Fatalism Is Not Good

“And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.” (Jer 18:12 AV)

This is actually a very sad statement.  The people of Judah and Benjamin knew that because of the choices of one of their previous kings and their willingness to follow, God was bringing Babylon against them.  They knew from the revival of Manasseh’s grandson that God was not going to change His mind.  That is why the statement of no hope is made above.  Their conclusion is sad, but natural and wrong.  Their thinking is not all that uncommon.  If we have no hope, we will stop fighting.  If there is no hope for revival, then we may as well live as we please.  If God is not going to bless, why do right?  Why not enjoy ourselves while waiting for pending judgment?  When the terminally sick get to the point they know the end is inevitable, then they stop fighting.  In some cases, that is the right thing to do.  But not in the case of doing right in the sight of God.  It is truly sad they had allowed themselves to get to where they didn’t care.  If God was going to judge, then what was the point in pleasing Him?  That was the thinking.

There is an event that is often misunderstood that sheds light on this from a different perspective.  Wallace Hartley was the bandleader on that fateful night of the sinking of the Titanic.  After the Titanic had struck the iceberg, it took 2 hours and forty minutes for her to go down.  Wallace Hartley, with a band of about a dozen musicians, decided to play while the passengers scrambled for the lifeboats.  It is often misunderstood as their way of not taking the situation seriously.  Some assume they had the same attitude as Judah and Benjamin.  If the ship is going down, we may as well have a party until we die.  But that was not what they were trying to accomplish.  It was decided they would play waltzes, chamber music, and other soothing tunes to keep the passengers as calm as was possible.  Their thought was to lessen the trauma of what was unfolding, and with less panic, more could be accomplished until the inevitable came upon them.  It is often stated that the last tune they played before succumbing to the depths was Nearer, Still Nearer.  This precious hymn was meant to bring solace to the dying souls and their own periled minds.  Instead of succumbing to the inevitable with a selfish act, they used their last moments to give glory to God and comfort the perishing.

How we choose to respond when the hand of God is set tells a lot about our maturity.  Unfortunately, the corrective hand of God is part of our experience.  Going faithful until the end speaks a lot of our integrity.  I am always amazed at the employees who stick it out until the last minute of business while the business shutters its doors.  Those people are incredible people.  They know when they wake up the next morning, they would be unemployed.  They know they may never get paid for the time they spent working.  Yet, there is a job to be done.  There are people who need their product.  They stay in the gap and give everything they have even though the die has been cast.  Judah and Benjamin had none of this.  They had given up hope that God would ever be kind to them.  They had succumbed to what they believed would be the worst.  For integrity’s sake, they should have gone into captivity with a psalm on their lips.  They should have confessed their sin, forsaken it, then gone into captivity with a clear conscience and righteousness in the members.  They didn’t.  Rather, they chose to live for their own pleasure because the life that wanted couldn’t be had.