The Effects of a Godless Nation

Want to know what a godless nation looks like? Consider the description in Jeremiah 9. Most importantly, consider who suffers in a godless nation. The people lose community, trust and peace. 

Jeremiah 9:3 (ESV) They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the LORD.

They lie to each other when God is not their Lord. They grow from evil to evil and get worse. Can we not see the same thing happening today?

Jeremiah 9:4 (ESV) Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

Jeremiah 9:5 (ESV) Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity.

Jeremiah 9:8 (ESV) Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.

Notice the repeated mention of deceit in their mouths. That's what sin does, it causes us to lie to one another. When this happens communities lose a sense of interdependence. People cannot rely on one another. They slander each other and cause everyone to consider other people as a threat or danger. What a tragedy of a godless nation.

We could say the same about our generation. Social media has taught us to distrust one another. No one would talk the way they do in the presence of the person, but the disconnected social connection makes keyboard warriors of us all and our target is those with whom we should share common life. No wonder one of the main attributes of our world is loneliness. When you trust no one, you know no one. 

For Israel, there is hope through the pain of exile God will bring. 

Jeremiah 9:7 (ESV) Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people?

What is the point of them losing their community and identity as a nation in exile? To purge (refine) them from their evil habits. Sometimes we only want good from God. But the pain is where the progress lives. 

That's where we observe the negative behaviors responsible for our condition being eliminated.

Later in the chapter, Jeremiah picks up a theme of this book. He draws our attention to the core of the problem. The human heart!

Jeremiah 9:12–14 (ESV) Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? 13 And the LORD says: “Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, 14 but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.

It is another aspect of Israel's condition that we share. Our culture is obsessed with "following one's heart" no matter how much negative reality it seems to bring. Other terms such as "being true to yourself" blind our eyes to the true intention of human life - whole community in the presence of a Holy God. 

Without Him, we suffer. With Him, we flourish.