How do you handle being told that you are doing something wrong? How do you respond when someone is willing to confront and tell you that you are wrong? I think all of us would like to think that we always do things right. In fact, we might first want to show how the other person is wrong and or does not know what they are talking about rather than admit that we could be wrong and that they are right. But how we handle being told we are wrong or need to change is fundamental to our walk with God because God is always telling us that there is more than needs to change in our lives. God through Jeremiah is going to expose this problem and teach us through a prophecy found in Jeremiah 11. Open your copies of God’s word to Jeremiah 11 and let’s see what God wants us to learn about ourselves and how we respond to him.
The Failure (Jeremiah 11:1-8)
Jeremiah 11 begins with the Lord telling Jeremiah to speak the terms of God’s covenant to the people. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, he told them to listen and do all that he commanded them. In doing so, he would be their God and they would be his people. In other words, God and Israel could be in relationship with each other and therefore bring them into the promised land. However, God also told the people that the person would be cursed if they did not listen to the words of the covenant. Notice in verse 5 that Jeremiah has a response to this message. Jeremiah says, “Amen, Lord.” Amen is giving assent to the reliability of the words spoken. So Jeremiah is confirming the Lord’s words. This is what God said and this is what God did.
Now God proclaims the problem. God told the people to obey the covenant. God sent prophets as messengers telling the people to return and obey the covenant. God even tells Jeremiah now to go through the streets of Judah and Jerusalem and tell them to obey the covenant (11:6). God repeatedly warned his people (11:7). But they did not listen or pay attention to God’s message. Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts (11:8).
God simply and quickly gets the heart of the problem. We do not obey the Lord because we want to follow stubbornly follow our evil hearts. Now this is probably something that we do not want to hear. Who wants to hear that the problem with your life is that you are stubbornly following your evil hearts? We want to make excuses for our sins. We have reasons. You just need to understand my logic and my perspective. But God cuts through all the noise and boils it all down to the reality. God has entered into a covenant with his people and they have stubbornly refused. Instead, they are listening to their evil hearts rather than God’s commands. God just goes straight to the point. Nothing has changed about God’s assessment of humanity. Listen to what we read in the Gospel of John.
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:19-20 ESV)
Notice again that God says that sin is about making a decision and we are deciding that we love the darkness rather than the light. This was Israel’s problem. This is our problem. This is the world’s problem. But I would like us to carefully consider why this is a problem. Look again at Jeremiah 11:4-5. God called for his people to come into covenant with him and obey him so that he would be able to bless his people and be in relationship with his people. Do we look at God in this way? What God wants is to have a relationship with you so that he can love you and bless you. But this cannot happen while we are following our own hearts.
A Conspiracy of Sin (Jeremiah 11:9-17)
Now the Lord comes to Jeremiah and reveals the hearts of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. In verse 9 the Lord reveals to Jeremiah that there is a conspiracy among the people. What we are going to see is the fruit of the conspiracy at the end of this chapter. But the heart of the conspiracy is revealed first. The people have determined to turn back to their sins (11:10). They have decided to go after other gods and serve them. They have broken the covenant that the Lord made with them. God had rescued his people from their harsh slavery. God reminded the people that Egypt was like an iron furnace to them. But God delivered them and made a covenant of life with them. But the people have determined to turn away from God. They decided to not listen to him anymore. They want to follow their own desires and serve their own gods.
Here is the frightening thing that God reveals. If you do not want God in your life, you do not understand how bad that will be for you. We live in a world right now that thinks that God is the cause of our problems. If we could strip out of our culture every vestige of Christianity, then they think the world would be a better place and everyone would be happy. John Lennon’s song Imagine basically said this, which was released in 1971. We are to imagine no heaven or hell. We are to imagine no religion and just people living for today. We simply do not understand what life and the world would be like if this were true. It is so terrifying that is it something you do not want to imagine.
First, God proclaims that disaster must come on the people that they cannot escape. What we can quickly forget is that there must be judgment for evil. God is light. God is just. God cannot let evil remain unpunished. Now look at the rest of verse 11. At some point the people will cry out to God, but God will not listen to them. We cannot turn our back on God and then think he will be there for our deliverance when we have so blatantly rebelled and rejected him. In other words, if you do not want God, then you do not have to have God. If you do not want God in your life, he will grant your request. He will leave you alone. He will not listen to you and he will not respond to you. In verse 12 God says that the people can go make their offerings to their gods and see if they will save them. See if your gods that you are trusting in will save you. Will your hobbies save you? Will your wealth save you? Will your possessions save you? Will your career save you? What is going to save you when your world crashes down? The Lord says that you have as many gods and idols as there are streets in Jerusalem (11:13). So let’s see those things try to help you in your time of need.
Second, God tells Jeremiah to not pray for these people (11:14). This is the second time we have seen God tell Jeremiah to not pray for the people (cf. Jeremiah 7:16). Notice the reason says to not pray for the people in verse 15. God asks what right the people have to come into God’s presence and ask anything from him when you have spent your days carrying out your sinful plans. Do you think that worship or prayer is going to save you when you spend your week filled with sin? Since you do not want God in your life, then stop being fake, thinking that you can throw up a prayer or participate in some act of worship and think that this will appease God and make things better!
A Conspiracy of Death (Jeremiah 11:18-23)
So now God reveals the plans of the people. We have seen the conspiracy in their hearts to reject God while continuing to fake their outward worship. But the people have also plotted to murder Jeremiah. They are going to destroy the tree and its fruit. They are going to cut Jeremiah off from the land of the living so that he and his message will be forgotten. Jeremiah is pictured as a gentle lamb being led to the slaughter. Look at verse 21 because I want you to see who is specifically plotting against Jeremiah. Verse 21 reveals that it is his own hometown that wants to kill him. Jeremiah is from Anathoth. They are threatening Jeremiah, telling him to stop prophesying in the name of the Lord or we will kill you. When confronted with the word of God, they want to kill the messenger. When they were given God’s messages, rather than listening and changing, they determine to kill the speaker so that they won’t have to hear those words anymore. Now we may not act this harshly. Perhaps we do not think that we are going to literally kill the messenger when we hear God’s word proclaimed. But there are other common reactions. When we hear a word we do not want to hear, then we stop talking to that brother or sister in Christ. We no longer want to be friends with them. We might stop coming to worship. We might change churches. Maybe we are not as violent as trying to physically kill the messenger, we definitely choose to reject the messenger. We might slander the messenger. We might discredit the messenger. We might remove ourselves from the reach of the messenger. It is easy to think that we are approachable and teachable. But are we really? Are we open to correction? Will we listen to what others say that is godly and change? Or are we right in our own eyes about what we are doing and are going to continue down the same path no matter what anyone else tries to tell us?
Please think about how this was exactly the problem that Jesus was dealing with when he walked the earth. Rather than listen to Jesus and change their lives, they decided to kill him instead. They led Jesus like a lamb to the slaughter (cf. Isaiah 53:7; Psalm 44:22). Jesus even told a parable of the tenants which revealed the heart of the religious leaders who were trying to seize the kingdom and the power for themselves rather than listen to God’s call to bear fruit (cf. Matthew 21; Mark 12; Luke 20). It is so easy for our reaction to be to reject the messenger rather than allowing the message doing the work. Friends, the message is going to hurt as it does its work on us. Remember what the writer of Hebrews said about God’s word.
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:11-13 ESV)
The word is described as a sword, not a pillow. God’s word is going to make us uncomfortable. God’s word is intended to pierce the soul and discern the heart. The word is attempting to expose what is inside of us. We must let the word do the work and not reject the messenger and the message. The Proverbs say this to us about our need to listen to the message.
Better an open reprimand than concealed love. The wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are excessive. (Proverbs 27:5-6 CSB)
If we think that everyone should applaud all of our life decisions, then we are deceiving ourselves. We need correction. We need counsel. We need direction. We need help. Be willing to listen. Be willing to learn. Be willing to change. Be willing to be corrected. Be open to the word of God and the words of others who are in our lives. Don’t shoot the messenger.