One of the heroes of the Bible is the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah. People today name their boys Jeremiah; it’s quite a prestigious name. Ironically, Jeremiah was not so popular when he lived and prophesied in Jerusalem.
As a matter of fact, Jeremiah was severely abused by the last king of Judah and was considered a traitor to his country by the leadership.
Times for Jeremiah were good at the beginning of his prophetic ministry.
King Josiah of Judah liked and respected Jeremiah as a prophet of God.
Of course, there’s something you should know about Josiah; he was a king who loved God and sought to bring all of Israel in line to worship the One True God. So, God’s king and God’s prophet got along smashingly well. Then Josiah died.
After Josiah’s death, there were no more God-honoring kings of Judah all the way down to it’s complete collapse in 586 B.C.
All four of those last kings were evil, and Jeremiah was charged by God with making negative prophecies concerning their fate, and the fate of Jerusalem itself. The good prophetic ride ended with Josiah’s death. Jeremiah became public enemy number one to the wicked administrations that followed.
Zedekiah was the last of the four wicked kings, and we have an interesting scenario. Jeremiah knows that Judah is going to fall to the Babylonians because the people of Judah, including the king, have turned their backs on God.
Now don’t misunderstand; they spoke politely of God…had God tokens around their houses…even observed some old-time-religion rituals.
However, they did not follow God. Hmmm…people that talk religion but don’t serve God—I think I’ve seen that myself here and there. Because of their rejection of God, Jeremiah publicly prophesied that Judah would be pounded by the Babylonians and that the influential Jews would be deported to foreign lands.
King Zedekiah treated Jeremiah like a traitor. Who wants to hear the depressing truth?!
Jeremiah even went to jail for his prophesying, while false prophet after false prophet were prophesying that Judah would overcome and thrive.
Everyone loves a message of hope...right?
Who cares if it’s true or not?!
Through all the persecution and without friends, Jeremiah stayed true to his calling from God. He did moan to God on occasion about the loss of his prestigious social circle, but he stayed true to God nonetheless.
Let’s face it; Jeremiah’s truth prophesying was offensive to political correctness. After all God had miraculously done for Israel in their very rich heritage under God’s protection, now they had turned their backs on God’s will, and accordingly, had no use for the doomsday-prophecies of Jeremiah.
As a matter of fact, because Jeremiah would not tow the official rhetoric of the corrupt administration, he was treated as a traitor of Judah.
Here’s the deal: Those who reject God adamantly oppose those who honor God. That was true in Jeremiah’s day; it’s true today.
Isn’t it ironic that many in our nation today regard our nation’s real problems to be the fault of conservative Bible-believing Christians.
We’re treated as though our narrow-minded perspective with regard to our society’s fast-paced trip toward hedonism is the source of all of our national turmoil.
News flash…this has been repeated over and over again in history—repeatedly in Old Testament scripture. The righteous were almost always treated as though they were the real public enemy.
Jesus said this in John 15:18-19, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
Well, there it is: Stand for God, and those God-rejecting, politically-correct deceivers in high-influence positions in our country will hate us for it. They seek vindication, not truth.
The more we hold high the truth of God’s Word, the more we call upon our nation to seek God, the more we will be ridiculed and dismissed as lunatics.
What happened to the days when people cared about what God thinks. Fact is—it’s kinda unsettling to think that God allowed ancient Israel, a nation with such a rich history of God dependence, to fall into captivity after they came to a point where they disregarded God. When Israel honored God, they were blessed by God. When they turned their backs on God, they were conquered and destroyed by their enemies.
Is there any kind of a lesson here that we ought to be giving some heed to?
God has richly poured his blessings out on our nation. Yet, as a nation, we’re leaving God behind in our dust as society speeds down the road toward debauchery.
Meanwhile, most Christians have been shamed into remaining silent; they aren’t vocal, and they certainly don’t want to ruffle any feathers. Listen: When Judah fell to the enemy, the righteous people suffered just like the wicked. Christians…we DO have a stake in the future of our nation. Let’s stand up! Let’s be vocal!
Pastor Wayne Turner of Fayette Bible Church in Fayetteville is also the author of Bible Track, an online daily Bible-reading schedule and commentary which may be accessed at http://www.bibletrack.org.
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