Jer 28:15 Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
You L-I-A-R. We had no problem as children calling people out when they weren't speaking the truth, child or even some adults. However, the 'politeness' of society being impressed upon us, we 'doctor' our words.
Or thinking there is no gain, remain silent. How often do we refrain from speaking truth, bone crushing truth at times, to those who deserve to hear them?
"Your spouse is cheating on you." "Your child is engaged in sexual immorality." "You are gossiping.*" "Your eating borders on gluttony." "You've made (family, husband, child, work, hobby, fill in the blank) an idol."
Those are hard words...do we have a right, an obligation to speak such hard words to one another? Or have we become 'sensitized' to judge not, lest ye be judged?
lie - H8267 - From H8266; an untruth; by implication a sham (often adverbially).
- H8266 - A primitive root; to cheat, that is, be untrue (usually in words).
H8267 is used 113 times in 109 verses...the first instance in Exodus 5:9 'vain'.
Killer verse - Exodus 20:16 - Thou shalt not...what? ...bear FALSE witness against thy neighbor.
Ahhh...another one about false witness:
Psa 27:12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
Psa 69:4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
More than the hairs on my head...hmmm, how many 'righteous' have stood against the multitude being a lone voice in the wilderness speaking truth and yet we today are afraid to go against the tide, to be held up to ridicule, or possible persecution? We don't want to be like Urijah either, speaking truth and then running and hiding because we lack faith in God and His provision and/or protection.
How willing are we to tell people the most essential, eternal truth? To ask where are you spending eternity? Heaven? Why? What is the foundation of your hope?
Do you think you're saved because of a 'prayer' or 'walking an aisle' or because your parents or grandparents were Christians, or you've been baptized?
Yet they look and live like the world. They talk like the world, they watch the same garbage the world spews out, there is really no difference which can be discerned. How much are we reflecting HIS glory, how different do we look, act, talk, think?
You know a tree because of its fruit - not because you saw the original seed or sapling planted. So what fruit are you producing? Is our conversation 'salted' with life? Are we an aroma of life unto life?
Or has the 'church' become so worldly there is hardly any difference between us and the heathen? Those in Jeremiah's day, they thought they had the truth. Their 'prophets' were speaking about conquering and overcoming. They wouldn't be taken down by Nebuchadnezzar.
Jer 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
So how bold for the sake of the gospel will we be?
Note:
* I had a wise older woman once admonish me about gossiping - her rule was: "If it's not something you could say to or in front of the person, it's gossip." In other words, don't say something about someone you wouldn't be willing to say to their face.
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