Jeremiah 23:16-17,29

‘Thus says the LORD of hosts:

“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophecy to you.
They make you worthless;
They speak a vision of their own heart,
Not from the mouth of the LORD.”’ (Jeremiah 23:16)

This struck me because of the second line: ‘They make you worthless’. It is obvious from other parts of the chapter, and other parts of the Bible, that the false prophets and false teachers tried to ‘build up’ their ‘flock’. For example,

‘They continually say to those who despise Me,
‘The LORD has said, “You shall have peace”’;
And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say,
‘No evil shall come upon you.’’ (Jeremiah 23:17)

They always come with a message of ‘hope’ or ‘peace’ or ‘love’. Something that would make people feel good about themselves. However, since they prophesied lies, that ‘good thing’ that they taught was the very thing that eluded those they taught it to. Hence Jeremiah says ‘They make you worthless’. For the words were not from God, they were just made up by man. And man on his own is completely worthless. What good scheme or plan can we devise? What knowledge can we know without God almighty?

And so the very prophets who gave their listeners a sense of worth and hope in fact made them worthless and hopeless. Those who taught peace brought war and captivity upon the nation.

Let us all be careful of those who come and say things that make us feel good about ourselves. For in the end, we should not feel good about ourselves, but only we should feel grateful for the righteousness that God has bestowed upon us. Be careful of anyone whose words give you worth, for it is likely that their words in fact make you worthless.

Conversely, let us preach and teach the Word faithfully so as not to deceive anyone into self-worth or water down the Gospel to make it more ‘appealing’.

‘ “Is not my Word like a fire?” says the LORD,
“And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”’ (Jeremiah 23:29)

The Gospel, and all of God’s Word, was never intended to appeal to the inherent worth of the individual and therefore draw them into the teachings that it has. No, it was meant to crush and burn any scrap of self-worth that the individual has and in that breaking, make him new.

Jeremiah 7:5-10

God tells Jeremiah to stand at the temple gate this time, and speak to all those who enter. So we know that the audience of the following passage is those ‘God-believers’ in Judah. The ones who at least profess to serve the true God, and come to the temple to offer their sacrifices and pray (vs. 1-2). This is interesting, because the message that God gives Jeremiah to speak to them is one of the most scathing thus far in the book. God gives clear instructions:

‘For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.’ (Jeremiah 7:5-7)

This is some set of rules. Thoroughly is used twice. For God expects no less than complete obedience, thorough in every respect. He is a holy God, and we cannot lose sight of that as He speaks to Judah, and as He speaks to us through the Bible. He is a holy God. All words spoken to us by Him are spoken with that fact in view. But also, it is a reasonable argument, or agreement. Judah could not expect God to keep His end of the bargain if they did not keep theirs, and so this statement is a warning, out of love, telling them to ‘amend their ways’ so that God could in fact bless them.

Notice however, the fact that God does not say that the nation will be removed as God’s people, or that they will be ultimately cut off from the land forever. Indeed, God states categorically that the land was given to the nation’s fathers ‘forever and ever’. Rather, the consequence of sinful actions is that they won’t ‘dwell in this place’. Here I take ‘dwell’ to be of much more significance than mere physical presence (which of course it alludes to as well). Where you ‘dwell’ is where you call home. It is where you find peace and comfort. It indicated familiarity. On Getaway the other night, they interviewed Jerry Seinfeld on some ‘holiday tips’. He said that wherever you go has to feel like home. ‘It isn’t a real holiday unless you know how to make the shower just the right temperature’. There’s a sense of familiarity associated with home.

Thus, God’s promise is of belonging to the land that they own categorically, if they should amend their ways thoroughly. The next few verses reiterate this and provide a message for our day:

‘Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations?’ (Jeremiah 7:8-10)

This showed the true hypocrisy of the temple-goers of the time. They walked into the house called by God’s name after committing atrocities and abominations, with the excuse ‘we are delivered to do these abominations’.

Let me rephrase the verses:

‘Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you cheat on tests, hate others, lust, make empty promises, swear, worship nature, give more time to other interests than me, and then come before Me at church and say ‘We are saved, so it’s okay to do all these abominations?’

And yet how many of us are thoroughly guilty of this? Let us amend our ways. God does not threaten to cut us off from Him. For He gave us our salvation ‘forever and ever’. That is categorical. But He promises us that if we amend our ways, we will belong to our salvation. There will be familiarity, strength and comfortability in it. There will be satisfaction in it.

There is much more in the chapter, but not enough space here to describe it. Please, study it for yourselves.

Jeremiah 5:3a,31

Two phrases stood out to me in Jeremiah chapter 5. The chapter continues Jeremiah’s ‘pessimistic’ speech to Judah, relaying God’s intended judgments and accusations towards the Jews. The very fact that it is continued so far (and shall be for at least a few more chapters I suspect) at the very least shows how important a topic it is to God. It shows the depth of His love for Israel, given that He is trying to warn them and turn them from their evil ways in order to save them.

In verse 3, Jeremiah says this:

‘O LORD, are not Your eyes on the truth?...’ (Jeremiah 5:3a)

This is a stark reminder that God is all about truth. It doesn’t matter whether that truth is hard to accept, easy to accept, obvious or well hidden, controversial, dangerous, life-giving, or mundane. God is about the truth. Therefore we should be studying the Word to find the truth. About as many things as possible. Things like the Gospel are extremely important to know the truth about – that is a life and death (in the spiritual sense) issue. But there are other side-issues everywhere through the Bible, and just because they’re not absolutely critical to our salvation doesn’t mean we should just believe whatever. God is a God of truth, and therefore following His example we should be always trying to sift out truth.

The last verse says:

‘The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule by their own power;
And My people love to have it so.
But what will you do in the end?’ (Jeremiah 5:31)

A heavy question. When the prophets are prophesying good times ahead, contrary to God’s plan, and the priests rule and judge by their own power (ie. Basically their lineage as priests and their own wisdom), then something is amiss. But one thing is for sure – Israel likes having it that way. Why? Well when you have supposed prophets telling you that everything is okay, and ‘church leaders’ using their own human wisdom to teach people about ‘God’, everything seems fine and everything seems to be getting better, and people feel good about themselves, because human wisdom lifts people up. Of course they loved it. Incidentally, much the same thing is happening in our day. Those who preach the Word are generally saying everything’s getting better, and that we’re all good, and the ‘priests’ are using human wisdom and theories to ‘understand’ the Bible, which gives mankind such a sense of thrill that he can be intelligent enough to understand God. But what will we do in the end? If we base all these things on false prophecy and our own effort, what can we do in the last day? Our own effort won’t hold up. False teaching won’t save us. The truth marches on, and all falseness is cast aside. So it is much better today to believe the true things, although they may be hard, and rely on God rather than ourselves. For in the last day, God will hold us up.

Isaiah 58:2-4a,7-9a,11a

Over 2500 years ago, Isaiah spoke and wrote important, vital messages to the nation of Israel. Over 2500 years later (a.k.a. today), we read them, and the Holy Spirit can apply to the messages to our hearts with just as much vitality as ever. Isn’t that amazing?!

One of the major issues within Christianity today, and all down through the centuries is that of ‘false religion’. That is, people making a show of ‘obeying’ God, or doing ‘good things’, without any internal change of heart. Initially it was the Pharisees, whom Jesus rebuked sharply. In Paul’s letters, he refers to the Judaizer’s, who claimed that all Christians must be circumcised.

The strange thing is, most of the time when God rebukes such behaviour, He tells the accused that they should be doing something else. For instance, in Isaiah 58. I don’t want to write the whole chapter down here, so if you want to know exactly what it says, I suggest you read it.

The chapter reads in four parts:

1) What the Israelites are physically doing (vs. 1-3a)

2) What their spiritual intent or backing is. (vs 3b-5)

3) What God wants them to be doing and their attitudes in this regard (vs 6-7)

4) The result of this (the blessing of the LORD) (vs 8-14)

Although the last two parts are sort of intermingled a bit.

Now there is a line of thought which possibly makes us think that God would say to the Israelites: ‘this is what you are doing, but your spiritual intent behind it is wrong, so I will make it clear to you that it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s all dependant upon your spiritual belief, which is why you’re wrong.’

Now, this would be correct. And God does say this to the Israelites in a way, but He also makes it very clear that it does matter what they do, because this represents what the heart believes.

So let us expand on the four points:

1) ‘Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways’ ‘…Did not forsake the ordinances of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God.’ ‘Why have we fasted…and You have not seen?’ (Isaiah 58:2,3a)

2) ‘In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness.’ (Isaiah 58:3b-4a)

3) ‘Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him’ (Isaiah 58: 6-7)

4) ‘Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call and the LORD will answer…The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones’ (Isaiah 58:8-9a, 11a)

So, primarily, God’s anger was directed towards the attitudes of the Israelites, not their actions. But He uses their actions as evidence of their heart. They were fasting, but they were fasting for others to see, and they were exploiting their laborers in doing so. They were causing strife and debates with their fasting and ‘approaching’ the LORD. And that wasn’t what God instructed them to do. That wasn’t the primary reason for fasting in the first place! God wants them to fast in order to bring freedom to the oppressed, and hope to the down-trodden. To forego food in order to feed those who are hungry. To forego sleep to help those who are weary. Not just as a show! And so, we have the situation where God is saying to them ‘It’s not about what you do, it’s about the internal change!’ but also is saying simultaneously ‘You shouldn’t be doing that, but you should be doing this’. This is not a contradiction. It merely expresses that an internal change will re-order the inner workings of the heart, and therefore bring about changes in the external dealings as well!

Likewise, today for us, we need to be focused on doing these things that God has instructed. Doing them with a right attitude and from a genuine heart for the LORD, rather than from tradition or a want for attention. This is what God wants from us. And there are so many blessings associated with doing these things! This is the way to satisfaction in the LORD, and the way that we will shine in the darkness so that all may see God’s glory. So let us always be ready to help those that are poor, hungry, homeless and lost. Of course, the best way is to lead those that are spiritually poor, spiritually hungry, without a spiritual home, and spiritually lost, to our Lord Jesus Christ!