Jeremiah 43 is a sad picture of how we live too often. Johanan and the leaders have just finished listening to Jeremiah. They have seen Jeremiah’s words, which are actually God’s words, come true previously and Jeremiah has just told them God’s plan to have them stay where they were and not go to Egypt which was their plan. So what do these leaders do? They accuse Jeremiah of being a “liar” and speaking a message that was not from God. Sort of a stupid approach since everything Jeremiah has said prior has happened just like he said it. It should have been a clue that he was pretty well plugged in to the truth. But these leaders, “and the people with them… wouldn’t listen to God’s message”. Do you see what I see? The truth was proclaimed but the leaders and the followers CHOOSE not to listen. They don’t even say it isn’t true, they just refuse to listen. That is the kind of disobedience that brings a reaction from the Father. Blatent, in His face, I am going to ignore what you say disobedience. Scripture describes it here as “total disobedience of God’s message”. Seems kind of short sighted and stupid doesn’t it? Well let’s look at today and see how we are doing…..
God’s truth has been given to us clearly. We have a distinct advantage compared to our brothers and sisters in the Bible. It is written and readily available for us. We just have to read it. That is the first thing that many of us fail at – just taking time to read and understand the truth God has already given us. We somehow think we will pick it up at church, on the radio, from a small group or study – that is good stuff but not the way we really learn God’s truth. We have to dig in and read and study it. We have to spend time praying over it. We have to CHOOSE to take it in every day. Are you making that choice? Is God’s Word in your diet every day?
But more importantly is what we do with it once we do know it. How do we live life? Scripture is clear that husbands should “love their wives as Christ loved the church”. What does that look like? Total sacrifice – Jesus went to the cross for the church. No man should ever feel like he has done enough to love his wife. Wives are told to “be subject to their husbands”. Submission – a word that no one seems to want to deal with anymore. It doesn’t mean becoming a slave, it means to come under the protection of your husband and put him in a place of responsibility and authority. God says it pretty clearly: “I hate divorce”. Yet we want to make excuses and pretend everything is ok when marriages fall apart. There are hundreds of areas like this we could call out. Johanan and the people were disobedient to God’s Word – but what about us? What about you?
