle Paul who has instructed us, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” [TITUS 1:5-9]. If debauchery, or drunkenness, or a pugnacious nature are sinful, then we must recognise that arrogance is just as sinful. For an elder to be arrogant is every bit as wicked as for an elder to be violent or greedy for gain. Arrogance in the man of God is wicked, resulting in nothing good for the Faith.
We will do well to recall the words of Peter as recorded in his second letter. “Above all, understand this: In the last days blatant scoffers will come, being propelled by their own evil urges and saying, ‘Where is his promised return? For ever since our ancestors died, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately suppress this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water. Through these things the world existing at that time was destroyed when it was deluged with water. But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, by being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
“Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day. The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare” [2 PETER 3:3-10 NET BIBLE].
I have stated these things to bring us to the understanding that the prophets were a product of their generation. And those who preach prophetically today are a product of their generation; they speak to those among whom they live. The true prophet is always distressed at wickedness because he understands the high cost of sinful behaviour. Because his heart is broken, and because he knows the righteousness of God, he is grieved for what he must say and the consequences of judgement. The one who preaches prophetically will find a deep accord with the heart of Jeremiah.
THE DISTRESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS —
“Righteous are you, O LORD,
when I complain to you;
yet I would plead my case before you.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
You plant them, and they take root;
they grow and produce fruit;
you are near in their mouth
and far from their heart.
But you, O LORD, know me;
you see me, and test my heart toward you.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
and set them apart for the day of slaughter.
How long will the land mourn
and the grass of every field wither?
For the evil of those who dwell in it
the beasts and the birds are swept away,
because they said, “He will not see our latter end.”
[JEREMIAH 12:1-4]
Let’s be honest with one another. The situation we observe among earth dwellers in this day can cause intense heartburn for followers of the Risen Lord. And when those earth dwellers purport to share the Faith of Christ the Lord, we suffer genuine apoplexy! Nor should we imagine that ours is the first generation that knew pushback from the culture in which we are immersed. Jeremiah knew something of resistance from his own society, and the resistance was brutal.
Each of us has likely had the unenviable experience of some dear soul blustering, “I’m as good a Christian as you!” All the while they are living without any evidence of respect for the Lord God. They have no love for the Faith. They are unconcerned about honouring God or seeking to know His will. They mock us when we speak of the things of God or speak of our love for the Saviour. “How dare you judge me?” they challenge us if we even knit our brow at their actions. At such times, we feel much as did Jeremiah.
“God,” the Prophet complained, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why is it that those who are treacherous and dishonourable can thrive? It’s seems that You bless them; and here I am! I’m trying to do right, and nothing good seems to come from my effort. Nothing I do to honour You seems to work out! What is it with you, God?”
When considering the immorality of politicians, it is difficult to conclude that they are good. It almost seems as if the worst type of people become political leaders. Doesn’t it seem that we read an inordinate number of news stories detailing the corruption of our politicians? It is difficult not to draw the conclusion that those who are elected to higher office go into the political realm to enrich themselves or to abuse others. And they seem never to be deterred from the evil that they perpetuate. Some are not only grossly immoral, but they introduce immoral legislation into the civil code of our nation. It would be easy to conclude that God blesses evil. We feel like Asaph, who wrote,
“Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
“For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
And they say, ‘How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?’
Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
If I had said, ‘I will speak thus,’
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
“But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.”
[PSALM 73:1-17]
The conscientious follower of Christ witnesses the destruction of youth in this day, and it is almost impossible for those who long for righteousness not to despair as we watch young men and young women in our nation destroyed through indoctrination that turns them away from what is good and what is noble. Doesn’t it seem as if we see teachers who are more easily recognised as indoctrinators than as teachers, men and women with more concern to ensure an outcome in the impressionable youth that are seated before them than to ensure they are equipped to think? It is impossible for good people not to feel as if the world is crashing down around us when we see such concerted efforts to change our world into something that we could never have imagined.
It is impossible for reasonable people to justify the male teacher with a beard who wears a dress to class and applies lipstick, adorning the walls of his classroom with posters advocating deviant lifestyles in anticipation that he will have opportunity to “discuss” matters with students. One must ask why the rights of parents to know that their children are instructed in subjects that will equip them for a productive life in our nation are subjugated to the right of a teacher to parade and promote his/her abnormality to the students. At what point did school boards surrender responsibility to demand accountability of those who instruct the children in our modern educational system?
We read distressing reports of “educators” who are more intent on grooming children than they are on educating them in the basics of reading, writing, and mathematics. I’m not condemning all teachers, but it does seem as if the good teachers are silenced even though they are witnessing the evil that insinuates itself into the classroom. Many people today are watching a transformation take place in our world that is incomprehensible, and most feel helpless to stop what is taking place as though there is nothing they can do about what is happening.
The Lord God saw what would take place, and He warned His people in the Word when the Apostle wrote, “Since [people] did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” [ROMANS 1:28]. I understand that the popular argument today is that we must not point out the deviancy. We are to simply send our children into this miasma as though they are mere fodder for the dissolution of society. However, we cannot ignore that ours is a society that has forgotten God. And when we have forgotten God, God gives us over to a depraved mind. We are no longer able to think rationally.
Worse still is the fact that our depraved, debased minds lead us as a culture to move inexorably toward utter destruction. The Apostle notes that when God surrenders a society to a mind that is debased or depraved, that society moves steadily toward chaos. Paul continued as he wrote in the opening verses of that Letter to the Christians in Rome, “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless” [ROMANS 1:29-31].
The saddest part of what the Apostle wrote is revealed in the final verse of that chapter. Paul wrote, “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” [ROMANS 1:32]. Not only does a society surrendered to their own desires descend into ruin, they applaud those who are ruining their very culture!
Modern schools are turning out a generation of young men and young women trained to agitate for socialism while rejecting capitalism as evil. The training begins in preschool and intensifies as students progress through the system, culminating in many of those students being thoroughly indoctrinated during university. At the same time these children are being trained to reject the society into which they were born they clamour to receive all the material benefits created by that capitalist society.
Like lemmings rushing toward a steep cliff from which they will fall to their death on the rocks below, the youth of our nation blindly follow the twisted, demented leaders who have indoctrinated them. Their mad race toward the inevitable downward plunge to destruction gives the appearance for all the world that these benighted children have been living in Hamelin and have been beguiled to dance madly as they follow the piper who pipes a mesmerising tune.
How is it that only in this day have we at last witnessed such an astonishingly high percentage of our youth suddenly decide that they were born in the wrong body? It is increasingly evident that they arrived at this thought through the process of indoctrination provided courtesy of the educational system. Did any nation ever witness such a destruction of self-identification as we are witnessing in our children in this day? How is it that school boards have suddenly decided that they have little control over what is taught though they rush to exercise control over what parents are allowed to know concerning the curricula presented to their children? Has any society ever witnessed such a strange condition imposed on it in hope that the novel condition will lead to peace and stability? When did natural law change so that parents are no longer responsible for what their children learn? Is there something in the water than alters biology in this day? Who dictated that children can determine their own destiny, even to the point of demanding permanent damage to their physical and emotional beings, and that parents have no right to mould their children to become productive citizens?
Christians would be well advised to plan to teach our children at home rather than entrusting them to indoctrinators without moral foundations rooted in the Faith of Christ. I am well aware that such action will necessarily impose hardship on families. A significant proportion of teachers for our children today are obviously intent on imposing an agenda that leads to a new morality that is not really new at all. The indoctrination that is imposed on youth passing through the educational system is rather the old wickedness dressed up in moral garb. Public school teachers, and even many teachers in private schools, are focused on ensuring that the buzzwords “diversity,” “inclusion,” and “equity” replace the concepts of right and wrong. And the consequences of our surrender to the rot that now saps the strength of the culture contaminates every aspect of our being. Our culture is dying, and our society poisons every facet of life for those of us living in it.
Rather than permitting imposition of the latest fads and trends on those who are seeking to learn, wouldn’t you think that it is about time that students were again taught what matters most—honour, integrity, personal accountability for one’s own choices, and the ability to think? No wonder the righteous are distressed. Many in this day know what is right, just as they know what is necessary, and yet most of us cower as though the problem belongs to someone else. We appear to hope that if we are silent, someone else will assume responsibility to stand against the tide. Therefore, many will murmur and quietly plead with God, though they will never take action themselves. I trust this does not include any to whom I am speaking in this hour.
GOD’S RESPONSE TO THE DISTRESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS —
“‘If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,
how will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you are so trusting,
what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?’”
[JEREMIAH 12:5]
In contemporary parlance, the LORD is telling the complaining prophet, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” It is now more than fifty years since a Baptist preacher from Mississippi delivered a sermon entitled, “If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?” Estes Pirkle preached this message at Camp Zion in Myrtle, Mississippi. This message was printed and distributed widely among Christians holding to a fundamentalist faith. I was deeply influenced by the message that Brother Pirkle delivered. In this message, which was later made into a film, Brother Pirkle warned against Communism which he argued was then infiltrating the United States and influencing a generation to surrender basic biblical tenets in favour of a socialist view of governance. Tragically for us, the film was at least fifty years too soon. You see, though the message was largely ignored and even ridiculed by the vast majority of preachers at that time, his warning has proven prophetic.
Admittedly, we live in disturbing days. The stability that once marked our society has evaporated, and our culture has become a bubbling cauldron of agitation and turmoil. Doesn’t it feel as if our world is a great pressure cooker that is about to explode, spewing the gemish that is bubbling inside to cover everything and everyone? We live in the midst of a populace that is effectively ignorant of history, even recent history. Thus, those only now arriving on the scene are intent on embracing George Santayana’s maxim, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” [2] People are driven more by memes and catchy mottos than they are by reason. And assuredly, people, especially those who govern and who should know better, are ignorant of the Word of God. Therefore, because they know nothing of the freedom in which we are created to exist, they constantly fulfil the words of the Apostle when he describes them as people “burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” [2 TIMOTHY 3:6b-7].
I don’t know a decent man or women, Christian or not, who is not disturbed, even distressed, by events that are reported on a daily basis. A major arms dealer is traded for a prisoner in Russia. And the primary justification that prisoner in Russia was chosen for freedom was melanin and lifestyle choice. A Marine was left behind, seemingly because he voted for the wrong candidate in national elections, plus he was melanin-deficient and his lifestyle was not one of the protected lifestyles. It is difficult not to be irate at this act.
A major medical association openly espouses the strange position that children should not receive a tattoo without parental agreement; yet those same children can receive puberty blockers without parental knowledge. Truly, the world has gone insane. Is it possible to hear such unjust, irrational positions without being angered?
If history is any indication, the nations of the west, and more particularly for us today, the United States and Canada, have started down a path that can only lead to moral disaster and societal dissolution. I suspect that I am on solid ground when I say, “We ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” I seriously doubt that we have witnessed the nadir of our moral collapse as a society. I suppose I could take the view that it won’t make much difference to me since I am an old man and I don’t have much time left on this earth. However, I am a father and a grandfather, and I must be deeply concerned for what my children and my grandchildren will face. Moreover, events appear to be moving at a pace that outstrips any speed I could imagine.
Recently, a Canadian armed forces veteran suffering from PTSD and a traumatic brain injury approached Veterans Affairs Canada seeking help to install a wheelchair lift. Instead of assisting her with the lift, the government functionary suggested that she might prefer help in dying. Christine Gauthier, a fifty-two-year-old retired corporal testified, “I have a letter saying that if you’re so desperate, madam, we can offer you MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying). Veteran Affairs Canada clearly thought that it was better to offer euthanasia than it was to address the problem in a way that would allow this veteran to cope with life. [3]
Canadian fashion company La Maison Simons recently released an ad promoting the “beauty” in voluntary euthanasia. The ad was intended to “help people to reconnect to each other and to this hope and optimism,” which “is going to be needed if we’re going to build the sort of communities and spaces where we want to live and that are enjoyable to live in.” The ad campaign ended just as the company was entering their annual holiday sprint. [4]
Soon after the Constitution of the United States had been adopted, President John Adams wrote, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” [5]
Alexander Hamilton, upon leaving government some eight years after the Constitution of the United States was ratified, made an ominous declaration: “Ah, this is the constitution.… Now mark my words! So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instrument will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness. But when we become old and corrupt, it will bind us no longer.” [6]
IF THE LORD DELAYS HIS RETURN — What can we expect if the Lord delays His return? To borrow the words spoken by Amos, I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. My record of prognostication is likely no better than yours. However, there are some truths that are apparent from years of study of Scripture and through observing the paths of those leading contemporary society.
Every society moves through cycles. Tough people determine that they will reflect righteous, moral attitudes. With the passage of time, the society grows stronger, the citizens holding firmly to sound moral standards. Following generations that did not have to struggle, grow to accept that it is their right to enjoy the ease of life that the struggle of prior generations won through their hard labours. As ease of life begins to erode spiritual and moral strength, the citizens increasingly turn inward. As decay sets in for that society, society begins to yield on the margins as the society gives way to other, more vigorous societies. Ultimately, focused inward and seeking their own ease, the cohesive nature that once held that society together is disintegrated and ruin sets in.
Our grandparents were made of sterner stuff than many who push themselves forward as leaders in this day. The generation of leaders that guided our nations during the middle of the past century had weathered the Great Depression and the Second World War. They had known the terror that accompanied the threatened loss of freedoms, both economic freedom and political freedom. Though faced with violent and vicious regimes determined to enslave the world, that generation was determined to establish justice for the world which then existed.
As was true for many of you, I grew into my adult years with a measure of responsibility that is not always witnessed among youth today. Quite candidly, I look upon the state of national affairs both in Canada and in the United States with genuine horror at what I am witnessing of national character. A Scottish historian wrote, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
• From Bondage to Spiritual Faith;
• From Spiritual Faith to Great Courage;
• From Courage to Liberty;
• From Liberty to Abundance;
• From Abundance to Complacency;
• From Complacency to Apathy;
• From Apathy to Dependence;
• and From Dependence back into Bondage.” [7]
What is striking about that quote is that it was written in 1787, almost two hundred fifty years ago! This quote affords me opportunity to establish a truth that is ignored, if it is even known by most people in our world today. The men who founded the United States of America did not establish a democracy—they created a republic! However, the country has moved steadily away from the founding principles to devolve into the democracy we witness today. Likewise, Canada was never intended to be a democracy—it was established as a confederation. Both the United States and Canada have become democracies, with all the debilitating deficiencies of a democracy.
One significant truth that arises from Sir Alexander’s thoughts is that democracies do not last long. They only last until they destroy themselves through careless and reckless policy. Politicians use the public treasury, not for the nation’s welfare, but to secure their positions by cajoling voters with their own money, thus gradually sinking a nation into a bottomless economic morass that is ultimately cataclysmic. The people panic and turn to a dictator. Such a process is, indeed, not unknown in history. And we may well be moving rapidly toward just such a position as the newer members of the voting public clamour for a socialistic government in which little is required of them though much is promised to them.
Increasingly, those who oversee the nations are more concerned with seizing power than they are with governing righteously. The governments of both the United States and Canada are populated by people of little character who are unqualified to rule. These politicians care nothing for what is best for the nation; their sole concern is seizing power and remaining in power. Righteousness and godliness are of no concern. Though they are quick to quote a Bible verse (usually out of context), they are not inclined to be concerned about honouring the God Who has given us that Word. They promote wickedness and discourage godliness. They exalt indolence and disparage industry. They punish thrift and promote dependence. The tragedy of this state of affairs is that ultimately the God Who gives us freedom will ensure that we are plunged into bondage.
If Tytler was correct, and history would attest to the accuracy of his observation, then the United States is living on borrowed time. When the United States falls, and without divine intervention the nation must fall, then Canada will continue only through surrender of her own standing to other, less honourable nations. And all this is the inevitable result of our having forgotten God.
Undoubtedly, the position I have presented will be offensive to a category of citizens. Those who value what they can receive more than what they can give will be deeply offended. I am old enough to recall the words a President of the United States spoke: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” [8] Tragically, that concept has become trite, blasé, unappetizing for far too many in our world today. Others who will no doubt be offended are professing Christians that are more attuned to misplaced nationalism than to godliness. Like Pashhur who stood in opposition to Jeremiah [see JEREMIAH 20:1 ff.], like Shephatiah, Gedaliah, and Jucal who were offended because Jeremiah warned the nation of the inevitable consequence of sinning against the Living God [see JEREMIAH 37:11 ff.], so there are professing Christians and church leaders who claim to love their country more than they love the Kingdom of God and the Lord Who reigns over that Kingdom.
My concern is that those who hear my voice determine that they will serve the Risen Saviour. This will mean they must stand against wickedness, refusing to approve of that which dishonours the Lord. This will require that they seek righteousness and boldly do what God has appointed His own to do, to be what He calls us to be.
It is impossible to understand the Word of God without the guidance of His Spirit instructing us. It is impossible for His Spirit to work in us if we have never known the Lord God. And it is impossible to know God if we attempt to come to Him without coming through His Son. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” [JOHN 14:6]. I call on each one who hears my words this day to receive the gift of life offered in Christ Jesus as Lord. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Cited from George Santayana, The Life of Reason or, The Phases of Human Progress (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York 1905); the phrase is more popularly recognised as, “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.”
[3] Anders Hagstrom, “Canada offered assisted suicide to a Paralympian veteran who wanted a wheelchair life installed: report,” Fox News, December 4, 2022, Canada offered assisted suicide to a Paralympian veteran who wanted a wheelchair lift installed: report | Fox News, accessed 9 December 2022; Murray Brewster, “Former Paralympian tells MPs veterans department offered her assisted death,” CBC, Dec 01, 2022, Former paralympian tells MPs veterans department offered her assisted death | CBC News, accessed 9 December 2022; Cf. Michael Lee, “Canadian soldier with PTSD ‘outraged’ when VA suggested euthanasia,” August 22, 2022, Canadian soldier with PTSD ‘outraged’ when VA suggested euthanasia (nypost.com), accessed 9 December 2022
[4] Hagstrom, op. cit.
[5] President John Adams, letter to the officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, October 11, 1798
[6] Cited in, Jonathan W. Pidluzny and Murray S. Y. Bessette, “Avarice and Ambition in America: The Founders’ Debate on the Political Place of the Selfish Passions in the Constitutional Order of the United States,” Journal of Markets & Morality (Spring and Fall) 22, no. 1, 2019, pg. 134
[7] Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler, quoted in William j. Federer, Great Quotation: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Quotations influencing Early and Modern World History Referenced according to Their Sources in Literature, memoirs, Letters, Governmental Documents, Speeches, Charters, Court Decisions and Constitutions (AmeriSearch, St. Louis, MO 2001)
[8] John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961
