Jeremiah 15

“O Lord, You know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.  Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts. I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because of Your hand, for You have filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that fail?” Jeremiah 15:15-18 (NKJV)

Why are God’s “chosen” in such trouble? It would be easy to point to their idolatry and the pagan lifestyles they adopted, but those are merely symptoms of a deeper issue. God’s people are in trouble because they have forsaken His Word, the Bible. Now, they are living in the aftermath of how considering God less leads to complete godlessness. Therefore, they suffer His rebuke as if they were pagans simply because they have forsaken God’s Word and adopted pagan values. It is not as though Israel had not been warned. Consider song #1 in their hymnal.

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” Psalm 1:1-3 (NKJV)

So, Israel began to downplay God’s Word generations before Jeremiah’s day. First, they departed from His counsel and chose to include worldly secular ideas in their worship. Next, they began to act and think more worldly. Finally, several generations later, Jeremiah is not dealing with a few rebels who sit in the seat of a mocker; he is dealing with the ASSEMBLY (Nation) of mockers! Now, look at the Church at large today. Do you see a similar trend in our pulpits & pews over the past few generations? Of course, you do! Therefore, we can predict a certain judgment from God on our nation…unless we turn back to Him and His Word. And the sad truth is that when carnal “Christians” undergo difficulty, they run to their church. But if the Church has become corrupted, the carnal pastor with his (or her) corrupt counsel is no better than an unreliable stream. Even when they claim to speak on God’s behalf, their so-called “Biblical” counsel is deeply tainted with worldliness and Biblical contextual illiteracy. They are no better than Job’s friends who claimed to speak on behalf of God, yet their counsel was void of wisdom.

“My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brooks that pass away, which are dark because of the ice, and into which the snow vanishes.” Job 6:15-16 (NKJV)

Let’s seek God’s Word and obey it. Then, we will be prepared to share wise counsel with the lost, hurting & perishing whom the Lord leads our way! (1 Peter 3:15)