Don't Preach To Us

Jeremiah 11:21-23

A couple of my recent posts have been about lies to silence the proclaiming of God’s word.  Some of those lies have included the misuse of scripture.  People entangled in sin, be they lost or saved, do not want to become disentangled. Our human nature (flesh) desires (lusts) against God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:17).  In the lost person it is actually slavery to the sin that entangles it.  In the believer, it is immaturity and rebellion.  To be fair, sometimes this is done in ignorance, but it is still immaturity and rebellion against God’s holiness. 

Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, and say, “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand”— therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: “Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine, and none of them shall be left. For I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.”

Jeremiah 11:21-23

The people in the city of Anathoth did not want Jeremiah preaching his message.  God had pronounced a message of judgment on Judah because of their rebellion against Him and their worship of idols.  They told Jeremiah to stop preaching and actually threatened him with violence and death.  Jeremiah did not obey them.

While they planned to silence and kill Jeremiah, God turned their plans on them.  He said that He was going to silence Anathoth and kill them. This would come through judgment by the sword.  Their young men would die in combat (self-defense) and their sons and daughters would die of famine (starvation).  God was going to judge His enemies, even those of the house of Judah.

If God would judge Israel and Judah, those who He called His chosen people, how much more will He judge other nations?  Ancient Babylon is a great example.  What about Persia?  Or Greece?  Even the Roman empire rotted from the inside.  America is rotting today too.  All of these nations rejected God and His preachers.  They wanted to silence them.

Christian, there is a warning in this for you as well.  III John 1:9 says, “I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority”.  Diotrephes, a leader in the church, rejected God’s word written through John the Apostle.  He not only blocked the church from hearing the letter, but he slandered John as well.  We are quite capable of getting caught up in our own agendas that we do the same.  John says in the next verse that when he comes, he is going to bring Diotrephes up before the church for judgment.

John said in his first letter, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (I John 4:1).  Don’t believe everyone who calls themselves preachers.  Test what they say against the Word of God.  This requires study.  Paul said of the Bereans, “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).  Be like the Bereans, not the people of Anathoth.