Tuesday, February 28: Lamentations 2- A Word to Religious Leaders.

 

The cries and pain continue to pour from Jeremiah. The most dreaded has happened. Emotions flow in torrents. I see videos of 9/11, loop in my mind as I read, people running covered in dust. World Trade towers crumbling, screams, and jumpers… panic everywhere.

Jeremiah’s tears flood as he laments his ‘9/11.’

Verse 14 caught my eye: The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading. Those who should have warned Jerusalem, who should have protected Jerusalem, failed. More so they were a major component of the problem. The prophets should have spoken up.  They should have heard from the Lord and steered Jerusalem to safety. Instead they gave false words and steered Jerusalem into disaster.

Last month a Carnival Cruise captain piloted his ship into the rocks off Italy’s shores. Like the prophets, he disregarded the known maps and took his ship where it should not have gone. Disaster resulted. Dozens died as the captain abandoned ship. A sad but fitting metaphor for what happened in Judah.

When leaders in God’s house do not do their job, when they don’t offer the true word of the Lord and allow (even steer) people to run outside the safety of God’s Word, disaster happens.

Pray for church leaders. Pray that they remain faithful and teach God’s Word. Pray hard.

Lord, my heart breaks for some of the things I see happening in Your church today…

Lord, I pray that I remain faithful to Your Word.  That Your Word would shape and mold me, my thinking and my living. Lord, I pray that Your Word would be the plumb line against which I align my life, my thoughts, my behaviors. Through Jesus, the Living Word, I pray. Amen.

 

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