The Whole Earth is Calm and Quiet. Zechariah 1:8-11.

If I offered you $1,000 to bring me a true story no one has yet reported, could you do it? What if I added $5,000 if the story provokes fear or outrage? You could listen to a police scanner, attend a trial, talk to people in an E.R. waiting room, interview a tow-truck driver, fire fighter, or civil rights attorney. You would find something for us to publish. And now a peaceful day includes more bad news of marginal relevance.

One night, the prophet Zechariah saw something odd.

“I … saw a man … standing among the myrtle trees in the valley. Behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. I asked, ‘What are these, my lord?’ … Then the man among the trees explained, ‘They are the ones the Lord sent to patrol the earth.’ The horses reported, … ‘We have patrolled the earth, and right now the whole earth is calm and quiet’” Zechariah 1:8-11.

Horses? Sent to patrol the earth? Who knew that was a thing? Have you ever seen horses coming around, checking on things? These horses circled the globe, checked on EVERYTHING, and what did they report?

“Right now the whole earth is calm and quiet.”

Think about that. The biggest news of the day was that there wasn’t any news!

“Right now the whole earth is calm and quiet.”

Can you imagine a newspaper sending a reporter to check on … the whole world? If the journalist came back saying “everything’s calm and quiet,” he would be fired. The angry newspaper editor (such the Daily Bugle’s Jonah Jameson in SPIDER MAN–pictured) would shout, “Where’s the story? What am I paying you for?!”

Reporters are paid to write stories. If they don’t find something, they keep digging, because no one pays for empty newspapers.

But sometimes the truth is simply “the whole earth is calm and quiet.” The equine reporters in Zechariah’s vision—the horses—are NOT being paid by the story. They have no reason to lie. Everything was calm and quiet, so that’s what they reported.

But you will never hear that on the six-o’clock news. Is it possible that sometimes everything is calm and quiet? Yes. But that does not sell newspapers.

Look at the word “news.” It’s all about finding the NEW story. Every day there are accidents, crimes, and scandals—and if those taper off, you still have traffic, sports, and weather. And if it’s the same story we told you yesterday, we will find a new way to spin it today. And what is it that keeps people coming back—what delivers viewers and dollars to one network over another? Emotion.

Fear is journalism’s emotion number one, and anger number two. If fear makes the network money, then could fear have an impact on what stories they choose to tell—and how they tell them? Absolutely.

Every broadcast carefully delivers two messages:

(1) you should feel fear and anger over the state of the world, and

(2) you should trust only our network to report the truth and guide you through it.

God, fill us with the conviction that sometimes “the whole earth is calm and quiet.” Show us what sources to trust for honest reporting—and show us how much or how little news to consume every day. You are the Prince of Peace. Fill us with Your peace.

ΑΩ

*Consider reading Michael Crichton’s excellent novel about modern news reporting, STATE OF FEAR, now translated into some forty languages.