Your prophets courted you with sweet talk. They didn’t face you with your sin so that you could repent. Their sermons were all wishful thinking, deceptive illusions. (Lamentations 2:14 The Message)
Truth About Sin
What would you think if I chose my automobile mechanic based on how often he told me good news, whether it was true or not? What would you think if I chose a doctor based on whether he only told me how healthy I am, whether it was true or not? What would you think if I only read books that agreed with me, entered discussions with those who only said nice things, or hired employees who only told me what I wanted to hear?
I expect, rightly so, that you would frown at me.
Our God, in love, does not speak like that to us. He tells us the truth, particularly about our sin.
He calls our sin, sin.
The people of Judah rejected that kind of message. They only wanted to hear from prophets who told them how good they were, how faithful they were, how valuable they were, how cool they were.
But God, in love, does not speak like that to us.
The words of the prophets that Jeremiah mentions here, those words that tickled ears, those words that were easy and pleasant… those words were not from God. And those words were left behind in the rubble of Jerusalem.
But the words of the prophets that spoke God’s truth, they were Scripture and we still have them today.
We do not have to listen to the false prophets. We have the true prophets sifted out from the others.
Written in the Bible.
We are peculiar, we can hear God’s Words about the nature of our sin.
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