Friday, September 16, 2016

When "Follow the Leader" is a REALLY Bad Idea

Friday, September 16, 2016

Jeremiah, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord says:  “‘When people fall down, don’t they get up again?  When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they turn back?  Then why do these people stay on their self-destructive path?  Why do the people of Jerusalem refuse to turn back?  They cling tightly to their lies and will not turn around.  I listen to their conversations and don’t hear a word of truth.  Is anyone sorry for doing wrong?  Does anyone say, “What a terrible thing I have done”?  No!  All are running down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse galloping into battle!  Even the stork that flies across the sky knows the time of her migration, as do the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane.  They all return at the proper time each year.  But not my people!  They do not know the Lord’s laws. 
“‘How can you say, “We are wise because we have the word of the Lord,” when your teachers have twisted it by writing lies?  These wise teachers will fall into the trap of their own foolishness, for they have rejected the word of the Lord.  Are they so wise after all?  I will give their wives to others and their farms to strangers.  From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed.  Yes, even my prophets and priests are like that.  They are all frauds.  They offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wound.  They give assurances of peace when there is no peace.  Are they ashamed of these disgusting actions?  Not at all—they don’t even know how to blush!  Therefore, they will lie among the slaughtered.  They will be brought down when I punish them, says the Lord.
I will surely consume them.  There will be no more harvests of figs and grapes.
Their fruit trees will all die.  Whatever I gave them will soon be gone.  I, the Lord, have spoken!’  Jeremiah 8:4-13(NLT)

“Bitter” is about the only word that can I can use to describe the current political contest for president.  (The only word my mother would have approved, anyway).  Accusation upon pointing finger, the candidates attempt to take the other down; all in the name of an agenda to lead. 

But…to where and what are we being led?

Jeremiah sensed the same kind of void in the leadership of Israel.  He warned the people of the blatant dishonesty that even distorts God’s Word, just to perpetuate their own power; of hubris that refuses to admit mistakes or personal sinful practices…and wouldn’t, even if caught in the act!

In the case of Israel, that kind of leadership, unchecked, led the herd to slaughter.  Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were carried away into captivity.

There are all kinds of judgments that lead to captivity, and I shudder at what’s in store for America if we somehow cannot learn to blush again.

For You Today

Revisit Jeremiah’s warnings again…read it several times if you will.  And allow the pictures to form in your mind’s eye of the kinds of leaders we have chosen.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
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NOTES

[i] Title Image: Walter Baxter, via Wikimedia Commons

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