Bible Speaks by Rev. L. Althouse 

 

Ignoring prophets’ warnings is nothing new for mankind

Sept. 28, 2014

Background Scripture: Jeremiah 33:1-11

Many years ago when I was teaching a class of teenagers, one of them asked me, “If Jeremiah was such a great prophet, how come he died in Egypt in exile?”

My answer may seem frivolous, but it was also accurate: “Jeremiah died an exile in Egypt because he was a great prophet. I believe God regarded Jeremiah as a faithful prophet, but the fact that he was faithful to the message God gave him also meant that he was despised by his countrymen, especially kings Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah.”

Why? Because they and most of Jeremiah’s contemporaries regarded him as a traitor to the Kingdom of Judah. Their reason: Jeremiah prophesied Judah could not withstand Babylon and that resistance against the Babylonians would bring disastrous ruin to Judah and Jerusalem. He also predicted some of the Jews would be carried away into exile in Babylon for a long time. (Jer. 29:1-10).

He advised surrender! (34:1-7; 37:1-10). When he left Jerusalem for a trip to his home town of Anathoth, he was also accused of desertion (37:11-15). Jeremiah’s life was constantly in danger. Some of the priests and princes of Jerusalem plotted to capture him and torture him to death by starvation (38:1-13).

An Ethiopian eunuch who was a palace servant took his own life in his hands to rescue Jeremiah (28:14-28). As evidence that a prophet’s life was not and is not a “bed of roses,” Jeremiah is revealed as a troubled soul who had to fight himself to keep God’s commission (10:23,24; 15:10-21; 16:1-13; 17:9,10,14,1).

These passages are often called “The Confessions of Jeremiah,” meaning his witness and testimony.

No quick fix

The problem was not that Jeremiah’s prophecies were embedded in doom and gloom, but that the era to follow the doom and gloom was more than “a hop, skip and jump” away. There would be destruction and death on a large scale. The beloved Jerusalem would suffer grievous ruin. There would be no “quick fix.”

The same is true of the times in which we live. There are staggering problems – wars and rumors of wars, epidemics, natural disasters, the disappearance of animal species and plant life vital to human continuance, overpopulation, failures of wealth distribution, dehumanization and the ever present, if largely forgotten, threats of  nuclear holocaust.

We suffer from these threats because we have not addressed the problems at a time when they were manageable. Yes, there are prophets in our time, but as with the prophets of old, we rarely listen to them because we don’t like their message.

So what can we learn from Jeremiah that is relevant to the times in which we live? What is his legacy to the world gone beyond him and his times? The first legacy is the record of what happens when people ignore their prophets.

It was not a minor, nor even major, “bump in the road,“ but a chasm that only grew wider and wider because it was ignored. And why was it ignored? Because it would mean that some, probably almost all, the people would have to admit they were dallying too long.

People feared and hated Jeremiah because they didn’t want to admit they had been wrong, didn’t want to change and resisted it because it was “discomforting.” The surest way to confirm the prophets of doom is to ignore them until their warnings are too late.

God’s chosen few

Does that have some meaning for us? It should. First, we must put ourselves in the place of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. To be sure, they probably wondered about Jeremiah’s prophecy: “Why is he telling us those things? Our enemies are guilty of things, but not us! We are God’s people!”

If there had been a Hebrew word for “exceptional,” they probably would have used it. Few, if any, targets of prophecy will entertain the thought that the judgments should fall upon them. They probably would have sung the ditty: “We are God’s chosen few, all others will be damned; there is no place in Heaven or you, we can’t have Heaven crammed!”

When Jeremiah spoke of sin, the people thought he was speaking of someone else. The people of Judah could not identify themselves with the victims in Jeremiah’s prophecies. You and I can see that they should have.

Their failure to see God’s judgment as pertaining to them kept them from making the changes that were necessary. They rejected not only the prophecies of Jeremiah, but Jeremiah himself.

But he left them a legacy which is ours as well: “The Chaldeans are coming in to fight and to fill them (the houses of the city) with the dead bodies  of men whom I shall smite in my anger and my wrath, for I have hidden my face from this city because of all their wickedness.”

 “Wickedness?” Surely he doesn’t mean us. “Behold, I shall bring it health and healing, and I will heal; them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first. I will cleanse them from all of the guilt of their sin against me” (33:7,8).

As “exceptional” American Christians, what do we possibly need to confess to the Lord?

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Those with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.