I remember the devotion of your youth. How you sought me with truthful worship. I sustained you through the harsh winters, brought forth crops on rocky soil, placed my hand of protection on you. In my wisdom, I made you a leader among nations, mighty and powerful, like no other nation before you. Your enemies trembled. The combined forces of the world could not stand against you.
Yet you became arrogant. ‘By the strength of my own hand I have become powerful,’ you said. ‘My knowledge and wisdom have made me great. I have no more need for the God who brought me to these shores.’ Like a wild horse, you ran around the countryside with your head held high, snorting into the wind and proclaiming your majesty for the world to see.
Therefore, your thinking became futile; your foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, you became fools, exchanging the glory of the one true God for images made of gold and silver. I gave you a beautiful land to share, but you took and lusted for more. Wealth became your god. You prostrated yourself before it. You swore oaths by your riches, by the works of your hands, and did what was right in your own eyes.
I brought you into this fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled the land and made it detestable. Even when I brought disaster on the land, you did not repent but clung more tightly to your idols. As the diseases wasted your body, you cried out for more sin. Instead of turning to me, admitting your error, and calling for the mercy which I would surely have given, you cursed me for allowing you to have what you wanted and for not allowing more.
Therefore, I let you do what you wanted. I gave you over to the sinful desires of your heart, to the sexual impurity that burned within. You degraded yourselves with one another, fulfilling every perverted fantasy your mind could imagine. You gave up the truth of the creator for the lie, and your bodies received their reward.
When the wife of your youth no longer satisfied you, you turned to your neighbor’s wife. When your cravings were still not satisfied, you lusted after your mother-in-law and your sister and your brother and the children playing in the streets. It’s not evil, you said. It’s love. How can anyone call love evil? you said.
So I gave you over to your shameful lusts. Men burned for other men. Women lay with women. The unnatural became commonplace. That which I call an abomination you called love. You tolerated then accepted then encouraged then commanded. You despised the people who remained faithful to me. You persecuted them, slandered them, and murdered them. Yet you were not worthy to wipe the dust off their feet.
The delusion you so desired has fallen over you. Every lie you could think of has become truth. I allowed you to spiral into madness; I have set mad rulers over you because you have desired it.
You pretended to be a woman; your wife pretended to be a man. In your delusion, you repeated terms whispered into your ears by the demons who seek to destroy you. You feared the weather and the earth but not the God who controls the weather and made the earth. I allowed the rich to rule over you; the rich whose only desire is to become richer. They tickled your ears with lies, and you loved the lies. They enslaved you with fear and anger because you wouldn’t fear me. Even as they took your money and your freedom and your life and your soul, you failed to acknowledge me. Instead, you worshiped nature and demons. You practiced witchcraft and all types of sorcery. Drugs clouded your mind and the delusion grew stronger. You are hateful, perverse, wicked, filled with envy, strife, murder, and every type of depravity. You are arrogant, boastful, outdoing each other as you invent evil. You have no love, no mercy. Even though you know God’s righteous decree that those who do it deserve death, you persist in it, calling evil good and good evil.
In your depravity, you made your children walk through the fire and tore them limb from limb. You called this good; you invoked my name as you did it, yet I did not tell you to do it nor did the thought enter my mind. You sacrificed them to the false gods of this world in the deluded notion that it would save your life but blind to the fact that you would lose it. Because of this, I will make you walk through the fire. I will tear your limbs from their sockets and feed them to the wild beasts of the forests and plains. Eagles and vultures will gather overhead and lust after your blood, calling their friends to join in the feast.
Who can understand? Even after I destroyed your sister to the north, you still didn’t listen or learn. Your sin is worse than theirs. The faithless north is more righteous than you in your unfaithfulness. Therefore, I bring charges against you. And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the Lord? Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is to forsake the one true God.
Yet, in all this, I will preserve a remnant; a remnant that seeks me in truth and faithfulness. If only you would turn, I would heal you also.
Go to Josiah and tell him of the vision I will show you. Go now and bring him my words.
A line of cars passed by the main gate. Windows rolled down and badges exited. He waited for the guard to send the last car through.
“I don’t see your name here.” The guard flipped the sheet on his clipboard. “Or on this page. What was your name again?”
“Jeremiah.”
The guard ran his finger over each name. “I’m afraid you’re not on the guest list, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave the premises.” He spoke with as much kindness as a man in his position deemed necessary.
“I need to see President Josiah. I must insist.”
The guard’s body tensed and his hand slipped towards the holster on his right hip. “Sir, I’m going to ask you one more time to please leave.”
“I can’t. Tell President Josiah it is urgent.”
“Corporal!”
A young man with a crisp blue uniform, a black-brimmed hat, and a finger resting near the trigger of his rifle exited the guard shack.
“Escort this man off the premises. If he decides not to obey, put two bullets through his chest.”
“Yes, sergeant.”
The corporal approached Jeremiah. “Sir,” was all he said. The barrel of his rifle did the rest of the talking.
The phone in the guard shack rang. The sergeant entered to pick it up.
“Corporal!”
The corporal and Jeremiah halted at the same time.
“Bring our visitor back.”
Jeremiah’s hands grew damp with the forming sweat. The rifle pointed at his back and prodded him forward. A few steps and he stood in front of the sergeant.
“My apologies, sir. We don’t get much foot traffic. Your name is on the guest list. Do you know the way?”
“I’ve never been here before.”
The sergeant dialed, spoke a few words, and hung up. “Someone will be here in a minute. Corporal, when you are relieved, take the visitor to main security and then report to the lieutenant.”
“Yes, sergeant.”
A minute later, Jeremiah headed down the long, black asphalt bordered by fields of bright green. His fingers twirled the visitor badge that hung across his neck. Rehearsed words played through his mind. A robin, clearly uninterested in security protocol, pecked at something in the grass.
“Thank you, corporal,” Jeremiah said, finding nothing else to say.
“Corporal Ebed,” he replied. “Mel when I’m not in uniform.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Not sir, sir,” Mel replied. “Just corporal.”
“Then, please stop calling me sir also,” Jeremiah said. His shoes pattered softly on the pavement.
“It’s our duty. Besides, I know who you are. That is, I’ve heard of you. It’s an honor to meet you, by the way. And I’m sorry about the threatening to shoot you. I would have, if I needed to. Shot you, that is. Maybe.” He shook his head. “Please don’t put me in that situation again.”
“How do you know of me?”
“You’re Hilkiah’s son,” Mel offered as explanation.
“He told you about me?”
“Not exactly.” The security entrance approached, and Mel stopped short. He turned to face Jeremiah. “Can you do me a favor?” He waited for Jeremiah to answer.
“I suppose. What’s the favor?”
“Can you pray for me?”
Of all the things Jeremiah had imagined him asking, that was below the last on the list.
“Sure. About what?”
“They’re sending me to the front. I leave at the end of the week.”
“I can pray for safety,” Jeremiah said.
“Not for safety. That I will fight well.” He hesitated. “That I will glorify God and not kill in anger.”
Jeremiah kept his surprise to himself. “I can do that. Why me?” he added. “Why do you want me to pray for you.”
“He listens to you.” Corporal Ebed nodded and indicated that Jeremiah should pass through the detector.
Jeremiah carried nothing but the clothes on his back. Ragged, out of place for the occasion. A brief spell of self-consciousness pricked at him but quickly converted to a sense of awe. The security check ended with the minimum of embarrassment. A page, her hair tightened into a bun, walked at a brisk pace down a red, plush carpet. Jeremiah hurried to keep up, his legs unaccustomed to moving so fast.
The staff threw a few brief glances his way. Looks of recognition or potential recognition converted to indifference in an instant. Jeremiah kept his head lowered but not bowed until he reached a set of engraved, wooden doors. The page turned and gave him what passed as a smile.
“President Josiah’s assistant is through there,” she indicated with an extended hand. “I’ll leave you in her care.”
The page swished down the hall as Jeremiah pushed on the doors. A woman who looked as if she might have been a holdover from a previous administration or two greeted him with an arched eyebrow. Her eyes dipped up then down, scanning his body.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“I’m here to see President Josiah.”
“And you are?” The eyebrow lifted again.
“Jeremiah.”
“Ahh. Hilkiah’s son. Go on in. The president is expecting you.”
Another pair of double doors blocked his path. Jeremiah didn’t know whether or not to knock. Deciding that the best protocol was caution, he let his knuckles tap against the frame.
“Just go in,” the assistant said. “I already notified him you were here.”
Jeremiah entered an office which could have easily passed as a museum. Ornate decorations lined the molding. Paintings by Renaissance masters stood guard on the walls. A carpet thicker than his pillow caressed his feet. Seated behind a rosewood desk inlaid with bubinga, President Josiah leaned over a stack of papers.
“Jeremiah!” Josiah sounded genuinely excited. He walked around the desk with his arm extended. His hand swallowed Jeremiah’s. “Good to meet you finally. I’ve been expecting your visit. Thought you would arrive yesterday, though.”
“I don’t understand.” Jeremiah scrunched his face. “How did you … who told you I was going to visit? I didn’t know until last night ….” He let the sentence go unfinished.
Josiah’s expression was even more confused. “I was told two days ago that you’d be giving me a visit.”
“By whom?” Jeremiah took a guess. “By my father? I never mentioned my plans to him. And ….”
Josiah interrupted. “By the Lord. He said you would have a word for me on his behalf.”
Jeremiah placed his hand over his mouth, partly out of confusion, partly to keep the amazement from spilling off his tongue.
“So, do you?” Josiah continued.
“The word I have is for the nations.”
“Please.” Josiah offered him a chair across from his desk.
“If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to remain standing.”
“By all means.”
Jeremiah searched his mind, wondering if the words were still in there. They seemed to jumble and swirl together, a kaleidoscope of phrases and sounds, emotions and details. Not a single coherent statement would form.
Speak.
He opened his mouth.
“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see! Where have you not been ravished? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. Therefore, the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed.”
“Have you not just now called to me, ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth; will he be angry forever, will he be indignant to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could.”
“Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this her treacherous sister did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense.”
“Return faithless ones. I will not look on you in anger for I am merciful. I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree and that you have not obeyed my voice. And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
“Blow the trumpet through the land; cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble, and let us go into the fortified cities!’ Raise a standard toward the nation, flee for safety, stay not, for I bring disaster from the north, and great destruction. A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant. For this, put on sackcloth, lament, and wail, for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned back from us.”
Josiah listened to every word. When Jeremiah finished, the president hands shook as he tried to restrain the rising emotion. Eyes darted around the room, seeing only things which were not in front of him. His lips trembled; his voice stuck in his throat. When nothing else seemed right, he dropped to his knees and cried to God for forgiveness.
“When will this happen?” Josiah asked, returning to his seat tears streaming down his cheeks. “We have sinned against the Lord our God. Is there nothing to be done?”
“If you return to me. If you remove the detestable things from my presence and do not waver. And if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.”
“Then, let us return to him,” Josiah said.
How my heart pounds against my chest.
My soul writhes in agony.
Is there nothing I can do?
Why won’t they listen? How can they be so blind?
The truth lies in front of them, beautiful, glorious,
yet to them it is an open pit.
The truth is a stumbling block, casting down the wise.
They rise again, covered in their own filth and say,
‘See, I am more beautiful than ever.
My wisdom covers me
like righteousness covers the holy mountain of God.
What my eyes lust for is righteousness.
What my heart desires is good.
I have become like God, knowing both good and evil.’
But you confuse the two.
Death is your fortune. Horror is your reward.
Tanks rumble against our cities.
Eagles streak across the skies;
their shrieks pierce our walls.
The fires rage throughout the land.
Their skin melts.
My heart melts within me.