September 26, 2007 Jeremiah 23:16-18

09/26/2007

Jeremiah 23:16-18(NRSV)

¹⁶Thus says the LORD of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. ¹⁷They keep saying to those who despise the word of the LORD, “It shall be well with you”; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, “No calamity shall come upon you.”¹⁸    For who has stood in the council of the LORD
    so as to see and to hear his word?
    Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?

Jeremiah 23:22(NRSV)

²²    But if they had stood in my council,
    then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
    and they would have turned them from their evil way,
    and from the evil of their doings.

If you pay attention to religion and spirituality at all, you have no doubt heard some pretty weird stuff out there. Some groups say Jesus is an alien. Some say there is no truth. Some say God has told them something new that does not agree with the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. And it seems that on almost every street corner, there is another self-proclaimed prophet spreading some new “truth” about God and what He requires of us.

But the most common theme among all the false-prophets’ messages is, that everything will be OK in the end. They say: “You do not need to be forgiven by God, you only need to forgive yourself.” They say: “If you are a good person, you will go to heaven.” They say: “Everyone goes to heaven, eventually.”

Even in the days of Jeremiah, there were false prophets. Even priests that stood in the temple would declare that “everything is going to be ok”; even while Nebuchadnezzar was besieging Jerusalem. They would rather tell the people everything was OK rather than confront the people with their sin. And for this, God would soon allow Jerusalem to be overtaken and its inhabitants killed or taken slave.

But God is very clear in His requirements; sin is intolerable and we must repent – that is, turn away from the wrong we are doing, and seek Him. God’s word will always be a little uncomfortable to us, at first. But when we realize that it is for our good, we will learn to humble ourselves to His direction.

Be cautious of religious leaders who tell you everything will be OK: because they have not “stood in the council of the Lord.”

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