LESSONS FROM JEREMIAH – PART 23 – THE RELIGIOUS CLASSES WERE SUPERFICIAL AND ACTED CORRUPTLY – CHALLENGES – GREEDY AND FALSE
PART 23 - Jeremiah 6:13-15
CHAPTER 6
[A]. GOD LISTS SOME OF THE REASONS FOR THE COMING DESTRUCTION IN JUDAH
{{Jeremiah 6:13 “for from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is GREEDY FOR GAIN, and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. Jeremiah 6:14 They have HEALED THE BROKENNESS OF MY PEOPLE SUPERFICIALLY, saying, ‘PEACE, PEACE,’ BUT THERE IS NO PEACE. Jeremiah 6:15 Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all. They did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall. At the time that I punish them, they shall be cast down,” says the LORD.”}}
VERSE 12 was the outcome of the judgement issuing from God’s outstretched hand, but verses 13 to 15 provide some of the reasons for that judgement. Verse 11 covered the ages of those who would end in destruction, from the youngest even to the oldest, and this passage covers the extent of the wickedness of that range, from the least even to the greatest. From the most insignificant member of society to those in high places and those in political and spiritual leadership, every one of them is greedy. The greed was for personal advancement in the gaining of wealth and desires. It is an awful situation for when money becomes the god of a nation, materialism and all associated evils are present.
(a). VERSE 13
The taking of bribes, corruption, cheating and perjury, dishonesty, extortion, false promises and even murder, threatening and stealing are widespread. We are not unaware of these conditions in our capitalistic societies and we are familiar sometimes with the corrupt dealings of sporting organisations such as FIFA in 2015 when it was exposed, businessmen and politicians who are greedy for gain. Every time a State or National budget is delivered the first thing most people think is how that will affect their wealth and cost of living. People accumulate money and goods and material possessions, and in certain places, especially the United States, a person is measured on his financial standing and his notoriety or celebrity status. All that is so artificial.
Greedy for gain, not just monetary gain, but the gain of publicity, and power, and celebrity and status recognition. All the possessions of Tutankhamen that were placed with his mummy in his tomb for the afterlife, were still there when it was opened about a century ago. We take nothing out of this world. A man’s life is not measured by the extent of his possessions in this world, but how he stands in relation to the treasure he has accumulated in heaven. What shall a man do if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What can he give in exchange for his own soul? He may gain great treasures through greed but he goes to a Christless eternity. Greed for gain is a horrible thing and drives a person onward to destruction. Beware also of greed for fame, food, position of place (status), power, and influence.
“and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely,” is a gross indictment on the spiritual leadership of Judah. I think without exception, if a group of people, or a nation, has corruption in spiritual places, then one can conclude the whole of society is corruptly wicked. Judah had become detestable in the sight of God. {{Hosea 4:7-9 “The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me. I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of My people and direct their desire toward their iniquity. It will be, like people, like priest, so I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.”}} The prophet and priest (and all society it is understood) dealt falsely.
How can a man lie and distort and act corruptly when he is supposed to be doing God’s service? How can you serve God and cheat and live as a wicked person? Does not even one’s conscience scream out? There is no fear of God before their eyes. They do not understand the awesome God, or that God is just, or that God is a rewarder of iniquity. What God does in Jeremiah is to expose all sections of society showing how wicked they are, and leaving no option except repentance or destruction, just those two. It is the same all through history – it is repentance or destruction. Faithful servants of the Lord preach and warn but how many listen?
We don’t have lack of evidence in religious places to see corruption. In the Christian church so named, down the centuries and especially in the Middle Ages the corruption in the church was extremely grave and I won’t enumerate any of it because it is freely available. It still happens. If you really want to look into this more, look at the whole story of Cardinal Pell from Australia who was exposing the utter vice and corruption among the Cardinals at the Vatican. Look how he was framed. I won’t say more.
Ezekiel exposed his own times and drew attention to the corrupt spiritual leadership. The famous quote is of the priests who made themselves fat at the expense of the people, (Ezekiel 34:1-20) but I give two other quotes – {{Ezekiel 13:3-5 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing. O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins. You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the LORD.”}}
{{Ezekiel 22:26 “Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.”}}
(b). VERSE 14
{{Jeremiah 6:14 They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.}}
In verse 14 there is a further condemnation of the prophets and priests. I am sure they are the “they” at the start of that verse. Their sincerity is brought up for examination – put on trial - for how they have handled the problems of the nation, which we know, were gross idolatry and all associated wickedness. Well, they did not handle it properly. The bible says it was done superficially. They could not solve the problem for the same reason that many problems are unsolved today by the leadership in our countries. Committees and inquiries and boards are all set up to look into some dilemma, but they compromise the findings. It is usually covered up. Sometimes those on Boards and Committees have their fingers in the pie themselves.
The reason these prophets and priests could not remedy the sinfulness of the people is because they were tared with the same brush. The verse talks about “the brokenness of My people” and that is quite significant. As an example, if a broken chair is brought to a repairer, the first thing he must do is examine the chair to note the faults and then he must devise a strategy as to how he will mend the chair. It may mean that some of the existing framework may have to be disassembled so parts can be remade and refitted. In order to heal the brokenness of the chair he has to eliminate the broken parts and rebuild them and strengthen the weak parts. Then the chair is repaired as if new.
The prophets and priests did not repair the brokenness of God’s people, and all they did was take a superficial look at it. They promised lies to the people and supported those lies. There would be no peace, but they persisted in saying there would be, and deluded themselves and the people. Similar conditions existed in Ezekiel’s time about false, superficial prophets – {{Ezekiel 13:10-12 It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, ‘PEACE!’ WHEN THERE IS NO PEACE. When anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash, so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall. A flooding rain will come, and you, O hailstones, will fall, and a violent wind will break out. Behold, when the wall has fallen, will you not be asked, “Where is the plaster with which you plastered it?”}}
The first initiative they needed was to examine the brokenness of the people to determine what caused it and THEN what measures were needed to repair the brokenness. Then they had to set about to implement those, but they could not, because the same brokenness resided in themselves. How can the black pot clean the black kettle? How can a man with a broken leg lift up and carry another man with a broken leg to the hospital? First of all they had to clean out the old leaven, but they WERE that leaven. Examination had to start with them but how could corrupt men remedy a corrupt nation? How can a pastor living with another woman assist in a marriage where the same thing is happening? The spiritual leadership was sick so it could not help a sick nation. All was superficiality. It was like having a deep wound that had to be treated, and all the treatment it got was the smearing of a washing rag across the surface. Hypocrites.
(c). VERSE 15
The Lord continues the condemnation of these false prophets and priests. We have just looked at their deeds and now we look at their attitude. Such wilful and abhorrent behaviour – and we know from later on in Jeremiah that these religious leaders fed themselves as the expense of the flock – should have pricked the consciences of these men but I have already said their hearts and consciences were calloused. They were incapable of even remorse, yet alone repentance.
The NASB translation of the “abominable” would show just how evil these men were, and Jeremiah actually knew what they did. They had no shame. Shame comes from doing wrong and either your conscience tells you that you have sinned, or else you are found out or confronted. These men were confronted by the messages of Jeremiah and other prophets but there was no shame. Their hard hearts gave no response, even to allow them to blush at the knowledge of wrongdoing. Wrongdoing? They had no wrongdoing! Later on they threw Jeremiah into a stinking cistern to silence him.
Some of the New Testament words would fit them perfectly – hypocrites, reckless, arrogant, stiff-necked, blind leaders. What can you do with such obstinate men? They are found in every walk of life, but when they are in church circles, it is particularly galling, and greater will be the judgement. God promised the false leaders two things - another double - and they would fall with all the others who would fall from the nation, and they would be cast down. That was God’s punishment for them. They had their chance, in fact they had many chances, because the word of God was available, and the messages of the prophets of God were abundant.
When one is ignorant through not having any contact with the scriptures like the cannibals of the South Pacific before the arrival of missionaries, that is one thing, and altogether different from when the light of God’s word is revealed and that light is rejected, despised and trampled. That is to the person’s folly. The arrogance of today’s western world is almost unbelievable. Such is the mastery of evolutionary humanism and denying rationalism, that the result is a God-refusing arrogance.
This message is a shorter one as I do not want to break the next one as it will destroy the continuity. As it is, there are some challenges in this one to think about for all of us.
