False Cures

It is possible to cure a headache by blowing out your brains, but no sane man would recommend such a remedy; likewise, a salve may soothe the pain of cancer for a moment, but it cures nothing. These are the kinds of false cures Jeremiah condemned when he said of Judah’s leaders, “They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14; 8:11). The nation’s problem was sin its apostasy from God but the proposed solutions were either suicidal or trifling. Instead of confronting the moral and religious root of their collapse, the people looked for political maneuvers or military alliances to save them. Our own age is no different. Politics matters, but politics cannot regenerate a corrupt people; an apostate nation will elect men in its own image, and such men bad trees cannot bear good fruit (Matt. 7:15–20). As my cousin’s wife discovered in meeting a nationally known official, every word and action was shaped not by truth or justice but by self-promotion and the hunt for votes. These are dead men offering dead remedies. Scripture declares that those outside of Christ are spiritually dead and judicially condemned, and death cannot produce life. Thus the corruption of the body politic will only continue until the people themselves are changed converted. Until then, every proposed cure will be as Jeremiah said: false, useless, suicidal, and corrupting.