Today's Daily Lesson comes from Jeremiah 26 verses 7 through 11:
7 The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. 8 And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! 9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.10 When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the Lord and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. 11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”
This is what got Jesus killed.
It was the prophetic word spoken against the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish people which nearly cost Jeremiah his life and in the end did cost Jesus'. The people had no ears to hear what they were saying. They could not grasp the Godliness of the deep, prophetic word which always comes hot and burning like freshly forged steel. The sword cut too deeply.
Last week I watched online as the Texas Senate debated an amendment to an education bill having to do with so-called "anti-American" education in the classroom. While I understood the impulse of so many of the senators to see that language in unequivocally positive terms, I did wonder how many of the teachings of the prophets and of Jesus were they talking about.
Freedom Rider and anti-Vietnam War preacher, William Sloan Coffin said, "I like to believe that I am an American patriot who loves his country enough to address her flaws."
That was Jeremiah; and that was Jesus. But it was too much for the people to bear. They simply did not have the will to understand that the word that was against them was in fact for them.
May we with ears to hear, let us hear.
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