Jeremiah 34.2-3 2 “This
is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and
tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the
hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. 3 You will not escape from
his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands. You will see
the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to
face. And you will go to Babylon.
From the time of the ancients, there has been prophesy: a
telling of the truth. Some tend to think of prophesy as some kind of
fortune-telling, a fortune cooking; but it really is a telling of the truth.
The Bible is full of prophetic messages. The ones that get me are the ones like
Jeremiah told Zedekiah the king: you will
go to Babylon. Jeremiah told the truth. Zedekiah went to Babylon…
The problem with truth-telling is often it is not
received as truth by the hearer. In 1 Samuel there is an account of a prophet
who told Eli the priest, the truth:
The time is coming when I will cut short
your strength and the strength of your priestly house, so that no one in it
will reach old age, and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good
will be done to Israel, no one in your family line will ever reach old age. Every
one of you that I do not cut off from serving at my altar I will spare only to
destroy your sight and sap your strength, and all your descendants will die in
the prime of life. (1 Samuel 2.31-33)
And it happened. My question has always been, did Eli
disregard the prophet’s words or did he try to clean up his act? Did he go to
God and cry out in repentance or did he simply respond with a careless: That’s nice. What did Eli think on the day
this truth all came to pass? Did he remember?
And how about Zedekiah, whose suspicions of Jeremiah’s ‘treachery’
ran high? What did he think when Jeremiah told him: “this is what the Lord says…”
and he actually stood in front of
Nebuchadnezzar? And, is prophesy valid today? Are there those who hear from God
and then tell the truth?
And what about me? As I read God’s word, does it tell me
the truth and do I listen? Do I read the Word in my present circumstances and
pine, O! I wish I had listened! What
do I think when I read Proverbs 1 and Wisdom says:
But since you refuse to listen when I call
and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all
my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes
you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you— when calamity overtakes you like
a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and
trouble overwhelm you… Proverbs 1.24-27
What do we do
when someone tells us the truth? How do we respond? And when we find ourselves
in a predictable sticky wicket, do we remember the truth that was told?
Lord, You tell me
the truth – it is up to me to listen. If I don’t, then there are consequences
and that is that. But with You there is always room for repentance. See mine.
Help me. Thank You! Amen.
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