Bulletin

Bulletin

YOUR PROPHETS

YOUR PROPHETS

 

I was driven to a bank in Ireland, but my friend had parked in a no parking zone, but he assured me that it would be no problem. I said I don’t mind walking farther, but he didn’t want to move the car. So after walking out of the bank together, he saw on his windshield a ticket. Ouch!
Do you warn your friends not to park there?
Similarly, do you warn against the dangers of smoking? Or do you say nothing, until the doc says they have cancer?
Do you warn the gambler of where that behavior leads?
Sometimes a whole nation has “prophets”, who fail to point out the major flaws in the behavior of the country. Who are these prophets?
“Your prophets” may be the mother or father who fails to correct their children.
“Your prophets” may be the friends who enable you to continue to smoke without criticism.
“Your prophets” may be the school, teacher & principal, who gives you a passing grade. But when you get out of high school you are not able to read.
These kinds of prophets fail to point out critical errors. So the outcome is disobedient children, self-inflicted cancer, and illiteracy. (Yes, many cancers are not self-inflicted.).
And the bigger the issues are, the bigger the consequences.  
Israel found itself  being conquered and captured. They woke up in a land they didn’t know and hearing a language that wasn’t Hebrew. They found themselves slaves again!
Why did this happen is the question they found themselves asking every day. Jeremiah had told them all long the sins they were committing, but Jeremiah was not “their prophet”. They didn’t want to listen to Jeremiah say, “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and   offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after  other gods that you have not known, then  come and stand before Me in  this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ — that you may do all these abominations?” (Jeremiah 7:9-10). They mocked Jeremiah at such old fashion ideas!
They had other prophets who told them good things, pleasant things!
      “Your  prophets have seen for you
    False and foolish visions;
    And they have not  exposed your iniquity
    So as to restore you from captivity,
    But they have  seen for you false and misleading  oracles.” (Lam. 2:14).     
We all end up choosing our own prophets, and therefore our own end. May the prophet you choose, be God’s prophet, Jesus Christ. May he expose all our sins, that we may get rid of them. "So that you will  prove yourselves to be  blameless and innocent,  children of God above reproach in the midst of a  crooked and perverse generation, among whom you   appear as  lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15).  Amen! Choose wisely.      Dan. Peters