2 August 2014 - speak life

2 August 2014 - speak life

Speaking the word of God honestly can be risky.  

We try to speak truth but people tend to only hear the negative.  When they listen to Jeremiah they only hear that "he has prophesied against this city".  They're missing the point of course.  Jeremiah isn't preaching out of animosity toward the city.  God doesn't send him for condemnation.  He wants the people to reform their ways and listen to the voice of God.  He wants to save them from the evil they will experience if they keep persist.  Yet even in tough cases like this we still have to speak if we are called.  It isn't up to us whether they choose to hear.   With Jeremiah they do choose to here. But it is a close call.  Only one guy gets it at first, but he eventually helps to convince everyone. “This man does not deserve death; LORD, our God, that he speaks to us.”  But even if that don't chose to listen, as King Herod does not with John the Baptist, the choice of whether or not to speak still isn't up to us.

The king was distressed, 
but because of his oaths and the guests who were present,
he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison.

The important thing is to give everyone a chance to respond:

If I say to the wicked, You shall surely die—and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade the wicked from their evil conduct in order to save their lives—then they shall die for their sin, but I will hold you responsible for their blood.  If, however, you warn the wicked and they still do not turn from their wickedness and evil conduct, they shall die for their sin, but you shall save your life (cf. Eze. 3:18-19).

In the face of opposition the selfishness in us would prefer to keep silent about the gospel.  We really need to have the experience of Jeremiah where we truly discover God's word.  When we devour his word so that it is our joy and the happiness of our hearts we can't keep silent.  We since the urgency that will make even the rocks cry out if we keep silent.  Woe to us if we don't preach!  We can't keep it shut up inside ourselves anymore!

Yet because there is this diversity of response, because there are those who need to hear but who won't be happy to hear, we must trust in God.  If we rely on ourselves at such times then wounds to our ego and the risk of such wounds is going to keep us quiet.  We will put ourselves first.  And that is a big problem for the people who need to hear what we have to say.  For our own sake and for theirs we need to rely on God.

But I am afflicted and in pain;
let your saving help, O God, protect me.
I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.

When we do rely on him we add an additional layer to our testimony to the world around us.  God can be relied on.  He can be trusted.  He is worthy of our absolute trust, and that regardless of the short term outcome.  The world has to believe that everything is ultimately futile, ending in death and entropy. Testimonies like that of John the Baptist prove the world wrong.  His trust in spite of apparent futility challenges the world to look beyond its own limited horizons.  His cry will be heard and on the last day the bonds of death will be broken.

“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”