Jeremiah 23:25-27 – Some Dance to Forget.
25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, 27 who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.
"Some dance to remember," sing The Eagles in "Hotel California" as they realize the proper place of entertainment and celebration. Then they differentiate, "Some dance to forget." They drop in a little more theology later, saying, "We are all prisoners here of our own design."
They could have, unbeknownst to them, been narrating Jeremiah 23:25-27. Both insistences on prophetic perspective call the cadences of the dance to forget, the music of which can drown out the moment's lasting purpose. Existing outside such time-bound, purposeful amnesia, God is in a position to call His prophet to remember, that through Jeremiah, Jeremiah's people might remember their ageless covenant with the Almighty with its validity anchored in deep time.
Without heeding this loving but serious summons to God-ordained purpose, we are entranced by the slight variation of the verses of the present. The dreams from which the prophets emerge, their emotional ecstasy, novelty, exclusiveness, sense of entitlement, serve as their all-consuming experience of You.
Having danced the self-centered dance to forget, they have successfully effaced the fact that Your Word predated their individualistic emotion. They want so much to matter in the moment that they discard the majestic grace of an ancient, humbling calling bigger than ourselves.
Although these shepherds hold a religious position, although the tincture of this position combines with the mysticism of dreams to grant them a certain status before men, God is not impressed. In Jeremiah 23:27, He likens their experience to that of their fathers who forgot His Name in preference for Baal. Since Baal is the god of idolizing material prosperity, He is telling this set-apart caste of so-called spiritual leaders that their self-soaked meditations are really another variety of consumerism, another earwig eliciting the dance to forget.
What of us? Are we defined and moved by the latest enthusiasm? Is that what we answer about when the people we have seconds to influence ask how we are, in effect giving away such precious time to tell of OUR dreams? If so, the rituals of conversation become but another dance to forget, another overwriting on the tiny hard drive of our relevant experience. What if we give priority to referencing God's Name, even seconds at a time? What if we shepherd, influence, lead, by planting reminders of what He has revealed about Himself to the ages, rather than reinforcing the centrality of our selfish, momentary experience?
How readily, friend, might our phrases centered on His Word and His character stand out by His grace? He has pledged that spotless, ineffable glory on the effectiveness of that Word, even as it comes from the mouths of slipshod shepherds such as ourselves. He says He exalts His Word above His Name, and that it will accomplish what He sends it forth to accomplish. Would we not rather plead that He captivate us with new dreams seeded with that Word, and meanwhile celebrate the written Word we have?
"Some dance to remember," sing The Eagles in "Hotel California" as they realize the proper place of entertainment and celebration. Then they differentiate, "Some dance to forget." They drop in a little more theology later, saying, "We are all prisoners here of our own design."
They could have, unbeknownst to them, been narrating Jeremiah 23:25-27. Both insistences on prophetic perspective call the cadences of the dance to forget, the music of which can drown out the moment's lasting purpose. Existing outside such time-bound, purposeful amnesia, God is in a position to call His prophet to remember, that through Jeremiah, Jeremiah's people might remember their ageless covenant with the Almighty with its validity anchored in deep time.
Without heeding this loving but serious summons to God-ordained purpose, we are entranced by the slight variation of the verses of the present. The dreams from which the prophets emerge, their emotional ecstasy, novelty, exclusiveness, sense of entitlement, serve as their all-consuming experience of You.
Having danced the self-centered dance to forget, they have successfully effaced the fact that Your Word predated their individualistic emotion. They want so much to matter in the moment that they discard the majestic grace of an ancient, humbling calling bigger than ourselves.
Although these shepherds hold a religious position, although the tincture of this position combines with the mysticism of dreams to grant them a certain status before men, God is not impressed. In Jeremiah 23:27, He likens their experience to that of their fathers who forgot His Name in preference for Baal. Since Baal is the god of idolizing material prosperity, He is telling this set-apart caste of so-called spiritual leaders that their self-soaked meditations are really another variety of consumerism, another earwig eliciting the dance to forget.
What of us? Are we defined and moved by the latest enthusiasm? Is that what we answer about when the people we have seconds to influence ask how we are, in effect giving away such precious time to tell of OUR dreams? If so, the rituals of conversation become but another dance to forget, another overwriting on the tiny hard drive of our relevant experience. What if we give priority to referencing God's Name, even seconds at a time? What if we shepherd, influence, lead, by planting reminders of what He has revealed about Himself to the ages, rather than reinforcing the centrality of our selfish, momentary experience?
How readily, friend, might our phrases centered on His Word and His character stand out by His grace? He has pledged that spotless, ineffable glory on the effectiveness of that Word, even as it comes from the mouths of slipshod shepherds such as ourselves. He says He exalts His Word above His Name, and that it will accomplish what He sends it forth to accomplish. Would we not rather plead that He captivate us with new dreams seeded with that Word, and meanwhile celebrate the written Word we have?
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