Pay attention

 

READ Jeremiah 22–26

When I read this prophet, I’d like to apply some of the passages to the nations of the world that are oppressing others, killing the innocent and have no regard for human life. However, Jeremiah is talking to God’s people, those He made a covenant with that they would live to glorify Him. They failed and He told Jeremiah:

“Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. (22:1–5)

If His people would not repent, He would “make you a desert, an uninhabited city . . . prepare destroyers against you . . . cut down your choicest cedars and cast them into the fire . . . and every man will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city?’ And they will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.’ ” (22:6–9)

Yet in the middle of this, He promised hope by pointing to the Messiah: “Behold, the days are coming when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ ” (23:5–6)

They still did not listen. Both prophets and priests were ungodly, filling the people with vain hope of visions from their own minds, not from the Lord. None listened to Him, yet had they spoken for Him, the people would have turned away from evil. The Lord was against them for their lies and lack of consideration for the danger of disobedience and how their perversion of His words would harm His people. (23:31–36)

Not everyone was rotten. Some He would bring home from exile, build them up and “give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.” (24:5–7)

Those who refused to listen He would “make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.” (24:8–10)

God is opposed to those who will not listen, who refuse to give up their sin, who worship idols. In those days, He sent an enemy to their “land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” (25:8–11)

This was not an isolated uproar. It would “resound to the ends of the earth” because the Lord will “enter into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword . . . with disaster is going forth from nation to nation . . . from the farthest parts of the earth!” (25:31–32)

The result? The priests, prophets and all the people wanted to kill Jeremiah! He responded by repeating what God told him to say; to mend their ways and obey Him. He added, “Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.” (26:12–15)

Eventually, the officials and all the people decided this prophet did not deserve the sentence of death because “he spoke in the name of the Lord our God” and they were in danger of bringing great disaster upon themselves.

Practical application: listen to God’s truth and do what He says. The great changes needed in this world begin with revival in the lives of God’s people — that means me. Yet test the many voices out there that speak for God. Not all of them do.