Nuggets in Jeremiah – Bad Preachers, Wrong Worship and Mercy Offered
Bad Preachers, Wrong Worship and Mercy Offered
Jeremiah was told to tell people God’s word. On the whole they would not listen to Jeremiah and God told him so. But God loved the people and wanted His mercy, forgiveness and love to be offered to the people even though they deserved judgment and even though judgment was coming.
God never stopped offering mercy. We saw last time how God promised to give them pastors after His heart if they would just admit their wrong and return. God still was offering to bless them.
There are wonderful things like that in the book of Jeremiah. There are also truths on how God does things that apply today. For example God offering to give Pastors according to His heart shows that they did not currently have pastors after God’s heart. God does let people have pastors after their own backslidden hearts. It also shows that God’s will, what He wants for His people is for them to have pastors that are after God’s heart.
When you see a pastor mistreating people or teaching falsely you know that it is not according to God’s will.
If we skip Jeremiah, then we miss out on a lot of good things. Jeremiah in some ways is a hard book, and many do skip it. You have to understand that God’s people had been backslidden and rebellious toward God, and into false god worship for a very long time.
God had been continually for hundreds of years trying to work with them, teach them, gently correct them, and they refused and refused and refused. So by the time we get to Jeremiah, judgment must come. And yet God is still trying to get them to come back.
So he has Jeremiah preach to them and much of it is hard. God is trying to break thru their hard hearts. So when reading Jeremiah and reading of him telling the Israelites what is going to happen and telling them how displeased God is, it can be a hard read. And it can then be easy to turn some of it off and miss all the good and important timeless truths that God put in the book of Jeremiah.
I have sat thru a slow verse by verse series of Jeremiah and it was kind of a bummer. I am not going to do that. Instead I am concentrating on those sections where I feel my Lord wants us to look at.
Today it is Jer. 6:13-21
Jer 6:13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
I want you to think about this. Does this not sound like the day in which we live? Everyone from the least to the greatest is given to covetousness. Coveting is desiring that which is not yours. To be given to covetousness is to never be satisfied with what you have. Always having to get the lastest, always wanting more than you have.
And always wanting for free what someone else has worked for. Wanting the possessions of others that is what is at the heart of socialism. It is the lazy coveting the possessions of those that have.
I have lived over half a century now. I have seen great changes in our country. It has gotten almost to the point where everyone is given to covetousness at some level.
And in Jeremiah’s day the prophet even unto the priest everyone dealeth falsely. In Jeremiah’s day every man of God was messed up. None of the men who were to be faithful to teach God’s word correctly were doing that. Almost none of them were right with God.
I say almost because there was Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and maybe a few more. But there were so few that percentage wise it could be said that everyone dealeth falsely.
Is this not also what we see today? Percentage wise almost all the people standing up preaching and teaching are using corrupted false bibles. They are saying things that God did not say. I have seen some shocking things said and done by those who are preaching and teaching.
It is almost as bad today as it was in Jeremiahs day. Just like in his day there are still a few who are after God’s heart. But overall today it is bad just like it was when Jeremiah preached these verses.
Jer 6:14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
God has been saying thru Jeremiah and others and for quite a while that you need to turn. That Judgment is coming. But all the mass of false teachers had been saying peace peace. They were telling people what they wanted to hear and not the truth.
They were saying you have peace with God and God will protect His people and don’t listen to Jeremiah. There is peace with God and we have that peace. We are the children of Abraham. And hearing peace peace when there is no peace did as the verse said it healed also the hurt of His people slightly.
Hearing what you want to hear does slightly, temporarily sooth the conscience and make you feel better. But it is not real, and it is not long term.
And were the preachers ashamed at this. Not in the slightest.
Jer 6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
They were not ashamed. They were not at all ashamed. Not even a little bit. The preachers were not ashamed and the people were not ashamed. Both had committed abominations. The preachers with their wrong motives and preaching against what God was saying. And the people with all the worship of false gods and notice it says neither could they blush.
When it started more than likely the first few idol worshipers did it in secret. And if someone called them out on it they would blush. But not anymore. By this time not only is it out in the open but it is now the norm. False god worship is now on every high hill and under every green tree. I mean it is bad. And their society on the whole did not care. They were not ashamed. They were bold in their rejection and rebellion of God.
God says they shall fall among them that fall. So not all will fall. Not all will be cast down. But all those who reject God will.
The Lord is being harsh here, trying to wake people up. But along with God’s attribute of Justice is also mercy, forgiveness, and love. So immediately after the harsh truth of the matter God once again offers mercy, forgiveness and love.
He clearly says it does not have to be that way for you.
Jer 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Just walk in the old ways. Walk in the good way. And ye shall find rest for your souls. Not maybe, but you shall find rest. God says I will make it happen. I am offering it. I am not making it hard.
I have told you what is coming. You have been informed. And you know what I am asking, and it is not difficult, or unreasonable. Just simply return. And God wanted every one of them to hear. He wanted all to have this choice.
Jer 6:17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
He set watchmen, plural, saying to the people listen to God, but they would not. God’s love and mercy demanded that He send men to warn them, to plead with them. And praise God some men said yes, I will say what you want me to Lord. Some men still loved God and loved the souls of men.
Jer 6:18 Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.
Jer 6:19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.
This is so sad. It was such an easy choice. At least it should have been. Just return to the God who loves you and who has done so much for you. But they rejected Him. So God says I will bring evil upon this people.
But notice what evil. Even the fruit of their thoughts. It is the fruit of their thoughts. This evil that is coming to them is the result of the evil of their own thoughts. When you get to the bottom line of it all, it is all self-inflicted.
What we see is another example of God’s universal unescapable law of reaping and sowing. They have sown evil continually for decades, God delayed the reaping and delayed, and pleaded and pleaded, but God will not be mocked a man will reap what he sows.
Since they sowed it and sowed it and sowed it, finally the reaping is coming back upon them. But God is still pleading with them, still offering them mercy.
They refuse. And they were good at deluding themselves. They had a way that they could sooth the conscience and pretend that all was well. They had false preachers telling them that all was ok and they were also having religious services at God’s house.
Never mind they were in the groves the rest of the week worshiping wood and stone. On the Sabbath they were in God’s house.
And after all they were spending real money on those services. No cheap incense. No sir. They are spending big money bringing incense from a far country thinking that God must be pleased with that.
Jer 6:20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.
It did not impress God at all. They were doing services physically. They were attending. They were participating. But their offerings were not acceptable with God. They were just wasting their time and their money.
God is not after the external. He never has been. Their external worship was not what He was after then and that is not what He is after now. It has always been a matter of the heart.
They thought they could satisfy God by going and making offerings and burning expensive incense. And then after satisfying God by going thru the motions, then they could go and do what they really wanted to do and that was burn incense to false gods in the groves and on the high places.
That does not work. You cannot buy God off by faking it and then have your heart on some other god.
Jer 6:21 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.
He goes on to tell how a conquering force will come from the north.
In chapter 6 we see how bad a state they were in. Just how backslidden they were and the depth of their rejection of God.
We also see God still offering mercy, forgiveness and love. And offering blessings. He offered rest for their souls.
We see preachers who have no morals and are teaching falsely. And not ashamed about it and the people are not ashamed of their ways. They have even lost the ability to blush about it. And God is still offering rest for their souls.
And we see they were involved in religious services in God’s house but it was empty. Their hearts were toward other gods. And we see that God was not fooled, and that He did not accept their offerings.
God was after the heart in Jeremiahs day. And God is the same today. He is still after the heart.
Many people give money out of show or duty or thinking that they can satisfy God with that, but they will not give Him their heart. They come to church, go thru the motions, and go worship the gods of self and worse thru the week. Many are acting just like those in Jeremiah’s day. And they have preachers say peace peace about it all.
The New Testament says that the things written aforetime were written for our learning.
We need to worship God in sincerity and truth and not thru empty show. God wants your heart. He wants a sincere two way relationship with each of His children.
God says He does not accept their wrong worship in Chapter 6. Worship done with wrong hearts.
God not accepting offerings, incense, and worship given to Him with the wrong heart is a good lesson. It is a very important lesson that every Christian should take to heart.
One of the great things about our Lord is that He never just says what is wrong or what displeases Him and then stops. He also along with that makes it clear what is right and what does please Him. He does not leave people in the dark scratching their heads wondering what does He want.
He has told us that He is not pleased with wrong worship and and in Chapter 7 God lays out the kind of worship He is looking for. We can also learn from that and will look at that another time.
See more nuggets from Jeremiah