DAY 307

WHEN YOU HEAR TWO DIFFERENT VOICES

Jeremiah 27, 28 & 29 and Titus 3

I hope you are getting a picture of this man Jeremiah—in these chapters he has donned a yoke! Not only that, he is wearing it in the presence of the visiting envoys of some kings. It would be like a prophet wearing a yoke in front of the Secretary of State. Jeremiah is quite the character…or rather God is quite the character; for it is God who directs this action. In 27:1-11 we see this yoke as proclaiming the worldwide sovereignty of God.

Not everyone agrees. I am sure the Babylonian King does not agree, but also the other so-called prophets of the day do not agree. From 27:12 through all of chapter 28 Jeremiah is challenged by false prophets. His reaction is interesting. To some of the positive albeit false prophecies Jeremiah says, “Amen, May the Lord do so…” (28:6). I can learn something from this guy—he knows they are wrong, but he commits it to the Lord.

It is not only the false prophets in Jerusalem, it is the false prophets in the exiled lands that Jeremiah is called to confront. In chapter 29 he writes a letter to them telling them to live there and letting them know that God will, after 70 years, deliver them. Other so-called prophets have other ideas.

I wonder what the people thought when they were hearing two different voices—voices from their religious leaders – one of whom had a yoke around his neck. What do you do? We do hear different voices. Some say “this-and-that” is OK, and others that say “this-and-that” is NOT OK. Other voices say things such as “God wants to heal you” and still others that won’t make such claims. What do we do?

We need to turn to God’s Word. The people of Jeremiah’s day had the Torah. Was all the Jeremiah saying in line with God and His Word, or counter to it? Now God’s Word didn’t say much about how many years they would stay in Babylon, but Jeremiah had been saying a lot of things about repentance, while the other prophets had been saying everything was OK. Jeremiah had been saying a lot of things about how the exile was going to happen, while others were saying “don’t worry.” The point is Jeremiah had a track record. One way we test what teachers say is to look at the total sum of what they are saying, how it lines up with God’s Word, and how what they say may or may not come to pass…and…ask God…pray.