Jeremiah 23:33-34 – Inquisitiveness in Place of Introspection
“So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of the Lord?’ you shall then say to them, ‘What oracle?’ I will even forsake you,” says the Lord. 34 “And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ I will even punish that man and his house. Jeremiah 23:33-34, New King James Version
"I was," recalls Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker, "a kid crazy about language and an omnivorous reader. At breakfast, I'd pore over every word on a cereal box as if it were holy writ."
Some of us are inured to that kind of all-purpose wonder. We are no longer moved by the prospect of seeing the glory of God in the sunrise, or on the cereal box. The world is too much with us, as Wordsworth phrased it. Our hearts are stultified by routines with ourselves and expectations of us at the center.
Yet, suggests Jeremiah 23:33-34, we keep going through the motions as though our hearts were alive to the answers we expect to receive from God. So far as the interactions with spiritual leaders in our lives relate, we want to hear from Him.
We want, in fact, to use those less distracted by the idolatry of this world as our oracle. We want them to stand in for the spirituality we once had before God. Only, He sees through prayer requests as performance art.
God distinguishes between the genuine penitent who does what he or she knows from the Word of God and uses holy, grace-filled momentum to seek further guidance and the charlatan who still seeks holy writ from the cereal box because he or she wants to avoid conviction from the Bible.
Have we become, like the rich young ruler, seekers after novelty in place of relationship? Do we expect some oracle to reveal a different way for us, and yet ignore our pattern of indifference toward God's plainly revealed Word?
He has born with us, fellow image-bearers, up until now, but He warns from Genesis forward that He will not strive with men forever. His honor is at stake and will not be compromised. For those who will not confront the idols in our own hearts and trust the finished work of Christ, who insatiably seek some new work, some new Word, accountability is coming.
"I was," recalls Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker, "a kid crazy about language and an omnivorous reader. At breakfast, I'd pore over every word on a cereal box as if it were holy writ."
Some of us are inured to that kind of all-purpose wonder. We are no longer moved by the prospect of seeing the glory of God in the sunrise, or on the cereal box. The world is too much with us, as Wordsworth phrased it. Our hearts are stultified by routines with ourselves and expectations of us at the center.
Yet, suggests Jeremiah 23:33-34, we keep going through the motions as though our hearts were alive to the answers we expect to receive from God. So far as the interactions with spiritual leaders in our lives relate, we want to hear from Him.
We want, in fact, to use those less distracted by the idolatry of this world as our oracle. We want them to stand in for the spirituality we once had before God. Only, He sees through prayer requests as performance art.
God distinguishes between the genuine penitent who does what he or she knows from the Word of God and uses holy, grace-filled momentum to seek further guidance and the charlatan who still seeks holy writ from the cereal box because he or she wants to avoid conviction from the Bible.
Have we become, like the rich young ruler, seekers after novelty in place of relationship? Do we expect some oracle to reveal a different way for us, and yet ignore our pattern of indifference toward God's plainly revealed Word?
He has born with us, fellow image-bearers, up until now, but He warns from Genesis forward that He will not strive with men forever. His honor is at stake and will not be compromised. For those who will not confront the idols in our own hearts and trust the finished work of Christ, who insatiably seek some new work, some new Word, accountability is coming.
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