JEREMIAH 14:1-6 (1) This is the word of the LORD to Jeremiah concerning the drought: (2) Judah mourns, her cities languish; they wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem. (3) The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water. They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads. (4) The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads. (5) Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass. (6) Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals; their eyesight fails for lack of pasture. (7) Although our sins testify against us, O LORD, do something for the sake of your name. For our backsliding is great; we have sinned against you. (8) O Hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays only a night? (9) Why are you like a man taken by surprise, like a warrior powerless to save? You are among us, O LORD, and we bear your name; do not forsake us! (10) This is what the LORD says about this people: They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins. (11) Then the LORD said to me, Do not pray for the well-being of this people. (12) Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague. (13) But I said, Ah, Sovereign LORD, the prophets keep telling them, You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place. (14) Then the LORD said to me, The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. (15) Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, No sword or famine will touch this land. Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. (16) And the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve. ---NIV Notice what is happening. The land is suffering from a drought. Did the people connect drought with obedience to the message of a false minister? Probably not. The spirit that was speaking to them was not divine, but it was supernatural. The people submitted to it because they did not put the prophet to the test to see whether or not his teaching was in harmony with what had already been revealed through Gods messenger, Moses. God blames the plight of the nation on the false prophets to whom the people listened. What did the prophets do? They lulled the people into complacency, which led them to believe that all was well when it was not. They preached to them smooth things because the people had itching ears. They liked the things that were taught to them, but it was not the Word of God. God says they preached lies in His name. If one listens to them, then it is the same thing as the blind leading the blind and both falling in the ditch. The land was in drought. How many carnal people would connect a drought with obedience to a false minister? Not very many because they would be thinking carnally and say, Its just part of the cycle of things. It happens every so many years. They are not thinking that there might be a spiritual cause for it: that God is concerned about the well being of His people, and that He had brought the drought to make them think about why it is happening. The cause for concern is spiritual in nature. Would any U.S. President or presidential candidate make an appeal to American citizens that the cause of our problems are spiritual in nature? If a national figure said before a group of people that the reason we are having troubles in the United States is that we need to repent and get back to our God, they would be laughed into shame and contempt. The reason we are seeing the immorality in the United States is the effect of listening to false ministers!
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 22:23:53 +0000
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