Jer 51:54-52:34 | PS 100:1-5 | Prov 26:18-19 | Titus 3:1-15
Many of us have an inherent resistance to change. We get comfortable in our surroundings. We adopt a neighborhood, establish roots, and crave maintaining the status quo. When a prophet of God, who has proven himself reliable time and time again tells you that where you have laid down your roots will not last, what would you do? Not liking this prophecy would you ride it out? Would you seek to discredit the prophet? All this not because the prophet is false, but because of your insatiable desire not to have to change. So, as we come to the conclusion of Jeremiah, all of what he foretold came true, and those who refused to leave Jerusalem suffered the consequences. Interestingly 70 years later, also as prophesied, King Cyrus would allow the Jewish people to leave Babylon and return to Jerusalem, he would provide for the rebuilding of the temple, etc., as we read in Ezra 1:1-4. But now the people were comfortable in their new homes and neighborhoods in Babylon, having set up new roots for 70 years. Though the invitation extended to all the Jewish people, only 2%, or roughly 50,000 of the 2 million people actually went back to Jerusalem.
At times the prophets seemed to not make sense, or seemed to contradict one another. Besides freeing ourselves of our desire for consistency in our lives we need to all free ourselves by realizing that we are just not that smart. God is all-knowing, we are not. Even if we can't figure it out, God has already figured it out, and what He says will indeed come to fruition. We read in Ezekiel 12:13, concerning King Zedekiah, "I will also spread My net over him, and he shall be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there." Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel were prophets, at the same time, Ezekiel living in Babylon, taken in the 2nd Babylonian siege in 597 BC. How can this king be brought to Babylon, yet not see it? Though beforehand this seems contradictory, we read in Jeremiah 52:11, after the king was forced to watch the execution of all of his sons, " He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death." He was indeed brought to Babylon, but never saw it, as he was rendered blind. In a similar fashion, years before, in the midst of a devastating famine, Elisha prophesied that the next day, there would be plenty for everyone to eat. An officer scoffed at this prophecy as we read in 2 Kings 7:2, "So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” And he said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”" This seems contradictory, why would the officer see and not eat of it, until we read in 7:17, 20, "Now the king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. But the people trampled him in the gate, and he died, just as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him...And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died."
We need to keep our eyes on God and not this earth. We need to be ready to follow God whenever and wherever He may lead us, and not resist due to earthly comforts. We must realize that homes, neighborhoods, families, are all good things, but they can become the idols that we seek to please rather than actually following God. We should not run every time we get a feeling or a whim, but when we are led by the Spirit, and it is confirmed by Scripture, then we do not want to run ahead or lag behind the moving of the Holy Spirit. God will indeed lead us, He will never forsake us, He will protect us. The question for all of us is do we seek Him or do we seek ourselves and our own ingenuity and our own comforts more.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: