October 13 – Deception’s Promise (Jeremiah 6:13-15)

“‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”
(Jeremiah 6:14)

IN WORD:
Jeremiah was given a difficult assignment. He was called to preach destruction to a people who would never believe him. He knew up front that his message would fail. Other prophets would succeed with their false message. But God told Jeremiah to preach the truth anyway.
We live in an age of acceptance. Anything goes. Morality, we’re told, is relative; truth is too complicated to pin down, commitment is defined by the mood of the moment, and there are many different paths to God. Tolerance is a code word meaning, “Don’t preach to me. I’ve got no intention of changing.” The false prophets of our age have a clear, persistent message: “Peace, peace.” But there is no peace.
How we wish peace would come. We pray to the Prince of Peace and ask Him to rule our lives. He does, and He will. But He will fulfill the message He preached long ago in Galilee and Judea: God will judge the human revolt, and Jesus is the only way to escape the judgment.
That’s not a popular message in an age of acceptance. Nothing will bring out intolerance in the “tolerant” ones like a message of exclusive redemption. But like Jeremiah, Christendom is faced with a choice: Preach the truth, even where it goes unheeded, or lie about the condition our race is in and the judgment that awaits it — all for the sake of “peace.”

IN DEED:
Deceptions abound in our world. Most of the effective ones sound pleasant to our ears; otherwise, they would not deceive us. God’s Word sounds pleasant, too, but only to repentant ears. To the pride of self-sufficiency — the drug of choice for the human ego — His Word is anathema. It is as thoroughly rejected as Jeremiah was. But it is true.
Our generation has brought significant challenges to our faith. Our beliefs are not for the faint of heart. But as Isaiah promised, God’s truth is the only water that quenches thirst and the only bread that is filling (Isaiah 55:1-3). Cling to it. Drink and eat of it with gusto. Stand firm in a truth-impaired generation. And never fall for the false promises of secular prophets.

“We like to be deceived.” -Blaise Pascal-