So as not to just use Charles Dickens as our sole source of authority on the subject of goodness, let’s consult an older sage.
In about the year 650 B.C., a societal reporter and commentator named Jeremiah observed some extremely selfish and perverse behavior being practiced by the citizens of his country. Jeremiah was not just a local self-publisher or contributor to his local newspaper or web site. His was a royal appointment and he was to observe, process, evaluate and then report to the King of his country, regarding the thinking and behavior of the society. He then was expected to take those observations and accurately predict or prophesy the future and what would happen inside and outside the kingdom. If he prophesied inaccurately, he would be killed and someone else would take his place that could get it right.
Jeremiah’s duty was to report to King Josiah. Their relationship was an interesting one because Jeremiah was not intimidated or swayed by what King Josiah wanted to hear about the state of his country. Jeremiah was confident that his marching orders really came from divine intuition and a divine calling to simply call the situations as he saw them.
Many of us today wonder just when this present conflict in the Middle East will be resolved and peace established in the old “Fertile Crescent?” In Jeremiah’s time Syria had reached her zenith in power and was declining. Her once superior armies were losing major battles especially to the Chaldeans and Medes led by Nabopolassar the King of Babylon located just south of the present city of Baghdad in the country of Iraq.
I have personally stood within the walls of the ancient city of Babylon and have tried to envision the power that would have emanated from such an epicenter of strength and influence. Later on in history, even Alexander the Great chose Babylon as his command center upon his having conquered the known world of his day.
Babylon sought an alliance with Egypt’s Pharaoh-Necho and during one of the decisive battles Naboplossar was killed and his son Nebuchadnezzar rose up to take his place on the world battlefield. This “Mid-East Crisis” has been going on for a long time.
The people of Josiah’s country were perversely wicked with their fertility cults, sacred prostitutes and practices of human sacrifices. Jeremiah personally confronted the King and painted a regretful picture of what the King and his kingdom had to look forward to should they not change their purpose in life in order to change their destiny and legacy forever.
Then, Jeremiah pulled rank on the King and reminded him that it had been God himself that had given Jeremiah the credentials to speak the truth. It had been God who had said, “I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations . . . thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak . . .Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth . . . ‘Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth’ . . .”
Jeremiah informed the King that he was there to present an opportunity for the King and the people to change their purpose and direction lest the Babylonian armies attack them, destroy their cities and carry them off as slaves to Babylon. But the good news was that if they altered their purpose and direction there was still a chance of escaping such a fate.
Charles Dickens had sent old Marley to Scrooge with an opportunity to rewire his basic priority system of life and get the circuit board of life’s purpose figured out while there was yet time.
It wasn’t old Marley, but it had been God that had sent Jeremiah to the King with the same insight and proposition. And the prescription was pretty much the same, “Stop being so stinking selfish and greedy and start focusing on the attitudes and actions of goodness. Start saturating your life with excellence, virtue, kindness, and friendliness. Develop the qualities of justice, fairness, sympathy, moral courage, concern for others and personal responsibility.
Charles Dickens’ message through the words of old Marley is as meaningful and apropos to us today as it was when written in 1843. The way that Jeremiah delivered his message speaks specifically to our present culture just as much as it did to the culture in 650 B.C. Use your imagination and just listen to Jeremiah deliver his “Thus saith the Lord” directive nearly 2,650 years ago:
“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom,
Or the strong man boast of his strength,
Or the rich man boast of his riches,
But let him who boasts, boast about this:
That he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who
Exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth,
For in these I delight,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24, NIV)
The boasting of how smart I am, how strong or influential I am or how rich I might be is a dead giveaway clue to the fact that I am still addicted to the personal accumulation game. I am basically preoccupied with me. Instead of singing, “How Great Thou Art” I am still singing, “How Great I Am.”
The phrase that captures the pictures in my mind is: “I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.” When God exercises kindness, justice and righteousness he says that it makes God happy. And when we spend our lives exercising kindness, justice and righteousness on this earth it makes Him exceedingly happy. So, if you want to put a smile on the face of God, it is simple. Just spend all your time and all your energies being head-over-heels involved in exercising kindness, justice and righteousness.
In Jeremiah’s directive he also claimed that God had offered an extremely powerful invitation. He says that if a person is going to boast of any credentials, let him boast that he understands and knows God. He is giving us an invitation to understand the very mind of God. And certainly, when we are totally involved in giving ourselves to attitudes and actions of goodness, including kindness, justice and righteousness we are beginning to open up the heart of God and enjoy the very thoughts and mind of God.
“Business,” cried Marley the ghost, wringing his hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business: charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business.”
You will never regret spending your life in a full-time pursuit of goodness. It will set you on an adventure of reward and fulfillment never imagined by you in your wildest dreams.
Just recall the joy and excitement that entered the life of Ebenezer Scrooge that memorable Christmas Day when he realized that he had the undeserved opportunity to stop just thinking inwardly about himself and his world and could start thinking outwardly toward others around him. That decision and follow-through brought cascading down on him fulfillment and worth he had never before known.
Next Week: Goodness is a Choice