Jeremiah 8:4-11

“Tell them this, GOD’s Message:

“Do people fall down and not get up? Or take the wrong road and then just keep going? So why does this people go backwards, and just keep on going–backwards! They stubbornly hold on to their illusions, refuse to change direction.

I listened carefully but heard not so much as a whisper. No one expressed one word of regret. Not a single “I’m sorry” did I hear. They just kept at it, blindly and stupidly banging their heads against a brick wall. Cranes know when it’s time to move south for winter. And robins, warblers, and bluebirds know when it’s time to come back again.

But my people? My people know nothing, not the first thing of GOD and his rule.”"How can you say, “We know the score. We’re the proud owners of GOD’s revelation”? Look where it’s gotten you–stuck in illusion. Your religion experts have taken you for a ride! Your know-it–alls will be unmasked, caught and shown up for what they are. Look at them! They know everything but GOD’s Word. Do you call that “knowing”?

“”So here’s what will happen to the know-it–alls: I’ll make them wifeless and homeless. Everyone’s after the dishonest dollar, little people and big people alike. Prophets and priests and everyone in-between twist words and doctor truth. My dear Daughter–my people–broken, shattered, and yet they put on band-aids, Saying, “It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.” But things are not “just fine”!

I want to write a lot here, but I will hold off till tomorrow to add a longer post that doesn’t overwhelm readers if I were to add it more this one. But I do want to raise a few items of interest.

Firstly there were times in the New Testament where Jesus reinterpreted a passage to make it connect with himself, and so i want to suggest that we can do something of the same here. This passage brings with it something contemporary that i think we shouldn’t overlook just because this book was written to the Jews in Israel between 630 and 580 BC.

Secondly, for those of you who know me I think this speaks volumes to the current state of the church and its thought that the way it has been doing things has to stay the same. People talk of this in terms of changing the methods but not the message, and I’m boldly going to suggest that the message to some degree must change if the methods do. Much like in the passage above, saying things are fine when they are not, and telling religious people what they want to hear.

I don’t think that our churches are ignorant to the changing times, but the means by which they are adjusting to these times seem to me to be ignorant…then again maybe i’ll eat my own words.

More tomorrow…