How committed are you to the universal goodness of man, that we are all working toward the same best for mankind? Several times over the last couple centuries, movements have sprung up based in the belief that we are all in this together, that we all have the same destination, that we are all in the same journey and we are one. In 1971, Coca-Cola joined with the original writers of the pop song ‘True Love and Apple Pie’ (better known as ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing in Perfect Harmony’) to create the ad campaign ‘Buy the World a Coke’. The idea was that if we could all have a Coke together, world unity could prevail. While Coke sales increased, world unity is still elusive 50-plus years later.
Unity is often promoted as a goal of civilization: at the time of the construction of the Tower of Babel the world was of one language and this civilization had a singular goal of building a tower with its top in the heavens 1 and there would be nothing they couldn’t do. When the Israelites were encamped at Paran and sent spies into Canaan, the report came back that it was a good land, fruitful, prosperous, desirable and yet because of the Canaanites who lived there they voted in unity to return to Egypt 2 until God intervened. During the last captivity in the time of Jeremiah, with the prophetic promise of God providing if they would submit to captivity, the remaining elite were unified in trying to escape back to Egypt. It is with this unity mindset of the Judah remnant that today’s passage is given:
All the prophets prophesy falsely, all the priests rule their ways AND ‘my people love to have it so’ certainly rings of unity. Sadly, those who stood with God were a very small remnant. Jeremiah stood with God but Unity was against him. But, the Lᴏʀᴅ remained with him.
God’s final question to the Jews was, “What will you do when the end comes?” Unfortunately, the account is that many fled where God said not to go, others died trying to flee, a few went into captivity and the poorest of the nation were left to occupy the land by the Babylonians. Those who had the ability to choose, in Unity, chose unwisely. Let us keep our eyes and hearts fixed in the Lᴏʀᴅ.