6/27/14- The way of the Prophet

1Zedekiah son of Josiah was made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he reigned in place of Jehoiachin^a son of Jehoiakim. 2Neither he nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the Lord had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet. (Jeremiah 37)

Thoughts: Jeremiah was called to be faithful.  The people were corrupted with Baal (the fertility god) and his worship.  Jeremiah was called to proclaim God's Word without leaving, fleeing, parting, or running away.  The faithful in the land- and there were some- were not told to flee and form a new Israel.  The model for this nation is the model for the church.  Never does scripture tell us to divide and form new communities when the church is hard to live with, or is corrupt, or even deserves death (as they did in Jeremiah's day).   Ezekiel was told to be a watchman whether they listened or failed to listen (Ezekiel 33 and 37).  The Church today needs prophets- people who will not flinch at proclaiming the truth.  The truth is we are in a culture ripe with sexual immorality.  Pornography is epidemic, divorce is a plague, living together without marriage and having babies outside of wedlock are in the majority these days, and homosexual sexual immorality is only one among many symptoms of this sexual consumption.  We are called to hold forth a better way- a way proclaimed in scripture.  The way of the prophet goes beyond being in exile or being a remnant.  The way of the prophet holds out the light in the darkness of the culture and the darkness when the church is corrupted by the world around it. 

Prayer: Lord, may the churches of our day hold forth truth in love and proclaim, as the prophets did, a better way of life.  May their proclamation and faithfulness bear fruit to you as a sacrifice.