Category Archives: Jeremiah

The Oracle Is, There Is No Oracle

Posted by on February 8, 2012 No comments

Jeremiah says that no one will remember the oracle of the Lord because it has been drowned out by every man's own word. So long have they listened to their own words that they no longer hear the oracle of the Lord. Each think their own words are now the oracle of the Lord.

So to this situation, where every man has his own oracle of the Lord, Jeremiah says the true oracle of the Lord is “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of the Lord’”. (Jeremiah 23:36-38)

This new oracle from the Lord creates the ultimate dilemma. Anyone who says “an oracle from the Lord” their words are false because the Lord’s oracle is “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of the Lord’”. If they do not say, “the oracle of the Lord”, then they have no oracle from the Lord and they are forced to sit in silence.

The oracle is the Word of the Lord. It is the presence of the Lord in their midst guiding them. Now, without the oracle of the Lord the Word of the Lord does not come into their presence by the active spoken word. Rather, the Lord’s presence is now only found in silence.

If the Lord never speaks, they have the Lord. If they say the Lord speaks, they do not have the Lord. This separates God from their day to day life where they speak.

As far as silence is from the spoken word so far is God from their current life.

In this silence they must listen to the echo of their own false oracles. In silence they are forced to leave their daily life. Only in silence may they touch God.

God is in the silence. In the silence God is their Lord.

© 2012, VoiceWind. . .Greg Loveless. All rights reserved.

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Competing in Cedar

Posted by on April 28, 2011 No comments

Sometimes we look outside ourselves to find our self worth. But the moment we do this we surrender our true value and the purpose God has for our life.

Jeremiah speaks directly to this issue.

Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
And do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
— Jeremiah 22:15

So while the king's father was like the people, because he ate and drank as they did, he distinguished himself as king to the extent he delivered righteousness and justice to them. This is how he led his people and earned the title of king.

However, the current king finds his status and self worth by competing for the most beautiful cedar for his palace. Since the people do not have the cedar he has, he believes this distinguishes him as king. Little does he realize that the moment he sought to distinguish himself with his cedar he ceased to lead his people in justice and righteousness and he surrendered his title as king.

Following this to its conclusion it means eventually it will not go well for him. Eventually this path will cause him to lose even the basics of life, food and water.

We then should not compete in cedar lest we lose out title. Rather, we should do justice and righteousness.

Here we will receive a title even more precious than that of "king". We will receive the title — a child of God.

© 2011, VoiceWind. . .Greg Loveless. All rights reserved.

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Isolated Street Smarts

Posted by on March 17, 2011 No comments

The concept of street smarts implies that those who have it should be able to read a situation, make a decision based on the information at hand, and this decision should be true and successful. However, there are limitations to street smarts and this plays out in chapter 44 of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah confronts those who have fled Egypt and who want to continue the practices they participated in while in Jerusalem. He informs them that they are in this situation because they have not worshiped the Lord God in Spirit and Truth. Rather, they have burned offerings to the queen of the heavens.

But they respond and say,

"We had food and were safe while we made offerings to the queen of the heavens. So we are going to go back to making offerings to the queen of the heavens."
— Jeremiah 44:15-18

Jeremiah then explains that because of this only a small remnant will come out of Egypt. That most of them will die by the sword.

To be fair, the response of the women and men has some truth to it. From their perspective their is a correlation between the time when they were at peace and had plenty of food and were making offerings to the queen of the heavens.

But herein lies their problem. Their vision is limited to that point in time. It is limited to what they have experienced. As a result they have not taken into account what came before and what will come to be after their actions. Without this there is no way they can have a full understanding of the consequences of their actions in the present. There is no way for them to determine if what they are doing is right and true in the full context of history.

We are not only responsible for what we experience during our life time, but we are also responsible for knowing the history that brought us to where we are and how our actions will impact future generations.

Our actions do not sit in isolation to all other events. The history that brought us to our current situation, and the future that is to come, is connected by the actions we take in the present. Our actions are judged not only for how things work in our present situation, but we are judged for how our actions work in the context of all of history.

This is where the truth of God comes in to play. It is God's truth that speaks not only to the present context, but also includes the past and the future for He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. This is what Jeremiah was attempting to give them. But they chose to live in the limited present. Then they defended this with isolated street smarts.

But street smarts, when isolated from historical context, are not smart at all.

© 2011, VoiceWind. . .Greg Loveless. All rights reserved.

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Freewill of the Prophetic Turn

Posted by on November 24, 2010 No comments

If a nation, that God has turned against, turns from its evil, God will also turn from the calamity He planned to bring upon it. (Jeremiah 18:8-10)

This act of grace and mercy by God, to turn and do good for a nation that turns from evil to good, has significant consequences. It implies the reverse situation is also possible — to the nation that turns from good and dos evil there must be an equal response from God — to turn from the good He had promised.

After stating this fact Jeremiah then speaks a prophecy of calamity on the inhabitants of Jerusalem. His prophecy is justified, not just because it comes from God and is His will. It is justified because God is responding to Jerusalem's actions. It is justified because it is the result of Jerusalem's own choosing. It is justified because there are nations that turned from evil to good and thus deserve good in return, so Jerusalem who turned from good to evil is deserving of this calamity.

The prophetic call to turn implies free will. The refusal to heed does not imply predestination.

© 2010 – 2012, VoiceWind. . .Greg Loveless. All rights reserved.

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