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Prophecy, Lies and Truthtelling


Jeremiah 26:1-16

In the Jewish religious tradition, prophets call the people back into right relationship with God. 
Through cajoling, prophetic sayings and pronouncements, prophets face the wrath of the 
people – for they speak the truth and it’s not always well-received. Especially if the message 
is ‘God is not pleased with you!’. Jeremiah was rejected, abused, attacked and threatened 
with death.

 In this passage (26:1-16) Jeremiah is let off lightly and the people concede that they should 
listen to him, rather than kill him as, ‘he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God’. 
But, if could have been so different….

What role do prophets, can prophets play in the life of the Christian faith today?

Prophets are there to remind us of the essential nature of our Christian faith. 
They are to recall us to our right mind. They are to encourage us to follow the laws of God 
and not the human laws that we have created.

The law of God is the radical law of grace in which each of us is loved and welcomed home 
not because we deserve it, but because its God’s nature to love us and forgive us.

Because we are treated like this by God – so we must treat one another with grace and 
compassion. All of us have fallen short, and so all of us should seek to humbly see ourselves
as worse than our neighbour. Pride is the feeding ground of the devil- but humility is the 
feeding ground of God.

‘Obeying the voice of God’ as Jeremiah puts it, is the best option for us as humans, yet it is 
the hardest thing for us to. How often do we lie, listen to lies, fail to speak the truth, avoid 
honesty? The danger is real for Jeremiah – he really could have been put to death for 
challenging the people and prophesying against them: truth speakers are not generally 
welcomed but rejected. To be saved, is to heed the word of the prophets -to turn back, to turn 
around, to humble ourselves and put aside our pride. To listen to truth and reject all that is 
false.

Is there a part of your life in which you need to listen to some truth-telling? 
To turn back, to turn around, to humble yourself........
Do you need to be honest with someone that you have been avoiding?
Where have you been listening to the voice of humans rather than the voice of God?

In church, listening to scripture, we are recalled to our right mind. 

May we all re-orient ourselves, turn towards the truth and away from the lies that destroy.
Amen





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