There are some real problems with reading through the entire Bible: one of them is named Jeremiah. Jeremiah is a really angry guy.
Jeremiah spends about twenty-five chapters describing the destruction that is about to arrive. (This destruction thing has me a little worried since in 2012 politicians on both sides are also screaming “The end is near … unless you vote for me.) In Jeremiah’s time, God was sending destruction against his own faithless people. Jeremiah is pretty obsessed with Israel’s unfaithfulness. At one point, Jeremiah compares God’s faithless people to a wild she-donkey in heat, running around the desert looking for any male to mate with. Not pleasant reading.
Fortunately, this doesn’t apply to me. I don’t, as Jeremiah 25:6 accuses, follow other gods to serve and worship them. I have never prayed to a statue, never sung a song to a statue. That is what an idol is, isn’t it?
Unfortunately, the nature of an idol becomes clearer the longer I think about the second half of verse 6: “do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made.” While I don’t carve wooden statues and cover them with gold, I do make stuff with my hands (money) and I put it in the bank. I’m pretty sure I don’t worship money.
Of course, I have sometimes wished for a better life. If I work a little harder and make a little more money, I hope to myself, then everything will be better, right? How many times have I gotten worried about how I am going to cope with this crisis or that? It isn’t what I want to spend money on, but at least I have the security of a savings account.
I’m not guilty of singing praise songs to money, but I certainly “trust” money and seek “money” and “hope” in money in ways that are, as Jeremiah would point out, idolatrous. Faithless Israel; faithless me.
Jeremiah is an angry prophet, but also a hopeful one. He relays God’s promise, the one so many parents and grandparents have quoted so often, “For I know that plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you and hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” (29:11-12). Even when we are unfaithful, God's purpose is to renew relationship with us.
you know, this is an interesting issue to think about. The times-- the way people made money and spent money-- were so different. It's easy to use that as an excuse to ignore the Bible's teaching about money. But it's so clear. Putting your faith in materialism is a trap. Thanks for the reminder. (this post went up while we were out of town and I just found it today!)
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