“‘WEEP FOR
THE NATION”
By Jim
Jordal
“There is none to guide her among all the
sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand
among all the sons who she has brought up” Isa. 51:18 WEB
As I write
this the TV is blaring about the latest outbreak of terrorism, with 59 people
(at last count) killed and over 500 injured. The people shot were closely
packed at a Las Vegas concert as the single gunman using fully automatic
military weapons sprayed them with death from his perch high above the crowd.
He didn’t even need to aim, but just shoot and kill as many as possible. He
almost literally couldn’t miss!
It’s really
no surprise as these things keep happening. President Trump responded with
sympathy and condolences to families, but what can he do as events that boggle
the mind keep us in a continual political and social minefield. Some want to
limit the purchase of so-called military-grade weapons, but they are opposed by
the gun lobby and the cries of 2nd Amendment rights advocates to
bear arms. Others say more guns in public hands would lessen the problem
because criminals would be more reluctant to attempt massacres against a
fully-armed public. Others want to take action against gun manufacturers
themselves, even though many legislators are beholden to gun manufacturers for
large campaign contributions. So what to do?
What the
nation lacks was bemoaned centuries ago by the prophet Isaiah as he sadly
proclaimed the awful fact that when faced with serious trouble (captivity under
Assyrian domination) his nation had “none to guide her” or to “take her by the
hand among all the sons she has brought up.” What a tragedy, with thousands of
vital young people, trained servants of God, and trusted military and political
leaders, the desperate nation could find no leadership and nobody to
figuratively take her by the hand of love and guidance.
And so we
are today in America. What minimal leadership we do have seems more interested
in warding off symptoms rather than fighting against causes. Because of the
strangling grasp of the world system of corporate dominance over all forms of
life, we find it virtually impossible to hold off the symptoms of this
domination. The symptoms we view every day: abject poverty, endemic violence,
struggling families, drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness, and the
widespread, threatening feeling of what French sociologist Emile Durkheim
termed “anomie,” or a general feeling of purposelessness.
Where is our
leadership when we most need it? Probably spending most office time in
contacting financial donors, or scooting around the earth on fact-finding
missions, or perhaps just refusing to run for another term in the hopeless
battle for victory and the right to make even a small difference.
Somewhere
along the line we as supposedly educated, intelligent people need to learn the
difference between symptoms and causes. The symptoms we suffer with every day:
the causes we can’t usually even identify because they are so well hidden by
what I might call the practitioners of national destruction.
Yes, it’s
time to weep for the nation as we slide into a world bleeding from as many
social, political, and economic causes as you can count. But the biggest
overriding cause is the age-old problem that humans, including leaders of every
sort, think they are freed from the necessity of following the voice of God
rather than the squeaking of men.
Earlier in
the 51st chapter, Isaiah promises full deliverance for the people “in
whose heart is my law” from the fear of what men can do to them: “ Listen to me, you who know
righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; don't you fear the reproach
of men, neither be you dismayed at their insults. For the moth shall eat
them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness
shall be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”
There’s the
answer to the angst of America: Allow God’s law into your hearts, along with
his already present grace. Then weeping for the land will a benefit and will
result in needed changes in the causes of our trouble.
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