Watch out

Jeremiah 27:16-22

 If we were to give a title to this paper it would be, “Watch out,” yes, watch out for false teachers!  Jeremiah is addressing the priest and the people in regards to what the false prophets were saying.  They were much like men of our day who will not call sin, sin, and only preach a message that is optimistic and upbeat.  What kind of people will be drawn to this type of false teacher?  The answer is found in 2 Timothy 4:3-4. “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

One of my dad’s favorite sayings was; history has a way of being repeated, in that we do not learn from it.  We are not that much different than in the time of Jeremiah because the people were listening to men who said what they wanted to hear, much like it is in 2017.  But Jeremiah was a man who understood this truth that the apostle Paul taught young Timothy many years later; found in 2 Timothy 4:2, “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

The message from the false prophets, “Behold, the vessels of the Lord's house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon.”  But the prophet of the Lord said that is a lie and goes on to tell them to serve the king of Babylon and live.  Jeremiah asked this question; “Why should this city become a desolation?”

Then Jeremiah gives them this word of wisdom. “If they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, then let them intercede with the Lord of hosts, that the vessels that are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.”

Many of us who grew up with Paul Harvey giving the news, always looked forward to the rest of the story, in verses 19-22 we find rest of the story.  “For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take away, when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem— thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: They shall be carried to Babylon and remain there until the day when I visit them, declares the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.”

A word to the wise is sufficient, if you're under the teaching and preaching of the silver tongued one that teaches all is right, and mankind is getting better, run, do not look back.  But find a man of God who tells you the truth of God’s Word, as found in 2 Timothy 4:2, “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice