THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 35 – FALSE PRIESTS AND PROPHETS IN JUDGMENT AND WE HAVE THEM TODAY ALSO - CHAPTER 4:14-16
Last time we began with Jeremiah’s observations of the conditions that evoked such distress from him in all the previous verses. He dealt also with the wickedness in the religious classes – prophets and priests. This would include the elders for the whole nation had corrupted its way. Every strata of society was affected.
I can see the same thing in out nations, now run by greed and paganism as it is in mine. How things have changed so rapidly in the last 40 years. We will continue with those descriptions and they begin with the downfall of these priests.
PART [14]. GUILTY, CORRUPTERS OF THEIR OFFICE
{{Lamentations 4:14 “They WANDERED, BLIND, in the streets. They were DEFILED WITH BLOOD so that no one could touch their garments.”}}
What a description! It is like they have on them the mark of Cain. They wander aimlessly in their guilt. These priests and prophets were murderers of the righteous, and so evil that their corruption had blinded them to the reality of the situation. They were as if their garments ran with blood because they were so defiled with the blood of the innocent. No one would touch them.
This is a horrible world, almost beyond belief at the immense atrocities it contains, all through its 6 000 year history of mankind’s pollution. Too often the evil is covered up or quickly forgotten. The religious order has blood on its hands. He know the satanic operation of the Islamic clerics, ones with garments caked with blood, and added to daily, but so too the Roman Catholic Church (clergy and Popes) with the millions of deaths of born again Christians on its account through the Middle Ages almost to the present in third world countries. People call you names for raising such issues but this is historic fact and true, and we must not compromise for God is going to hold all to account. I think people need to read some very good books on Church History.
There is a short program on YouTube that shows our earth from space, beginning with photos from the Space Station, then from the moon, from Saturn and it ends with the “small blue dot” image, 13 pixels in size taken from Voyager way beyond Pluto’s orbit. Earth looks a beautiful planet hanging in space but it hides a dark secret. It is a murderous, sinful, evil place because men have departed from God and turned to their own ways of murder and corruption, with religious and secular leadership taking the lead in that wickedness.
The word for “wandered” in this Lamentations verse is literally, “reeled” and these are reeling in the streets with their blood-guiltiness. They are as if blind. Their sins have affected them and all they can do is wait the judgement that surely must come upon them. That is terrible, isn’t it? Why do men stay in their sin, heading for hell, and compound the wickedness? Why do they do it? God wants them to repent but in spite of their personal suffering repentance and turning to God are the last things sinful men want to do.
The answer is simple enough when we look into it. Imagine a stream that has become engorged and cuts its new path through the plain. You try to divert it but to no avail. It is on a determined course and nothing will stop it. Sin is very much like that. It becomes its own master, charges along in its own course, and the reality is that evil people can not be diverted unless it is through the miraculous power of Jesus; the power of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew Poole adds another thought - [[“They, that is, the prophets and the priests, wandered up and down the streets like blind men, being spiritually blind, polluting themselves with blood, either the blood of the children which they slew, or the just men mentioned in Lamentations 4:13, the slaughter of whom they either encouraged, or at least did not discourage; so as one could not touch a prophet or a priest, but he must be legally polluted, and there were so many of them, that men could not walk in the streets but that he must touch some of them.”]]
It is about time we looked at the bible alone for our faith and not the myths of man. The religious leadership too often leads people to hell. I will not take up the evil of the prosperity teaching this time but will mention an event that has just happened as I put these thoughts down. The pope died, Pope Francis. He promoted so many evils – the acceptance of homosexuality into the church as a good thing that God accepts; his frequent claim that all religions lead to God in salvation, even Islam and atheism; pan-salvation meaning everyone is loved by God and goes to heaven; his outrageous claims about the environment. There are a lot more but Pope, hear the word of God! Here it is!
{{Acts 4:11-12 “He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the very corner stone, and there is salvation in no one else, for THERE IS NO OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN AMONG MEN, BY WHICH WE MUST BE SAVED.”}}
{{John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER BUT THROUGH ME.”}}
{{1 Timothy 2:5 “THERE IS ONE GOD AND ONE MEDIATOR also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”}}
Atheists, homosexuals, Hindus, Moslems and Christ-rejecters are not saved, but this past Pope pollutes the bible and has led millions to hell where he is now. The word of God is not some plaything and we are to be governed by every word from the mouth of God. We seem to have entered the age of “Inclusion” and “inclusivity” where governments and some church ministers include everybody. This has come from WOKEism and the homosexuality and gender distortions communities. It is interesting that all abnormalities and sinful practices are part of this inclusion BUT not Christians. They are excluded. Well, I don’t mind it if homosexuals and liberal church ministers exclude me!
These priests and prophets in Judah who murdered the righteous people before the judgement hit Judah, and who continued their murders after the defeat, are Satan’s ambassadors. Jeremiah was greatly distressed over them as his prophetic book spells out.
PART [15]. CONVICTED OF THEIR OWN FILTH OF UNCLEANNESS
{{Lamentations 4:15 “Depart! Unclean!” they cried of themselves. “Depart, depart, do not touch!” so they fled and wandered. MEN AMONG THE NATIONS said, “They shall not continue to dwell with us.”}}
“Men among the nations” are the outsiders, those who did not belong to Judah, foreigners if you like, and these people were moral enough not to want these murdering prophets and priests living among them. Indeed the mark of Cain is upon all of them. [[“The murderers fleeing from their own countrymen, and finding themselves equally abhorred among the heathen.”]] (Ellicott)
There was some inkling of knowledge these prophets and priests possessed so that they gave warning not to be touched. This harkens back to the following – {{Leviticus 13:45-46 “As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his moustache and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.”}}
These prophets and priests were infected with the leprosy of very terrible sins. Is it any wonder that God’s time was up and the sword fell among the people. Very great will be the judgement of God upon the ones in “spiritual office” who take not the position very seriously, and are betrayers of the calling; deniers of the bible; promoters of socialism and immoral practices. Sadly there are so many of them today preaching a false gospel or a gospel of compromise. “Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel!”
In Judah all was levelled and the priests and prophets were displaced, as were the worst criminals, and Mr and Mrs Average, all who fell under the judgement of God. I fear for so many pastors, ministers, reverends and whatever name they take. Some are complacent about the gospel of Christ and pay lip service to it, compromising the truths of the gospel; some who adhere to the word of faith movement are using the name of the gospel as merchandise and are corrupting the message of God terribly. They lead many astray. It will be very soon the Lord returns in the Rapture and then the reckoning will come. Some will say, “Did we not do this and that and all the rest in Your name,” and the Lord will say, “Depart from Me for I never knew you.”
PART [16]. GOD SCATTERED AND DISREGARDED THE PRIESTS
{{Lamentations 4:16 “The presence of the LORD has scattered them. He will not continue to regard them. They did not honour the priests. They did not favour the elders.”}}
Matthew Henry - [[“Nothing ripens a people more for ruin, nor fills the measure faster, than the sins of priests and prophets. The king himself cannot escape, for Divine vengeance pursues him.”]]
Verse 16 tells us the presence (face) of the LORD has scattered them. It is probably the priests and prophets who are still the subject of these verses. They were detestable to God as are all who hold position of authority over God’s people, or a church, and are not true servants of the Lord. They will be spewed from God’s mouth. This word “scattered” means to divide into portions and send them far away. It will be terrible when the unsaved hear the words which will drive them from God’s presence. Please repent and trust with humble faith if you have never turned to God, or you are uncertain about your salvation. Find a church that honours the bible and preaches the gospel.
This verse takes a bit of understanding, for at first glance, it might look like it is speaking of the people who did not honour the priests, but that is probably not so. These words seem to be the language of their enemies triumphing over them, as discerning that their God was provoked against them, and would have no more regard or respect unto them. Grotius says [["The Jews have no hope of a return, for they respected not even good priests"]]
Judah had been through all this before. {{2 Chronicles 24:18-21 “and they abandoned the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and SERVED THE ASHERIM AND THE IDOLS, so wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their guilt. Yet He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the LORD. Though they testified against them, they would not listen. Then the Spirit of God came on ZECHARIAH THE SON OF JEHOIADA THE PRIEST, and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus God has said, ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has also forsaken you,” so they conspired against him, and AT THE COMMAND OF THE KING, they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the LORD.”}}
That happened some time before the overthrow of Judah but the nation never learned. God will never stand for rebellion coming from the people, much less coming from the spiritual leadership. There are those today who are leading people astray; more than that, destroying their lives, leading them to hell with a corrupted gospel. When a movement is exposed, those who belong to that movement or have been deluded in that movement, get very defensive and want to shoot the messenger. You might want to do that to me for what I will say. Others do. They gave a set agenda because they fail to see what the message is from the Lord.
The Word of Faith movement and its corresponding mega churches is not of God. The prosperity movement with its chiefs who sit at the top of the pyramid scheme, is of the devil. They must be called out. It is not my aim right now to provide all the horrible teachings of this Word of Faith belief including the little gods doctrine; that Christ had to be punished in hell once He went there; that God takes away all your sickness, your debts and makes you rich. The more you give, the more you get back. You can easily find excellent exposes of this on the Internet. Try Justin Peters for a start.
The ones who are prospering as huge millionaires from the money given by deceived people (just check their lifestyles) include, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland (probably the richest and most evil of them all), Jesse Duplantis, Jakes, Hillsong, Bethel, and there are a lot more. Beware of these and flee from them. Great will be their judgement. Sadly their doctrines and greed are ravishing large parts of Africa and South America, and parts of India, bringing disrepute to the Gospel.
