Mike
Scriptures 1 Samuel 7:3 Jeremiah 26 to 29.
We live in the 21st century in an age of intense communication, if something happens anywhere in the world, we will be told about it within hours of it happening. The speed with which Covid-19 travelled around the world was just an indication of the way communication travels.
We also have internet, e-mail, facebook, twitter, ipods, and mobile phones that can access all of the above from our armchairs, all of which inspires us to be focused on worldly events and circumstances that are way beyond our ability to remedy them.
I think that our 21st Century approach to communication has given us a distorted perception of the scriptures. In some ways it clouds our judgement. We have accepted the decades of subtle changes that look “good for food”, just like Eve in the garden, the serpent encourages us to eat of the tree knowledge of good and evil.
We live in what used to be called a Christian country, in an age of “Grace”, but have we been lulled into a false sense of security about how we live and what it meant for God to send His Son to die for us? Have we forgotten that, while we are saved by Grace, our lives must change, there should be a cost to us. We have been bought with a price, and God asks us to display His nature to a world that is so over communicated that it has allowed the true gospel of Jesus Christ to be eroded and leavened to the point that church leaders condone and perform same sex unions, accept that abortion and euthanasia are OK, and are proud of it.
What is happening now is only what God has been telling the nation through the prophets for centuries.
1 Samuel 7:3 And Samuel spoke unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve Him only: and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
Jeremiah 26 to 29 details the prophecy received by Jeremiah in the reign of Jehoiakim. He asks the people to repent of their evil ways and then God will reverse the captivity that is to come upon them. Their answer was to call for the death of Jeremiah, which God obviously did not allow at this time.
As a result, Jeremiah now tells them to make “bonds and yokes and put them upon your necks" because they have been given into the hands of the King of Babylon and, if they are prepared to serve him, it will go well with then. But the false prophet Hananiah opposed this message and broke the yoke of wood from the neck of Jeremiah and told the people that within two years the Lord would break the yoke of the King of Babylon.
God sent Jeremiah to Hananiah and told him to say that because they had broken the yoke of wood they had made, instead they would now have a yoke of iron. No-one was going break this yoke, the time frame of their captivity was fixed, and now the consequences were heavier.
Jeremiah tells Hananiah "The Lord hath not sent thee, but you are making this people to trust a lie". (Unfortunately, exactly what is happening today).
The outcome of this false prophecy, that changed the length of time of the captivity and offered promises of peace, was judgement. And the false prophet "was to be cast from the face of the earth".
Jeremiah was left with the unenviable task of now telling the people that the yoke of wood was now a yoke of iron. Judah was to be carried into captivity, the city would be smitten, the temple destroyed and the people would now endure great hardship for a period of 70 years.
In today’s Jewish calendar, the new year celebration is the two days of Rosh Hashanah, which are the pre-courser to the ten Days of Awe, culminating in the major day of fasting called the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. It is both a time of rejoicing, a time to celebrate the completion of another year, while also taking stock of one’s life. A time for repentance and a time to prepare their hearts for the coming year.
The times that we are now living in, with its false teaching and apostasy, is a time for us, as believers in Christ, to prepare our hearts. And, as Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel, not to be bowed down and despairing, but to “look up for your redemption draws nigh”.
Prayer: Father God, open the eyes of our hearts that we may see Your Truth and Your Truth alone, that we may live lives that reflect Your Glory and bring honour to Your Name. Amen
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