There’s Nothing New About “Cancel Culture”

“The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.”  Jeremiah 1:1-2

The Bible is the greatest and the only book that God ever wrote.  It is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago regardless of what people say today.  All of these folks who declare the Bible is out of date probably have never read the Bible with any desire to know the truth.  There was an article written a few years ago on line in which the subject of the writer was about folks who hate God’s word.  He quoted Mark Twain, who said, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”  I think that’s where a majority of people are today.  In the pages of scripture one can find illustrations that emulate conditions going on in our day.  The people of the Bible were just like us, sinners, yes, but also families rearing children, men seeking to provide for their loved ones, women teaching their children and some working outside the home to help provide for the needs of the family, and some were actually trying to serve the living God.  But even back then, those who honored God by trying to live righteously and obediently were ridiculed, mocked, and persecuted.  Does that sound familiar in today’s culture?

Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because he also wrote the book of Lamentations, a set of five poems lamenting, hence the name “Lamentations”, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, and also because of his sorrow over the sins of the people of the southern kingdom of Judah.  The northern kingdom of Israel (Israel was divided after Solomon’s death) had suffered defeat and captivity by the Assyrians about 95 or so years before the beginning of Jeremiah’s prophecy.  As a prophet, he could see that the same destruction would eventually come upon his beloved land of Judah.  He was not afraid to be bold in his warnings to his fellow Jews for them to abandon their sin of idolatry and return to the LORD.  I suppose he felt like John the Baptist felt some 600 plus years later as the prophet Isaiah foretold of Christ’s forerunner as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3).

At the time of Jeremiah’s tenure as prophet, there were three ruling powers who were vying for world domination–Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon.  No one liked Jeremiah.  I guess one could say that he was equally hated by all.  The Jews were against him because of his consistent preaching against their idolatry.  The Assyrians hated him because he foretold of the triumph of Babylon over the known world at that time.  The Egyptians hated him because he portrayed them as a weak power unable to be a strong alliance for Judah.  Thus, “cancel culture” is nothing new to our day.  Most of Jeremiah’s prophecies could be classified as “doom and gloom” except for the promise of restoration of Israel at some future date and the promise of the coming of the Messiah, God’s gift of the Savior to save men and women from their sins.

Matthew Henry in his commentary wrote, “We cannot but be concerned, in the reading of Jeremiah’s prophecies, to find that they were so little regarded by the men of that generation; but let us make use of that as a reason why we should regard them the more; for they are written for our learning too, and for warning to us and our land.”  This statement was written over 300 years ago as a commentary on the condition of the hearts of people over 2,600 years ago, the condition of those in Mr. Henry’s day, and is also directed to us in our day.  Godly men and women are warning the nations of the world that judgment is coming, but few are listening.  God’s people are crying out the truth, but they are mocked, slandered, persecuted, and cancelled.  As far as attitudes toward pride, sin, and idolatry are concerned, nothing has changed except that sin has only grown exponentially in amount, depravity, and perversion.

The Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 10:11-12 that the history of Israel as recorded in the pages of the Old Testament, including the sins and idolatry of the people along with God’s judgment and punishment, were “written for our admonition”, that is, for a warning to us “upon whom the ends of the world are come.  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall”.  Scripture is replete with warnings of God’s judgments upon sinful people, yet many do not even read the Word.  However, as the saying goes, “ignorance is no excuse”.  No one will be able to stand before God and claim innocence on their own accord.  The only One who was ever innocent was and is Jesus Christ.  It is only through His sinless sacrifice that sin’s guilt can be acquitted.