Imagine being informed by God that “I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” This is followed by words of reassurance, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you”. Then, following God’s touch on your lips, an expanded commissioning, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.’  How would you begin? Which nation to build up, which to pull down!

 Recent media reports suggest Australia should expand its defense dependence from just the U.S.A. to include nearby nations as China grows its military might. A truly nationalistic first action might therefore to build up the USA and bring down China. Would this be what God would suggest?

Our choice between USA and China echoes the choices which faced the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, Which neighbouring super power to trust, to align oneself with? The North, or the South? – A mistake meant destruction, Israel (Samaria) in 621 BC, Judah (Jerusalem) in 587, Jeremiah’s time.

  What the prophets of Israel and Judah made clear is that God’s ways are not our ways. God demanded faithfulness to covenant, not wily political judgments. Jeremiah’s task of bringing down and building up applied initially more to Judah and Jerusalem than the surrounding nations and the region’s super powers. Having given up on God’s demands for a just and equitable (in our modern language, SHALOM in Hebrew) society, God gives up first Israel and then Judah to the superpowers from the North.

   Jeremiah records this destruction of Judah in more or less the first 25 chapters. He then offers God’s hope for fresh beginnings in the rest of his writings, including chapters 30-31. It seems as if the corrupt old has to be destroyed before fresh beginnings towards God’s ideal national community – one of social equity and equality- can begin.

   If tasked by God as Jeremiah was, we would not begin our focus on China or the USA. We would begin at home, in Canberra. Reminding our political leaders, that if there are claims made that we are a country with implied Christian values, enact them in our collective care of each other!

   So, to secure Australia as a vibrant nation, assuming this is indeed God’s will, where would we begin our prophesying? To whom, and to what issues would we be speaking God’s Word to have our national life reflect God’s way? Grace to you all, and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.                                                                                                                                                                                                Louis van Laar