This is what the Lord said to me: “Go over and speak directly to the king of Judah. Say to him, ‘Listen to this message from the Lord, you king of Judah, sitting on David’s throne. Let your attendants and your people listen, too. This is what the Lord says: Be fair-minded and just. Do what is right! Help those who have been robbed; rescue them from their oppressors. Quit your evil deeds! Do not mistreat foreigners, orphans, and widows. Stop murdering the innocent!(Jeremiah 22:1-3)Sometimes you have to just walk up to bad and confront it. You cannot live a ways off and do things hoping that the evil situation will change. There are times when you have to just come up and say: You need to change!
The Lord told the prophet Jeremiah to go to King Zedekiah, a king who was cruel and immoral, adulterous and idolatrous – one not unlike a lot of government people – and tell him he was doing wrong.
This was hard for Jeremiah. It is easy to write articles or preach sermons to the church or even go on radio or TV and say stuff. But God said, go to the man himself and say: quit doing things that are wrong. Start doing things that are right. Quit sinning and start doing what God wants you to do. Lead your country in the right direction. Don’t just issue edicts and all but sit around doing the exact opposite yourself.
In other words, wise up. Turn or burn. Do what God says and quit being stupid.
People in authority rarely want to hear those kind of things. They surround themselves with people who will not tell them what is wrong or what they are doing wrong. They usually only want to hear that they are doing fine. That is why so many politicians, actors, wealthy celebrities have so much trouble. All they listen to is yes men.
And when everyone around you tells you that you are fine, then you, if you are smart, know you are in trouble.
Jeremiah was not appreciated for his hands on approach to prophetic utterances. It would not have been nearly as unappreciated if he had even just stood in the street, or rented a hall, or wrote a series of “scathing articles.” Those the king could have ignored.
But the problem then was that the prophet of God had the right to come in and tell the king stuff. And it was very rarely good stuff because most of the kings fell in this trap of only listening to yes men. Since they did that, they were almost always corrupt because they ended up doing what was right in their own eyes.
And they hated someone who didn’t say yes. Just like they do today.
Nobody likes to be told they are wrong. But sometimes we have to. Sometimes we have to speak up in a situation and say, No! This cannot go on. This is wrong.
Until we as Christians do so, our nation will continue to falter and founder in its own sin, just like Judah did them.
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