rehoboam’s thigh in circa 900 b.c.

1 Kings 12 reports a fascinating bit of ancient Israelite history. Unfortunately, it is more than history. It has been repeated over and over and over again in human history—both in private histories and in national histories. It is being reenacted even as we speak.
 
After a long reign, king Solomon is dead. The text found in 1 Kings 1-11 portrays his reign as one of deterioration, starting out good and ending badly. Probably, this is too kind by far. There are indications a plenty in these chapters that Solomon’s reign more likely went from not great to greatly worse.[1] There is much to indicate that his reign was particularly bad for those who lived in the north—the people who would become the independent nation of Israel north of the independent nation of Judah.
 
Upon Solomon’s death, northern Israelites sent ambassadors to Judah. They agreed to pledge allegiance to the new king, Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. They had only one very reasonable request.
 
“Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee” (1 Kg. 12.4).
 
They did not demand immediate concessions. They gave Rehoboam and his advisors time to consider their response. Solomon began by consulting with the experienced advisors who had advised his father, Solomon. They advised him to act more the part of a servant king than his father had done. By seeking to serve better the interest of his norther subjects, Rehoboam would win over those skeptical of the David/Solomon dynasty and find peace and unity in his kingdom (12.6-7).
 
Apparently unhappy with this counsel, Rehoboam then consulted some of the entitled young men with whom he had grown up. They advised a response to the north’s reasonable request that could not be more diametrically opposed to that of the more experienced advisors.
 
“Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, ‘Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us;’ thus shalt thou say unto them, ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins. And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke [note there is no denial of Solomon’s oppression of the north, but only justification], I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions” (12.10-11).
 
The rest, as they say, is history. Rehoboam went with option two. The Kingdom of Israel split into two: the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. If Solomon ever was a wise king—an assertion that was almost certainly more political propaganda than spiritual discernment—he produced a son who turned out to be one the more stupid nation leaders among the many stupid national leaders the world has witnessed… and with which it has suffered.
 
 
 
  israel’s thigh in circa 2023 a.d.

For years, I have bit my tongue, aware that in today’s twisted environment, one cannot be critical of the modern state of Israel without being labeled an antisemite. Modern Israel has long been an apartheid state. It is surely one of the great ironies and tragedies of history that a people who were wickedly forced to live in ghettos for a thousand years of European history have forced Palestinians into ghetto living for many years. This is a complete breach of their Mosaic covenant which, above all else, demands that they remember their captivity at the hands of oppressors and never act the part of oppressor toward others. This, as much as any dietary law, sabbath day observance, or national boundaries is what was to make them a peculiar people to the Lord—a nation apart from the rest of the nations and kingdoms of this world.
 
As we cross the 20,000 mark—that’s 20,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed over the past two months—I cannot remain silent. To do so would be wickedness. To remain silent would mean standing before God with blood on my hands. I have enough of my own sins to worry about. I don’t need to add others’ sins to my load.
 
Now, to be clear. The murderous actions taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023 were barbaric beyond words. What that perverted terror organization perpetrated against innocent civilians, men, women, children, and infants was wickedness of the darkest black. The actions taken on that day were far more than simply barbaric, or inhumane, or animalistic. They were as anti-Christ an action as can be conceived—and, in my book, that charge of “Anti-Christ,” is as bad as it gets and the worse I can say about anyone or anything. I cannot hope for anything but the deepest pit in hell for planners and attackers alike. Before that day, I am of a mind that the planners and attackers of that day should be hunted down and punished. If punishment means death, so be it.
 
But not like this. Not like it is being done at the present.
 
Israel’s October 7 is, as many have rightly stated, much like America’s 9/11. But the nation of Israel’s response to their 10/7 has gone too far—just as America’s response to 9/11 went too far. (Yes, in the aftermath of 9/11, I warned immediately against an ungodly and bloodthirsty response to it that would turn us into international law-breakers and, worse, make us indistinguishable from our attackers. With blood-lust, a generation of Americans did not heed such warnings, but engaged in crimes against humanity and the breach of many an international law so that we became little better than those we hated.)
 
Israel is making the same mistake. Like America, they have wasted an opportunity to unite the world against a vile enemy.
 
The barbarity of Hamas’ attacks on October 7, 2023 cannot be compared to the reasoned requests that ancient Israel made to Rehoboam in circa 900 B.C. Nevertheless, Israel’s response to those barbarous attacks has, itself, turned barbaric. They have put down a thigh when something less was needed. Israel’s leadership—often looking, like America’s, as much like a criminal enterprise as anything else—headstrong, arrogant, and blinded by rage and pride looks as stupid as their ancestral king, Rehoboam. One can’t help but wonder what the world, their world, might look like if they had chosen and would choose to take their thigh off the necks of Palestinians and look to the basic humanitarian needs of Palestinians. To be servants rather than tyrants, as their greatest of prophets, Moses, taught them. 
 
O.K. Fine. Israel has a law that calls for an eye for an eye—we hasten to say that Christians do not have such a law since Jesus rejected and reversed it. The international community would probably not bat an eye over Israel’s seeking an eye for every eye they lost on October 7. But really now. Even the least skilled or most cynical reader of the Bible surely would not seek to justify taking 20 eyes for every eye lost—and its likely to be 30 or 40 Palestinian eyes for every single Israeli eye before the tragedy is over.
 
Tragically and shamefully, America was not called to account for the twenty years of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and breach of international law that it committed in the aftermath of 9/11. Little wonder, then, that Israel follows America’s bad example in the aftermath of its 10/7. America has no authority by which it can call on Israel to repent, to abide by international law, to remove their thigh from the neck of Palestinians; to say nothing of being true to its higher ideals as found in Tora. It is left to the rest of the world, weak and ineffectual as it is, to try and talk sense to a nation driven mad through pain and grief.
 
​
 
  conclusion: the human thigh

There is a very old Scottish proverb that goes,
 
“No man harms me unharmed.”
 
Such shameful sentiments are spoke with pride and braggadocio. As if, such wickedness was heroic. Unfortunately, this is the human way. This is the way of fallen man. Even those individuals who manage to rise above such sentiments in their individual lives, nearly all fall prey in their corporate/group/national lives to the satanic spirit that inspires such thought and behavior.
 
The pragmatist among us might have to shrug and yield to a certain level of satanism such as this. Israel is allowed, justified by human law, to return harm for harm. But, like America and like Hamas, Israel now goes too far. It must reign in its hurt. The present hurt they inflict on those who hurt them can only bring more hurt. Hurt to its enemies and more hurt to itself. More hurt in the present and more hurt in the future. More hurt over the entire globe. This is directly contrary to the call God gave Israel and the hope he had for it.
 
“In days to come
      the Mountain on which stands Yahweh’s temple
will be fixed above any other Mountain;
      lifted above any other height.
All nations will come streaming to it;
      many peoples will come, saying:
‘Come! Let’s go up to Yahweh’s mountain;
      to the temple of the God of Ya‘qōb.
He will teach us his ways,
      and we shall walk in his paths.
For Torah will come out of Ṣîyôn,
      and the word of Yahweh from Yerûšālāyim.’
Then will He mediate between nations;
      He will reconcile many peoples,
so that they will retool their swords into plow blades
      and their spears into pruning instruments.
One nation will no longer lift the sword against another,
      nor will they any longer train for warfare.
 
Come, Oh House of Ya‘qōb, and let us walk in Yahweh’s light” (Is. 2.2-5).
 
Call me a dreamer. Call me an idealist. Call me utopian. But I refuse to give up on the word of God. I refuse to yield to arguments that enmity and barbarity are inevitable. The reader can think of this post as my attempt to be true to the Lord’s latter-day charge and to the expressed hopes of the angelic choir that so surprisingly appeared during that very first Christmas Season.
 
“Therefore, be not afraid of your enemies, for I have decreed in my heart, saith the Lord, that I will prove you in all things, whether you will abide in my covenant, even unto death, that you may be found worthy. For if ye will not abide in my covenant ye are not worthy of me.
Therefore, renounce war and proclaim peace, and seek diligently to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children; and again, the hearts of the Jews unto the prophets, and the prophets unto the Jews; lest I come and smite the whole earth with a curse, and all flesh be consumed before me” (DC 98.14-17).
 
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Lk. 2.14).
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!


[1] See, for example, our homily, entitled, “King Solomon and King Noah, two peas in a pod: ‘neoliberalism’ and the redistribution of wealth.”

  introduction

In his famous soliloquy and song, “If I Were a Rich Man,” Tevye dreams of a “big, tall house with rooms by the dozen,” with a “fine tin roof with real wooden floors.” Outside the house, he dreams of a “yard with chicks and turkeys and geese and ducks.” He dreams of a wife with plenty to eat and “a proper double-chin.” As for himself, Tevye dreams of having “the time that I lack to sit in the synagogue and pray… discuss the holy books with the learned men, several hours every day” To him, “that would be the sweetest thing of all.”
 
We all have dreams. Even at nearly 70, I still do. One of my dreams involves Hebrew prophets. I wish they would come back; return in a renaissance of prophetic discernment and courage. Prophets like Jeremiah, Amos, Micah, and Isaiah. Today’s religious leaders—whether the go by prophet, priest, or pastor—seem not up to the task, lacking both discernment and courage. They seem utterly blind and mute to sin, unless it involves human genitalia.
 
This Mad State post is the third in an ongoing series entitled, “Healing Our Brokenness Inadequately” The title takes its cue from Jeremiah 6.14 in which the prophet laments the ineffectual and specious ministry of Judah’s prophets. In this series, we explore specific examples of individual and societal sins about which religious leaders remain willfully blind or, if sighted, stubbornly mute… and therefore complicit. With these examples in mind, we will imagine what a Hebrew prophet might have to say if he were to come to us from the past. Here, then, is our third example.
 


  pessimistic consumption

Recent weeks have seen a number of headlines such as the following.
 
“Us Consumer Confidence Fell Again in October”[1]
 
“Consumers Remain Pessimistic About the Future—Even as They Continued to Spend”[2]
 
“Us consumers keep spending despite high prices and their own gloomy outlook. Can it last?”[3]
 
“Why Americans feel gloomy about the economy despite falling inflation and low unemployment”[4]
 
“Black Friday shoppers spent a record $9.8 billion in U.S. online sales, up 7.5% from last year”[5]
 
“Cyber Monday rings in 12.4 billion in sales as consumers hunt for bargains”[6]
 
The American public—they are called “consumers,” for good reason, rather than, say, “citizens,” by those who prey on their insatiable appetite for more, more, more—are “pessimistic,” have low “confidence” in the economy and the future, “feel gloomy,” and possess a “gloomy outlook.” The Consumer Confidence Index is down. The Present Situation Index is in decline, still.
 
But, spending is up! UP. UP. In two 24-hour periods, Friday, November 24 and Monday, November 27, 2023, Americans, or consumers, spent $22.2 billion. Purportedly, spending during these two days was in no small part credited to consumers looking for bargains. But, of course, the percentage of those purchasing on credit is way up—higher interest rates wiping out the meager savings from sale prices. As the Christmas Season continues and the year ebbs away, spending trends show no signs of letting up even as pessimism persists.
 
With the inflation rate at the lowest point in two and one-half years, unemployment below 4% for the longest stretch since the 1960s, new hiring up, many wages up, and consumers spending like there’s no tomorrow, economist are befuddled by the pessimistic surveys and the rabid spending habits of American consumers. The two seem irrationally contradictory.
 
The befuddlement is somewhat comical. For, as the name implies, Americans have become by nature “consumers.” Probably, their consumption is to be credited as much to habit as to any other factor, such as sale prices. Indeed, their habit of consumption looks very much like an addiction—out of control and irrational.
 
 

  consuming addiction

We have all heard, by now, that the brain has a “pleasure center”—the “nucleus accumbens” it is called. This “reward circuit” lets us know when something is enjoyable and reinforces the desire for us to perform the same pleasurable action again, and again, and again. We all also know, by now, that a brain stimulated by pornography releases pleasure-giving endorphins and dopamine. Individuals often become addicted to the euphoria that this chemical cocktail produces, irresistibly coming back to pornographic over, and over, and over again. We know, too, that similar processes are at work with the use of drugs—street or prescription—and drug addiction.
 
Modern research suggests that the brain releases the same euphoric chemical cocktail in our brain’s “pleasure center” during shopping, purchasing, acquiring, accumulating, and consuming that it does in drinking,  gambling, taking drugs, and viewing pornography for pornography or substance abuse. The neurotransmitter, dopamine, surges when we even consider buying something new.
 
Our American society, with its consumer economy, is, increasingly, built upon consumerism—as even those who see no harm, but only virtue in such an economy, admit. The economy, which has become, essentially, an idolatrous god, goes up and down, depending upon how diligently we obey materialistic laws and impulses to acquire. Watching our society’s enthusiastic struggle to acquire, we might be forgiven for wondering whether our entire society and many of us, its citizenry, are, in fact, addicted to the principle of acquiring, victims of euphoria producing and addictive endorphins and dopamine. We see nothing in it unhealthy, don’t recognize it as an addiction, because we are all in the same doped up state, addicted to the same drug. If we are all addicted, then it must not be addiction.
 
Such unwillingness to admit that we have a problem is, of course, typical. The addict always thinks they have things under control. But, once in a while, there is a moment of unusual honesty.
 
“How can you say,
   ‘I am not defiled;
       I have not run after the Baals’?
See how you behaved in the valley;
    consider what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel
    running here and there,
a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
    sniffing the wind in her craving--
       in her heat who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
    at mating time they will find her.
Do not run until your feet are bare
    and your throat is dry.
But you said,
   ‘It’s no use!
 I love foreign gods,
    and I must go after them’” (Jer. 2.23-25, NIV).
 
Yes, the inconsistent and befuddling behavior of the American consumer can reasonably be chalked up to addiction. We are a culture of shopping addicts. And just as with any addiction, it takes more and more of the stimulant to maintain the desired highs. Dissatisfaction with the current fix and the need and demand for even more stimulation are inevitable. Hence, one reason the American consumer’s gloomy outlook and pessimistic perspective in the face of bounty that surpasses anything human society has ever seen.
 
 

  all things are become slippery

As I hear and read of consumers’ pessimistic grumblings about the economy, my mind naturally turns to the Book of Mormon and the consumers of Helaman 13. I have discussed these consumers and their consumption in detail elsewhere.[7] But, here, I liken their experiences and feelings to those of the American consumer.
 
Samuel the Lamanite foresees, or “forehears” the consumers of his day. He hears them “weep and howl.” He hears them “lament” that their “riches… have become slippery” and “are gone from us.”  “Behold,” they lament, “we lay a tool here and on the morrow it is gone; and behold, our swords are taken from us in the day we have sought them for battle. Yea, we have hid up our treasures and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land.”
 
One hears in the American consumer’s pessimism an echo of this ancient and sad refrain,
 
“All things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them.”[8]
 
Samuel informs them of the real reason for the unhappiness and pessimism.
 
“Ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head” (Hel. 13.38).
 
 

  conclusion

So it is with the American consumer. The consumption, having become in many cases a sinful addiction, cannot produce happiness—indeed, the consumption itself, with its deleterious impacts on the environment and the world’s poor, is sinful and bound to bring unhappiness through natural disasters, the devaluing and dehumanization of others, and human conflict. Anytime the consumer’s consumptive and consuming addiction is in anyway hampered, slowed, or reduced pessimism quite naturally ensues. It feels like things are slipping away from us.
 
Prophets, priests, and pastors have been asleep at the switch when it comes to addressing this most pervasive addiction in human history. They have no hesitation in screaming bloody murder about a few hundreds of thousands that might be addicted to pornography or a handful of substances, but they remain strangely silent about an addiction that afflicts billions of the globes’ inhabitants—an addiction that creates far, far more suffering than all the other addictions combined. Do they not see the addiction and its harmful effects on society? Or are they, perhaps, themselves caught up in the addiction to one degree or another?
 
“His watchmen are blind:   
   they are all ignorant,  
they are all dumb dogs,   
   they cannot bark;  
sleeping, lying down,   
   loving to slumber.
Yea, they are greedy dogs   
   which can never have enough,  
and they are shepherds that cannot understand:   
   they all look to their own way,    
      every one for his gain, from his quarter” (Is. 56.10-11).
 
 These recalcitrant and silent modern prophets, priests, and pastors could learn a thing or two from the Hebrew prophets about the evils of idolatrous consumption and how to address it. Here, is a sampling.
 
“You are they who lie upon ivory divans,
   sprawl out on your settees,
eat lambs from flocks,
   and specially fed calves,
pluck on the harp
   as Dāwid, invent for themselves musical instruments,
drink wine by the bowl full,
   apply the best of perfumes,
      while remaining unaffected by the nation’s collapse” (Amos 6.4-6, author’s translation).   
 
“That saith,
   ‘I will build me a wide house
      and large chambers,’
 
And cutteth him out windows;
   and it is cieled with cedar,
      and painted with vermilion” (Jer. 22.14).
 
“I will tear down the winter house
    along with the summer house;
the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed
    and the mansions will be demolished,”
      declares the Lord.” (Amos 3.15)
 
We could use such voices. No, they would not be welcome any more than Samuel the Lamanite was. But the call is clear, and the need is great. Warnings about the addictive nature of consumerism could squelch a host of accompanying evils. Warnings about the addictive nature of consumerism could bring happiness, true happiness that far surpasses all the transitory dopamine highs that money and its purchasing power can buy.
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!


[1] The Conference Board
[2] The Conference Board
[3] Christopher Rugaber and Anne D’Innocenzio, Associated Press
[4] Christopher Rugaber, Associated Press
[5] Rebecca Picciotto, CNBC
[6] Brooke DiPalma, Yahoo
[7] See my homily on Helaman 13, entitled, “Society’s Slippery Slope” in the archive found on our Homilies and Just Society pages of this site.
[8] See Helaman 13.32-37.

  introduction

In his famous soliloquy and song, “If I Were a Rich Man,” Tevye dreams of a “big, tall house with rooms by the dozen,” with a “fine tin roof with real wooden floors.” Outside the house, he dreams of a “yard with chicks and turkeys and geese and ducks.” He dreams of a wife with plenty to eat and “a proper double-chin.” As for himself, Tevye dreams of having “the time that I lack to sit in the synagogue and pray… discuss the holy books with the learned men, several hours every day” To him, “that would be the sweetest thing of all.”
 
We all have dreams. Even at nearly 70, I still do. One of my dreams involves Hebrew prophets. I wish they would come back; return in a renaissance of prophetic discernment and courage. Prophets like Jeremiah, Amos, Micah, and Isaiah. Today’s religious leaders—whether the go by prophet, priest, or pastor—seem not up to the task, lacking both discernment and courage. They seem utterly blind and mute to sin, unless it involves human genitals.
 
This Mad State post is the third in an ongoing series entitled, “Healing Our Brokenness Inadequately” The title takes its cue from Jeremiah 6.14 in which the prophet laments the ineffectual and specious ministry of Judah’s prophets. In this series, we explore specific examples of individual and societal sins about which religious leaders remain willfully blind or, if sighted, stubbornly mute… and therefore complicit. With these examples in mind, we will imagine what a Hebrew prophet might have to say if he were to come to us from the past. Here, then, is our next example.
 

  season’s greetings from your state legislatures

Christmas Season 2023 is off to a rip roaring and jolly good start.
 
There’s the Ohio state legislature’s unreasoned rejection of the basic laws of physics. The more molecules in a fixed space, the more often they collide. The more cars on the road, the more accidents. The more guns in the state, the more shootings and deaths. Elementary math.
 
But after passing a new pro-gun law about every 15 minutes for the past ten years, the Ohio legislature has determined that gun ownership is still insufficiently protected in the wild, wild, rootin’ tootin’ state of Ohio. Hence its latest foray into madness—the highfalutin sounding “Second Amendment Preservation Act.” 
 
As any good Hebrew prophet might say,
 
Unsatisfied to have merely placed targets on the backs of its citizens 
that can only be seen in the light of day, 
the legislature wishes to slap glow in the dark targets on the backs of its citizens 
so that they can be shot to death in the dark of night as easily as in the light of day.
It is madness.
Irrational beyond description.
A sickness of the heart.
A cancer on the American soul.
May those who act so cynically as to create and pass such murderous laws find no preservation.
No, not for a second of any moment.
 
Meanwhile, a quick 15-minute magical sleigh ride to the southwest brings us to a land of make-believe pro-lifers whose laws force a mother of two, who very much wishes to be a mother of three, to carry a fetus that has no chance at life and threatens the health of the mother as well as her future prospects of having that much desired third child. And, of course, the jolly little elf of a State Attorney General who is so intent on enforcing the state’s godforsaken abortion laws that he would criminalize anyone who has the audacity to seek or practice healthcare that secures the health of women is, himself, a criminal of the first order.
 
You can’t make this stuff up.
It is madness.
Irrational beyond description.
A sickness of the heart.
A cancer on the American soul.
May these power hungry 
exercisers of unrighteousness dominion over woman
be made to carry their heavy burden of wickedness to full term
only then to have heaven abort them 
into the dark underbelly of hell.
 
But, of course, as is par for the course, prophet, priest, and pastor remain as silent about these abuses of human dignity as the silent night on which the One they claim to represent was born. They do and say nothing to heal the brokenness. Far from joining the angelic choirs in signing “peace on earth, good will to men,” too often, when they do open their mouths on such topics they only add to the disease, assist the cancer to grow.
 
So, already, barely half-way through the advent season, I can hardly sleep, so anxious am I to see what other gifts America’s wacko state legislators, governors, and supreme courts will bring us this Holiday Season.
 
Ho. Ho. Ho, everyone. And a Merry Christmas!