Goodness week3

  “Run up and down every street in Jerusalem,” says the LORD.

“Look high and low; search throughout the city!

If you can find even one just and honest person,

I will not destroy the city.

But even when they are under oath,

saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’

they are still telling lies!”

Jeremiah 5:1-2

Jeremiah's test of national morality is accomplished by his jogging through the capital and giving polygraph tests to all the people. The nation fails. Honesty is not found in the city.

Personal interests and ambitious career goals have wiped out all social compassion.

We who have served Christ during the closing years of the twentieth century have witnessed the demise of personal character in many of our political figures. Two of the last five American presidents have faced impeachment trials. The sludge artists of election engineering have forced candidates to resign before and during public elections. Other lawmakers have been forced by public scandal to resign before their terms of office were completed. It is not surprising that Jeremiah's jog through Jerusalem found no men or women of character. The question that matters most to us is, ‘What would the prophet discover if he were to jog through our own cities with a polygraph machine?’

During a recent political scandal, lawmakers rated perjury but not immorality as an impeachable offense. In the search for national morality, the character of many other lawmakers was called into question as well. Integrity seemed in short supply.

We can understand Jeremiah's quest for an honest person, for we, too, live in dishonest times. But Jeremiah stayed true to God and committed to doing right. We can look to Him for our own encouragement. We can be faithful to God's purposes for us even when others are doing evil.