I will feed them with bitter food

Jeremiah 23:9-15

Concerning the prophets:

My heart is broken within me;

    all my bones shake;

I am like a drunken man,

    like a man overcome by wine,

because of the Lord

    and because of his holy words.

For the land is full of adulterers;

    because of the curse the land mourns,

    and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.

Their course is evil,

    and their might is not right.

“Both prophet and priest are ungodly;

    even in my house I have found their evil,

declares the Lord.

Therefore their way shall be to them

    like slippery paths in the darkness,

    into which they shall be driven and fall,

for I will bring disaster upon them

    in the year of their punishment,

declares the Lord.

In the prophets of Samaria

    I saw an unsavory thing:

they prophesied by Baal

    and led my people Israel astray.

But in the prophets of Jerusalem

    I have seen a horrible thing:

they commit adultery and walk in lies;

    they strengthen the hands of evildoers,

    so that no one turns from his evil;

all of them have become like Sodom to me,

    and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:

“Behold, I will feed them with bitter food

    and give them poisoned water to drink,

for from the prophets of Jerusalem

    ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”

In our age of continual prophecy, in which every one is a theologian and every voice has authority, it is all too easy to become angry and weary.  Constant battles rage online as one person after another seeks to explain what the scriptures really mean, often with no regard for what the Church has taught for centuries.  One voice will rise above others and gain a following.  Then another.  Then another.  These men and women form factions, sometimes form congregations, sometimes denominations based on one person’s view of scripture.  Within these factions individual reason is elevated above all.  What I understand to be true must be true, because my reason must not be flawed.

In the course of these wars we constantly see immorality take root.  We see false churches form, or once holy churches fall into corruption, for the sake of satisfying some personal desire and to deny God’s call to deny ourselves, to accept shame and suffering, and to follow Him.  Often this is as simple as a desire to satisfy our appetites without shame.  We want to drink as much as we want, sleep with whom we want, live however we want and above all never be told that we are wrong to do it, by God or by man.  Often it is more complex and insidious.  We want to fulfill our desire for safety, shielding ourselves from those who are different, who struggle with sins that we find uncomfortable and so we forge a doctrine that allows us to hate our neighbors and care nothing for love or justice.  And other times it is simply in order to elevate ourselves.  We believe in God, but we hold our own reason in a higher position.  We strive to understand the Lord by studying scripture, then we entrench in a system of theology, defending to the death the idea that we alone truly know Him.

My heart’s desire is that we would all learn to submit ourselves to authority, rather than setting ourselves up as the authorities.  Jeroboam built calves, saying to the kingdom of Israel “Here are the gods who led you out of Egypt.”  He had rejected the authority of God, of Moses, of Aaron.  He declared, “I have authority.  This is the truth.”  So we also set up our calves, telling others that this is the god who led us our of captivity.  But we reject the authority of God, of the apostles, of the church.  We find ourselves in a place where everyone has authority, so no authority is recognized.

My temptation is to blast all those who reject authority and will not submit.  My desire is to show them all the truth, to run point by point through every teaching and show them that they are wrong.  In the interest of leading men to repentance, I would further strengthen the lines that divide us.  And so I hear the words of the prophet.

It is not mine to punish those who go astray or those who would lead others from God.  The Lord’s desire is that his church would be one.  He hates our division and is disgusted by those who would lead others into sin.  He will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink.  I may lament the devastation present, but it is not my place to avenge.  The Lord himself will punish what must be punished.  He is the king, he is the judge.  And so the burden is not mine to bear.

Come, Holy Spirit, and unite your church.  Help us to follow you, to submit ourselves to you, and to love our neighbors.  Free us from self-aggrandizement.  Teach us what it means to be salt and light for our fallen world.  Help us to love.