Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert - Jeremiah: Judgment Against Specific People

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

This is kind of a weird category...but it is worth looking at as it covers religious leaders, government leaders, and the people who follow them.

Back to the beginning, we cruise along to the next verse mentioning 'desert' in Jeremiah that we haven't already talked about elsewhere...with context, and the actual verses mentioning desert in bold, as usual:

So I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God.  But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke and torn the bonds.  Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them, a wolf from the desert will ravage them, a leopard will lie in wait near their towns to tear to pieces any who venture out, for their rebellion is great and their backslidings many.   -- Jer 5:5-6

This is what the LORD says, "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will not see prosperity when it comes.  He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives." - Jer 17:5-6

Concerning the prophets:  My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble.  I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and his holy words.  The land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land lies parched and the pastures in the desert are withered.  The prophets follow an evil course and use their power unjustly.  "Both prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness, " declares the LORD.    - Jer. 23:9-11 

The leaders, who have rebelled against God's law; the people who follow them, trusting in the leaders to be their protection and guides; the prophet and priests who abuse their office, teaching what benefits themselves instead of the truth.  My friends, if this is not a description of current events I don't know what is.

Jeremiah was flat out accused of treason because he didn't fall in line with them. The people got so far away from what God had instructed that they could no longer tell when a real prophet was among them, giving them real instructions that would be for their own good.  And, to be honest, it wasn't one hundred percent the fault of the citizens of the land that they had gone so far into error because their government and their religious leaders were all corrupted.  They didn't have access to the scriptures as individuals; they could only go on what they were told.    If the leaders led them astray, they had very little chance to see their error.

But we have free access to the scriptures.  We have the Holy Spirit to guide us.  What's our excuse?