1 Maccabees 7:12-18. The foreign king Demetrius sends one of his friends, Bacchides, along with the treacherous high priest Alcimus to take vengeance on the people of Israel for Judas Maccabees' defense of Judah against Demetrius' forces. Alcimus is a Jewish priest, but he has gone over to their enemy, Demetrius, who has made Alcimus high priest. When Alcimus and Bacchides get to Jerusalem, a group of scribes meets them to ask for just terms of peace. They were Hasideans, and they were the first to seek peace with the enemy because they said to themselves "A priest of the line of Aaron has come with the army, and he will not harm us." Alcimus spoke peaceably to them, swearing an oath that they and their friends would not be harmed. So they trusted Alcimus, "but he seized sixty of them and killed them in one day." Then the people of Israel were filled with fear and dread, for they said "There is no truth or justice in them, for they have violated the agreement and the oath which they swore."

We need to be able to trust people, especially our leaders. People who are in positions of authority and swear oaths to protect us and our way of life absolutely must be trustworthy. We understand that we cannot trust known enemies, but if we cannot trust our own people, we are doomed. We can accept that they are human, and they will make mistakes, but people must stand by their agreements and oaths and not purposely violate them. When people, leaders especially, act as treacherously as Alcimus does here, it results in great fear and dread because people are left to not knowing who they can trust. This causes real psychological damage and great suffering, because in order to function human society needs trustworthy leaders.

In America today we have many treacherous leaders. They are lying to us and violating their oaths of office, and we are seeing the results - fear, dread, and societal breakdown. I have written before about how the impeachment managers, my congressional representative among them, falsified evidence that they submitted in the second impeachment trial. They lied, they violated their oaths of office, and they think they got away with it. We are being lied to about many many other things, and so many of our leaders are violating their oaths and, for now at least, they think they are getting away with it. In the long run, they will not, whether or not their deception comes to light in this life and they pay the price here (which I hope for, for their repentance and for the sake of their souls), they will ultimately face their final judgment and have to answer for their treachery there.

In the meantime, though, even though the vast majority of the people are not aware of the massive deception going on, we are all feeling its effects - the fear, anxiety, and resultant societal breakdown are all results of the deception and oath breaking of our leaders.

"There is no truth or justice in them, for they have violated the agreement and oath which they swore."