The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-07-06
q Years Deaf
Lesion for July 8, 1862

The woods were full Of proph-
cts back in times when the ma
ton Of Judah was plunging to
its doom. For every single trte
prophet there must have been
scores if not hundreds of false
prophets. Now when different
men see different pictures of the
future, how shall we know which
is telling the truth and which is
just seeing things?" Readers
of the Bible are inclined to
blame the people of Israel for
not paying attention to the
prophets who spoke to them in
the name and with the message
of God. We think we could not
have been so foolish as those
people were.
But we can't throw too many
stones. We have to remember
that the true prophets we're in a
small minority. and also that the
false prophets said what people
wanted to hear. Isn't it true to-
day that we would rather listen
to cheerful predictions than
gloomy ones?
What Is God Doing?
In times Of deep trouble. such
as war or other disaster, a COM
mon question especially among
religious people is: What is God
doing? Why doesn't He stop
these disasters? Now there are
some calamities which we can
be saved from only If we our
selves do something about it.
God will not save us from just
any jam we care to get into.
Those long-ago 1sarelites. for ex-
ample, had plenty of warning.
Jeremiah and others too had told
them and told them again. just
what was going to be, unless the
nation radically c h a d its
ways. Read the terrible 10Th
chapter. where Jeremiah pre-
diets that these elegant city
people will end by becoming can
nibals, out of sheer desperate
starvation. God says: II will
break this city SO that it cannot
be mended." Through Jeremiah
God draws an accurate picture
Or rxacty now GUu Will bring
this to pass.
Why No Believers? II.
Twenty-three years is a long
time. jeremiah began to preach
when he was only a youth, let
us say around 20 or SO. He was
a middle-aged man when finally
the storm came. But in % years
no one had listened. Yet (said
Jeremiah) though Il have spo-
ken persistently unto you, you
have neither listened, nor inclin-
ed your ears to hear" - that is
to say. they hadn't heard and
didn't want to hear the truth.
Why this fatal, this suicidal,
willful deafness on the nations
part? 1t was partly. as already
said, that they did not like to
hear what they c d e r e d
gloomy. doomy predictions. They
liked to think that if they were
Just cheerful enough, circum-
stances would change to match
their mood. But there was some
thing else more deep-reaching.
Jeremiah made it plain over and
over $50 often that he himself
wearied Of his own preaching
and wished he could stop (even
wished he had never been born
made it plain that the nation
was not such that it could make
a valid claim on God. You could
put it in two sentences: The
people said. 1--WE are Gods peo-
pie, He won't let us get hurt"
while jeremiah said, Gods peo-
pie? You don't act like it,"
Justice!
What was needed. in Gods
sight. was not a change in the
place of worship. King Josiah
had reformed" the state re-
ligion that far; but a hypocrite's
worship is just as distasteful to
the God of righteousness in one
place as another. In one of Jere-
.iah'S famous sermons (chap. y
ne warns against Dragging that
they had the one true Temple.
What God really desires is a
people who practice justice be-
tween man and man.
The voice Of many a preacher
proud America in
these days to repent. But now as
then it IS a mistake to think Of
sin as just personal faults. The
sins Of society. dishonesty and
greed in political and social and
economic life. are more far-reac-
ing and just as fatal in under
mining a nations character and
strength, as are purely indi-