It’s a Fake

2 Chronicles 18:16 Micaiah (the prophet) answered (to the king of Israel, Ahab, and the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat), “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd and the Lord said, “They have no leader. Each must go home in peace.”

Luke 8:48 Then He (Jesus) said to her, “Daughter (the bleeding woman), your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep with a shepherd? Where have I heard that before? Ha. In Matthew’s gospel, 9:36, “When He (Jesus) saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were troubled and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.” Troubled and scattered; troubled and scattered. What does ‘troubled and scattered’ sound like? It sounds to me a little bit like anxiety and depression, a commentary, actually, on the condition reflective of our population today. Prescribed anxiety medication has reached record-setting levels, according to popular statistics, and this includes the “Christian” population:

The GoodRx research team analyzed prescription-fill data for depression and anxiety medications between 2019 and 2022. We found that the percent of fills for depression and anxiety medications has increased since the start of the pandemic in most states (46 out of 50). And these numbers have not returned to their pre-pandemic levels. 

Enough statistics. I think we get the point. But I’d like add another point. What are these prescribed stimulants but artificial peace? Artificial methods for inducing peace is no peace at all, as plastic as Barbie’s doll house, a world of pretense. If it is true that anxiety medications are being used at record-breaking levels, and the stats say it is, then our condition is no different than it was during the time of King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat, the Hebrew brothers from another mother but shared the same father, Abraham.

All of Israel was scattered without a shepherd. Not a good commentary from prophet, Micaiah. Hundreds of years later, Jesus found Israel in the same disappointing, scattered condition. Two thousand years later, the Shepherd is no longer needed to provide the spirit-fruit of peace; the doctor is just a phone call away with a cry of anxiety, which results quickly in a script.

We’re in the day and age of artificiality; artificial beauty, artificial peace, artificial food, artificial relationships, and they are as toxic as eating warm, raw rabbit meat in the dead of summer. Minds are being poisoned by the corruption of the devil’s world. If this sounds bad, it is! Pornography use is at an all-time high as well, including the Christian community in those stats. Why this decline in Humanity? Spirituality is in short supply.

“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” Producing the spirit-fruit of faithfulness results in the spirit-fruit of peace. What can be done in the name of producing faith that can result in producing peace? Jesus called it the new wine, the new covenant. Training disciples know them as the Twenty Commands, the ones that upgraded Moses’ Ten.

How did this bleeding gal produce faith? She desired, pursued and knocked on Jesus’ door (Matthew 7:7). And anytime anyone keeps strict the commands, desire, pursue and knock, the door will be opened, and faith will be produced. Over the course of this continued behavior, the allusive fruit of peace will appear like a mist rolling in. What happens then?

Well, unpack your suitcase full of artificial stimulants; they’re fake anyway.