Just One, Pleeease?

Jeremiah 5:1-3, 12-19
from January 6, 2006

One.

Sometimes that is all it takes. Just one. Not “I,” but “1,” for we know that there is no “I” in “team,” though, as it was pointed out to me, there is “me” in “team” if you scramble the letters around a little bit. However, too much “me” in any “team” and that team will become “meat.” But, I digress.

You may remember in Genesis 18 something that was a prequel to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God had the demolition plans all drawn up but Abraham tried to intercede for his nephew Lot and any other remotely righteous people there.

Beginning with 50, Abraham seeks to persuade God not to destroy these wicked towns if 50 righteous people could be found there. “What about 45?” asked Abraham. “Forty? Thirty? Twenty?” He…could…go…all…the…way--if Howard Cosell were telling the story--but Abraham stopped at ten. The presence of only ten good people was all it would take to spare two whole cities. We know how that turned out.

That was the flashback portion of this devotional. In today's text, it is not the pagans who are immersed in sin but the Jews. The people, including the priests, had turned against God, and the people were glad of it! (v.30)

It was so bad that Jeremiah didn’t have Abraham’s bargaining power. God simply offers in verse one,

“Run to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem; see now and know; and seek in her open places if you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her (Jerusalem).”

The presence of just one godly person would have protected Israel from the pending attack by another nation.

Whether it is a vote in a critical local, national, or even corporate election, or a voice of reason and righteousness amidst confusion, or the encouragement of a personal conversation that helps another person get back on track, one person can turn the tide and maybe even change history. Just one.

If a situation arises, can I be that vote, that voice? Am I ready before God to be "just one," even if I am the only one?

I wonder.