Cruelty

Jeremiah 6:22, “Thus says Yahweh: Behold a people comes from the north country, and a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth. They will lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel and have no mercy…”

I think of Biblical images of cruelty when I think of conflicts across the world; cruelty that shocks many, cruelty that propagates fear, cruelty that produces paralysis. Is there so much cruelty and violence in our own entertainment and manner of life, is there such a degree of callousness, that we no longer possess the collective will to respond when cruelty is perpetrated on others…whether at home or abroad?

We speak of “national interest”, but if the defense of the defenseless is not in our moral and ethical national interest then what is? To acquiesce in evil is moral suicide.

Disable a ship’s rudder and it is at the mercy of the ocean’s currents; destroy a nation’s morality and it is at the mercy of current events. We have no strategy, we have no vision, for we have no morals, no character, no virtue. We cannot resist cruelty for we have no foundation for courage.

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some…[will have] their own conscience seared with a hot iron,” 1 Timothy 4. While the context of this verse is “departing from the faith”, if those associated with faith fall away and have such consciences, what about the rest of society? And as Peter writes in his first letter, if judgment begins with the house of God, what of those who reject the Gospel?

Cruelty is frightening when it ceases to stir courage. A nation without a moral backbone can no longer stand up straight.