Today’s Reading: Jeremiah 5, 6; John 12
Scripture: Jeremiah 5:30-31
30 "A horrible and shocking thing
has happened in the land:
31 The prophets prophesy lies,
the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.
But what will you do in the end?"
Observation: "Horrible!" "Shocking!" Strong language, even from the ever-expressive Jeremiah. He looks at what is happening in his nation, Israel, God's chosen people, and he is alarmed. Not only have the people turned from God but the spiritual leaders are in on it! The rejection of God's authority is top to bottom. The spiritual leaders speak, not out of God's heart, but from their own minds. And, as a result, what they offer is lies. Are the people unaware of this? No, they know what is going on. And not only are they aware, "the people love it this way!" That is, they prefer lies to the truth. This is the most disturbing of all.
Application: Itching ears. People will find teachers who say what they want to hear. Paul warned Timothy that, "the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3). So people and the spiritual leaders who serve them can enter into a hellish pact to deceive and be deceived, and to encourage one another in a kind of deadly game. Which brings us to the final phase in today's passage. "But what will you do in the end." Jeremiah warns that, while the game may work for a time, in the end, it will be shown for what it is: lies and deceit and rebellion. And the end of that kind of path is death: Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."
Prayer: Lord, keep my feet planted firmly in you and in your truth. Send to me spiritual leaders who will speak the truth, even when it hurts. And help me to listen, even when my self nature would want to reject it. I want your ways and not my own.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
1 comment:
This post reminds me of something I read recently.
"Most of us are not really approaching the subject in order to find out what Christianity says: we are appraching it in the hope of finding support from Christianity for the view of our own party." (C.S. Lewis).
Amen to your prayer. That is a theme I revisit often in prayer, in the daily struggle against my own self nature.
Dianna
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