Straw and Grain

Mark Dunagan
08/14/16 - Sunday Morning

Straw and Grain

Years ago when I first picked up and read the Bible I was immediately impressed that this book was answering, very pointedly, many of my life questions.  At the get go I found it incredibly relevant in its ability to anticipate not only my selfish objections to serving God. Even when I found myself wondering why God did not address this situation or that, I'd get to a chapter of His word that had exclaiming, "Oh! It DOES address that!" One example is what to do in a situation similar to Jeremiah chapter 23 when God deals with people who called themselves prophets and claimed that God was speaking through them, when God was not speaking through them. 

Not a New Problem

The Bible repeatedly addresses the problem of men and women walking around claiming that God is speaking through them or that God is telling them something. Moses dealt with this early on in the history of Israel. The Holy Spirit enlightens us when He makes clear:

1. A genuine prophet is 100% accurate. Always. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
2. A genuine prophet never contradicts what God has previously revealed (Deuteronomy 13:3-5).

Moses also repeatedly warned, as did Jesus and the apostles, that we can expect to run into people who claim that they are speaking for God, and yet are lying to us:

1. "Beware of the false prophets, who come to your in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15).
2. "Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many" (Matthew 24:11).
3. "And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 20:30).
4. "But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you" (2 Peter 2:1).

We Do Have Help

Although such individuals can appear to be very spiritual and godly (2 Corinthians 11:13-15), with familiarity with the truths in Scripture, we can prevent our hearts and minds from being deceived (1 John 4:1-3).

In Jeremiah's Time

Jeremiah faced a number of false prophets in his lifetime. His message from God was not popular because it was not what the people in Judah wanted to hear. They did not want to hear that they needed to repent, and that they needed to submit to the king of Babylon, that Jerusalem would be leveled (Jeremiah 26:9) and that the captivity would last 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11). One false prophet by the name of Hananiah was proclaiming the very popular message that in two years all the people previously taken into captivity, including the king and the vessels from the house of the Lord, would be coming back home (Jeremiah 28:2-3). Yet this very appealing message was a lie (28:15). I find it very instructive what God says about such false prophets:

Trusting in a Lie: Jeremiah 28:15

Whatever a person places their trust in, that is their foundation. Your place of trust determines how you live your life, your priorities and everything else. So the people were living as if they did not need to repent, as if after two years everything would just go back to normal. We should never be shocked when people act upon the error they are hearing. False teaching never remains just a mental thing. 

Zero Benefit

I am someone that always tries to find the silver-lining when it comes to any bad situation. Even if I am stuck in traffic I tell myself that I am probably being kept from an accident up ahead. An optimist like myself might be tempted to try to find the upside when it comes to the activity of false prophets. One might be tempted to say, "Well I least they are talking about God (albeit inaccurately)." God has another of view:

"I did not send them or command them, not do they furnish this people the slightest benefit" declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 23:32). We also see this vividly illustrated when God compares this authentic communication to the communications of the false prophets:

His Word	Their Dreams
Grain: Jeremiah 23:28	Straw: 23:28
A fire: 23:28	Reckless boasting: 23:32
A hammer which can shatter rock: 23:28	Zero benefit: 23:32
Truth:  John 17:17	Falsehood, the deception of their heart: Jeremiah 23:26
The product of the mind of God	The product of the mind of man: Jeremiah 23:16

 

In the illustration in 23:28 the human dreams of the false prophets are likened to straw (chaff), and God's Word to grain. One is valuable, to the degree that our very lives depends upon it, and the other is worthless and destructive to eternal souls.

Preventing Repentance

The genuine prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and others, continued to urge the people to forsake their evil ways. In like manner, both John the Baptist and Jesus called upon Israel to repent (Mark 1:15). Instead of encouraging people to forsake their sins, the false prophets were doing the exact opposite. Their message of "God won't punish us" and "We are not that bad" was only reinforcing people in their sins (23:14). As a result, Judah was looking more and more like Sodom and Gomorrah (23:14). The last thing we should ever want to do is to strengthen the resolve of the unfaithful to remain in their sins (Jeremiah 23:16). May I suggest that the following messages provide zero benefit, and do an eternity's amount of damage to the hearts and minds of sinners:

1. "God won't punish you. Hell doesn't exist". "God doesn't reject anyone".
2. "It is not your fault, the church let you down".
3. "Hey, don't feel bad, no one is really living the Christian life. We are all probably sinning all the time and don't even know it"
4. "When the Bible writers condemned that particular behavior they were unaware of the real causes and of what science would later discover about it".
5. "The Bible can't help you with your problem".
6. "You cannot change. That is the way you will always be".
7. "The people who are telling you to repent, are mean people. They don't understand your situation".
8. Christianity is archaic. We enlightened have advanced beyond the crutch of religion.

Stealing God's Words: Jeremiah 23:30

The false prophets "stole" God's words in the sense that they used such expressions as, "Thus saith the Lord" when delivering their messages. In addition, false prophets often use the language found in Scripture, but when they use Bible words, they twist and misuse them. When they talk about "faith" they are not talking about the type of "faith" that God endorses. The same thing is common when they talk about "justice" and "love". 

The End Result

Jeremiah opposed the false teachers of his time, but the problem was that many in Judah did not. As a result, "truth" or the "oracle of the Lord" became whatever a person wanted it to become (23:36). Kind of sounds like what is happening in our current culture when people say, "It may not be truth for you, but it is truth for me" and everyone is encouraged to have "their own individual truth." Yet such brought disaster back then, because the actual truth always surfaces. Babylon did arrive, the Temple was destroyed, and the Captivity did last 70 years. That was the truth. Likewise, the truth is that Jesus one day is indeed coming to Judge the world. We can prepare to meet our Creator by being so filled with gratitude for His mercy and grace that we believe His ability to save us through His sacrifice, we repent of our sin (Acts 2:38), are born again in the waters of baptism (Mark 16:16) and go on to live a faith filled life that honors and is motivated by our deep love for Him.

Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.net
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net