Burning Fire

Jeremiah 20:9 (here @ Bible Gateway) is a passage that both challenges and encourages me.  It also seems to provide a metric of sorts for us.

The context is telling.  Jeremiah has been sharing the Word that the Lord has given him.  The result, in the immediate context, he is beaten and put in the stocks.  Throughout the book when Jeremiah shares the Word of God he is rejected, beaten, imprisoned, or worse.

Regardless of the result, Jeremiah cannot contain himself, he has to share the Word the Lord has given him.

That is a challenge.  Do I have such a love, reference, and heart for God that I am unable to refrain from sharing what I have learned from Him?  A better question may be, am I learning anything?

In no way would I suggest that I have the attitude that Jeremiah had.  There are times though that as a result of my time in the Word there are things that I want to share; actually, must share.

I wonder if that is the measure of abiding?  We spend time with the Lord in His Word to the point where we can’t wait to share with someone what we saw in our time with Him in His Word.  If that is the case, think of how the command to build one another up might be impacted.

Control

The Bible continually intrigues me.  For instance, Judges 7:2 (here @ Bible Gateway).  Here the Lord tells Gideon that is army is too big.  The Lord doesn’t want Gideon and the nation to reason that they had won on the strength of the army.  It was God who was going to deliver them.

The Lord then takes the army through a two-phase process that took the army down to 300 from 32,000.  Significant difference.

Now look at 2 Chronicles 20:17 (here @ Bible Gateway).  The Lord instructs Jehoshaphat that he doesn’t need to fight with those who are coming against him.  He tells him to take the army out and stand and see what the Lord does.  He essentially is having the army as an observer.  He then routs the enemy without Jehoshaphat’s army lifting a finger.

He doesn’t need us.

But in some cases, like Gideon, he allows participation.  In others, like Jehoshaphat, the Lord lets him watch.  In both cases the Lord did all the work even though in one case he allowed participation.

This contrast, this reality, raises at least one question for which I have no inkling of an answer.  Why?  Why does the Lord act differently in each of these cases?  On the one hand He allows Gideon minimal participation, on the other He forbids Jehoshaphat to engage.  What were the reasons for the difference?  Was there something about these men that caused the Lord to act differently?  We do not seem to have any data to come to a reasonable answer to any of those questions.

That is frustrating.  Being trained as an engineer and pilot, I have difficulty with uncertainty.

One thing here though is certain.  If we think we are in control of what is going on, if we think we can affect the outcome of a battle, be it spiritual or in a human war, we are mistaken.  Throughout the text of the Old Testament and supported by the descriptions of God’s nature and character in the New Testament, this is His story.  He is firmly in control.

That is the one clear thing.  It is also a bright, unwavering beacon of hope.

Earmarks of Apostasy

If you have spent any time in Jeremiah (here @ Bible Gateway), you will note that, from the way we normally measure success, Jeremiah’s ministry was not a success.  However, it is not our normal measure that counts.

Look at Jeremiah 18:18 (here @ Bible Gateway) for a minute – note that if you haven’t been with Jeremiah for a while, I would recommend spending some time with him.  It was a privilege a couple of years ago to be able to study the book four times in succession.  On one of the overviews as I was reading the book for the second or third time, I began to weep.  It seemed I was reading a commentary on the current state of the Church.

In 18:18 (here @ Bible Gateway) notice the list, priest, sage, and prophet.  That is a partial list, a subset of a longer list that includes kings, rulers, princes, priests, prophets, sages, and the people.  Some form of that combination appears about 25 times in the book.  In all but one or two cases the reference to the group is negative.  It is negative in the sense that the leaders of the people, the first six on that list, have abandoned the Word of God for their own ideas, visions, and dreams.  Chapter 23 (here @ Bible Gateway) is God’s analysis and unfiltered opinion of their behavior.

Back to 18:18 (here @ Bible Gateway), these leaders are plotting together to discredit the one person in the book who is holding fast to God’s Word.  They are sure that they are right that they have the law, the appropriate counsel, and the divine Word.  However, we know from the rest of the book, they do not.  They have substituted their ideas or perhaps read their prejudice into God’s Word.

The result?  When the people are called to repentance, there is no foundation for repentance because their leaders have fed them on lies and not the Word of God.

We are starting a new year.  But we are dealing with this old problem still.  There are many in leadership who have abandoned the Word of God for their own agenda.  I am not thinking primarily of secular leaders but of those who are identified as Christian leaders.

Issues on which the Bible is clear have been called into question and we see churches embracing the world’s view rather than staying with what the Bible says.  Sure, it makes them more acceptable to their communities, but having compromised on one issue, it becomes much easier to abandon the next.  So we see ordained homosexuals, churches are embracing more than one gender, translation committees are changing the translation of Greek and Hebrew to be more acceptable to non-Christians, Churches and Christian organizations are placing women in authority over men, the list could go on…

One of the ways one can tell that there is a problem with a position is the amount of ink that it takes to explain why the Bible doesn’t really mean what the words say.  The more books, articles, blogs, etc. that are written explaining away, say 1 Timothy 2:12 (here @ Bible Gateway), you can bet there is an agenda driving that volume.

The other sign is the same thing that happened to Jeremiah.  Those who have taken a position counter to the Word of God attack, attempt to discredit, and get people to ignore those who still hold positions that are stated in the Bible that they don’t like.

Some things do not change.