When Leaders listen to the wrong voice

Jeremiah 10:1-5

Evil leaders can have a profound influence on a nation, if you do not understand this look at effects of the wickedness of King Manasseh and Amon had instituted in Judah.  When Josiah succeeded Amon, the young Josiah walked in the ways of King David and when at 18 years of age he called for the repair of the temple and the law of Moses was found, the young king lead his people back to the ways of God.   But a stronghold of evil was in the nation and its inhabitants.  The Egyptians killed Josiah, and his son succeeds him but is deposed and replaced by his brother, Jehoiakim sometime around 609 B.C.   King Nebuchadnezzar attacks Jerusalem and leads the citizens of Judah into exile.

It has been more than a century that the ten northern tribes were in exile when this message from God came to them; Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: “Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, for the customs of the peoples are vanity.”  It has been more than 100 years in captivity.  God is telling people whom many have only heard about the history of Israel and Judea, and many have accepted the culture and the false gods of Babylon, for that is the culture they know, and God is saying do not learn their ways.  They are the worshippers of false gods that cannot move, they were cut in a forest and a workman decorated it with silver and gold.  God tells them they have no power for good or evil, and they are like scarecrows in a cucumber field.

Now let's look at the nation of my birth, a great nation, a nation that broke away from a monarchy ruled by a royal family.  England at that time was a powerful nation who was a world power.  However, the people who desired freedom broke free, but it was the hand of God that established this nation.  For years it looked to God and did the right thing, it fought in two World Wars, that let other countries have freedom, and with some reluctance it helped Israel become a nation in 1948, but its men came back from war, and things began to change.

For the first time, a new little god called success, or I can have more than the Jones’s came into play, and this false god only wanted to bless you with more and more and he only asks in return for you to want more than you need.  To put your desires before God and others looking to pleasure and the stuff money can buy.

He showed us that layaway took too long and the wait was not needed, all one needed was credit and he also taught us how to max out the credit cards, and how not to meet a commitment to both families, wives, and God.  With the television, we allowed all kinds of evil into our home and minds, and we put our Bibles on the shelf and looked to talking heads and T.V. stars to set the culture.  We allowed this little god who had no power to grow, and we sent men and women to our Congress consumed with the power, and they became as the monarchy we broke away from in 1776.

So as a people who claim to be of the family of the only living God, the Creator of heaven and earth, is it time to hear and do what God has called His chosen people to do in Jeremiah’s time?  Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: “Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them,
for the customs of the peoples are vanity.”

Maybe this call to us from the apostle Peter is what we are needing: “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:13-21)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice