False Hope

Jeremiah 14-16 today.

"It's not as bad as you think."
"People are still generally very good."
"God is love; just be the best person you can be, and He will bless you, and you'll be fine."

The theme of Jeremiah continues, God is explaining His justice, painful as it is and will be.  And Jeremiah adds a new retort of the people.  "...the prophets are telling them, 'You will not see the sword nor see famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.'"  The so-called prophets were trying to ease the concerns of the people, and pretending all was just fine.

They were not telling the people the truth, but rather were trying to make them feel better.    Being that they were trusted among this people, as prophets, why would they NOT listen to them?  I mean, come on, Jeremiah had no good news, he only challenged people to change their ways and follow God, on His terms!

Why were they supposed to listen to Jeremiah instead of them? Tough call, put yourself in their place, how would you decide what is truth?

I believe the major reason they wanted to listen to the prophets was because they did not know God's Word.  Granted, they did not have their own scrolls to refer back to what was said to David, or Solomon, or Abraham, etc.  But they had priests they could have asked.  They could have asked leaders to read that Word, and tell them what was true.  It was much easier to listen to people who had nice things to say.  Otherwise, they would have had to own up to their sin, repent, and change their lifestyles?

Now who wants to do all that? 

I pray Christians, faced today with the same choices, would do so.

And I pray people will listen to those who tell the truth of the Word, all of it.

Lastly, I pray for more leaders to be the tellers of that truth.  God's Word is under attack, and honestly, the worst attacks are coming from WITHIN the church!  I pray God will reveal the false prophets; there are so many people following them, it's the easier thing to do today.