The recent obscene photos scandal is a defamation campaign. It leaves everybody a loser. The celebrities captured in the photographs are losers. The way police handled the situation makes it a loser. The sensational reporting by the media makes them losers. In the future, the Internet users may have their freedom restricted. They may become the ultimate losers ... People living in this technologically advanced society are very vulnerable indeed.
Jesus' enemies also tried to defame him, saying that he drove out demons with the power from the prince of demon, Beelzebul (Luke 11:15). Jesus defended himself with a parable of a divided kingdom. In the end, he concluded
But if it is by the finger of God ( δακτύλῳ θεοῦ ) that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you (Luke 11:20). He was referring to the Holy Spirit.
My God, where is Your finger today? The celebrities are possessed by lust, the police by power, the Internet users voyeurism and the media greed. My God, when will You exorcise them all?
Reading Jeremiah 7 today sent a chill down my spine. The Chosen People had driven God out of their existence. The Temple became for them a placebo. God was not inside (Jeremiah 7:4). God was not inside because there was no God in their hearts, only idols. Their hearts were smothered and they were not able to hear God's voice.
and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer (Jeremiah 7:13).
Are the technological achievements which bring us welcomed comfort real progress? The obscene photo scandal has spoken against it loud and clear! We go backward and not forward.
For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
But this command I gave them, 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.'
But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day;
yet they did not listen to me, or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers (Jeremiah 7:23-26).
And they have built the high place of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind (Jeremiah 7:31). This reminds me of the child pornography victims who are burnt on the altar of the Internet!
The Israelites would not listen because their hearts were occupied by various idols. Their future? Gruesome indeed! Jeremiah seemed to be describing more the 20th century Holocaust than the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century B.C.
Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter: for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere.
And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth; and none will frighten them away.
And I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.
At that time, says the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs;
and they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped; and they shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground.
Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts (Jeremiah 7:32-8:3).
My God, we indulge in idols of different flavours but see not the consequences. The Israelites have suffered a painful lesson. But modern people do not learn from them. Father, You are the God of the living, not of the dead. For the sake of Your holy name, exorcise all the idols in our hearts so that we may truly appreciate Your loving care. Amen.
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