Days 189&190: Jeremiah 5-12

The first thing that grabs my attention in today's reading is this:

A horrible and shocking thing
   has happened in the land:
The prophets prophesy lies,
   the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.
   But what will you do in the end? (5:30-31)

I see two things in here that give me pause. First, and obvious, is the fact that the men who were supposed to be the spiritual leaders were teaching lies. God finds this "horrible and shocking". So do I. Those of us who teach and lead need to constantly check ourselves. Where are we leading people? What are our motives? I'm not simply saying we have to know and understand all the correct "doctrine" (That's really a loaded word, isn't it? It really shouldn't be.)...though we certainly need to make it our lifelong pursuit. I'm talking about our attitudes toward God...and scripture. Do we teach others, by our example, to submit to God in the things we do know and understand? Or do we "rule by our own authority"?

The second thing I noticed, though, is that the "people love it this way". The people tolerated and even encouraged the false teaching with false motives! Why is that? Maybe it's because they said and did things that made people "feel good about themselves" instead of the truth of scripture about our sin. Maybe they devoted their energies to helping people "have their best life now" rather than what it means to have a real relationship with the living and loving, righteous and forgiving God.

Here's another insight into what was going on:

They dress the wound of my people
   as though it were not serious.
‘Peace, peace,’ they say,
   when there is no peace.
Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct?
   No, they have no shame at all;
   they do not even know how to blush. (6:14-15)

Yeah, that sounds a lot like 21st century USA.

No wonder Jeremiah wasn't able to have a best-selling self-help book. (Well...I suppose his book has done ok after his death. I mean it is included in the Bible, after all.) At the time people didn't want to hear his message. In fact, God told him it was going to go badly...

“When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.'" (7:27-28)

This fact gives God (and Jeremiah) no pleasure. I'm not sure if this next passage is expressing God's heart, or Jeremiah's. I think maybe both...

Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
   I mourn, and horror grips me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
   Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing
   for the wound of my people? (8:21-22)

Here's what most people don't get. We all have a tendency to get pretty self-absorbed. We want a God that we can control...not the other way around. God is just not controllable.

No one is like you, LORD;
   you are great,
   and your name is mighty in power.
Who should not fear you,
   King of the nations?
   This is your due.
Among all the wise leaders of the nations
   and in all their kingdoms,
   there is no one like you. (10:6-7)