My people are foolish

My people are foolish

Jeremiah 4:22-5:6

The intellectual and visionary of today is often characterized by their ability to think differently. In fact, it is this need to find new ways of thinking, novel methods of analyzing data and discovering esoteric explanations for what is obvious, that defines modern scholarship. It has infected biblical scholarship as well. All doctorate students and professor wannabes find they have to “publish or perish”, and to publish means to find new explanations for established truths.

That is why seminaries are producing “research” that change the obvious truths of scripture. When the Bible says that man has a sinful nature, there is little to debate. But bible scholars need to publish and appear to be thinkers. So they analyse and dissect the word sin, sinful and sin nature. They redefine the terms. And in the process, change the intent of what God says.

It goes to both extremes. At a recent seminar in South East Asia, a prosperity gospel preacher said we have to engage culture to be relevant to modern man. So his church uses songs by Lady Gaga and other pop icons at service. Those who attend say that the church service resembles a rock concert. The words of God, “worship in spirit and in truth” is made to mean something else. On the other hand, we see the US Episcopal church consecrating a lesbian bishop. We are told that modern research “proves” that homosexuality is normal. The modern versions of the bible have replaced the word homosexuality with “sexual immorality”, because modern biblical scholarship says this is the ‘correct” meaning. In a few years, the next generation will never know the true word of God.

Jeremiah called his people “fools”. A fool is not a stupid person, as we may think. A fool is actually an intelligent person who is misled. He is duped by someone or chooses to be misled because he cannot accept the truth.

1. My people are foolish – they have not known Me (4:22). The people of Judah chose not to know God, because it would affect their cushy life. God called them silly children. They had no understanding of the consequences of their foolishness. Are we behaving like silly little children? We need to really look at whether we know God. To know God is to know His heart. And we then do not change or obfuscate His word. Do you know God? He wants to know you. Just seek Him by sitting still and asking Jesus to reveal himself to you.
2. They are foolish – for they do not know the way of the Lord (5:4). For those who did know God, they were not in the way of the Lord. They were either disobedient or indifferent. Israel at that time ignored almost all of what God was telling them about Himself. They listened to the ‘prophets” who told them what they wanted to hear. Are you listening to pastors and teachers who tell you what you want to hear? Or are you listening to the Lord? There are many clear propositions in the Bible. Do we ignore or disobey inconvenient teaching sin the Bible? If so, these passages call us fools. Do we want to be foolish in the eyes of God or man? The choice is yours and mine.