Webinar - THE HEBREW PROPHETS AND THEIR PROBLEMS WITH GOD
Jeremiah’s Problem with God
Jeremiah was convinced that God’s assessment of Israel was way off:
· Jeremiah thought: “These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God. So I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God" (Jeremiah 5:4-5).
AFTER WE’VE WALKED IN GOD’S SHOES, THE IDEA OF JUDGMENT BECOMES MORE ACCEPTABLE. – Object lessons:
· GOD WANTED JEREMIAH TO UNDERSTAND HIM: "Go west to the land of Cyprus; go east to the land of Kedar. Think about what you see there. See if anyone has ever heard of anything as strange as this. Has any nation ever exchanged its gods for another god, even though its gods are nothing? Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols! (Jeremiah 2:10-11)
· “Then the Lord told me about the plots my enemies were making against me. I had been as unaware as a lamb on the way to its slaughter. I had no idea that they were planning to kill me!” (Jeremiah 11:18-19)
· “Even your own brothers, members of your own family, have turned on you. They have plotted, raising a cry against you. Do not trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak” (Jeremiah 12:6).
· JEREMIAH HAD BEEN COMPLAINING THAT GOD WASN’T GRACIOUS ENOUGH: “Why are you like a stranger to us? Why are you like someone passing through the land, stopping only for the night? … Are you helpless to save us? You are right here among us, Lord. We are known as your people. Please don't abandon us now!" (Jeremiah 14:8-9)
· Then I said, "What sadness is mine, my mother. Oh, that I had died at birth! I am hated everywhere I go. I am neither a lender who has threatened to foreclose nor a borrower who refuses to pay—yet they all curse me." (Jeremiah 15:10)
Now he wanted the very thing that he had been against – judgment!
· Then I said, "Lord, you know I am suffering for your sake. Punish my persecutors! Don't let them kill me! Be merciful to me and give them what they deserve! (Jeremiah 15:15)
· Lord, you know all about their murderous plots against me. Don't forgive their crimes and blot out their sins. Let them die before you. Deal with them in your anger (Jeremiah 18:23).
· Lord Almighty! You know those who are righteous, and you examine the deepest thoughts of hearts and minds. Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have committed my cause to you (Jeremiah 20:12).
CONSEQUENTLY, JEREMIAH’S OPINION OF THE DEPTH OF SIN WAS CHANGING: Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
It is only after we understand the weightiness of the judgment that we deserve, that we can have any appreciation for grace we don’t deserve.
· Jeremiah 18:7-10 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. (Mercy > Judgment; James 2:13)
· Ezekiel 33:14-20 And if I say to the wicked man, 'You will surely die,' but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right-- 15if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. 16None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live. 17"Yet your countrymen say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' But it is their way that is not just. 18If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. 19And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so. 20Yet, O house of Israel, you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' But I will judge each of you according to his own ways."
PERHAPS ALL THE PROPHETS HAD A PROBLEM WITH GOD:
EZEKIEL’S TEMPLE TOUR: Ezekiel 9:8-9 So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, and said, "Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?" 9Then He said to me, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, 'The Lord has forsaken the land…!'
· AS EZEKIEL SAW THE HORRORS: Ezekiel 11:13 …Then I fell down on my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”
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AFTER THESE REVELATIONS OF DESTRUCTION WAS EZEKIEL READY TO RECEIVE THE
REVELATION OF GOD’S MERCY: Ezekiel 11:19–21 “And I will give them one
heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of
stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my
statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I
will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable
things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads,
declares the Lord GOD.” (1. Awareness of Judgment, 2. Promises of Mercy)
Habakkuk 1:13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked [the Babylonians] devours a person more righteous than he?....
· Habakkuk 2:1 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
o 2:4 "Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith”.
o Habakkuk 2:19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.
Isaiah’s Problem with God: Should all Israel be Saved?
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. (Isaiah 64:6-7)
SHOULDN’T GOD SAVE ALL ISRAEL?
Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people… After all this, O LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure? (Isaiah 64:9,12)
GOD’S ANSWER:
All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations-- a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick [to false gods]… I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me." (Isaiah 65:2-3,12)
Jonah’s Opposite Problem
CONDITIONAL: Nineveh repented and God relented from His promise to destroy Nineveh. However, instead of rejoicing with the Lord, Jonah became angry (Jonah 4:1) and wanted to die, but God tried to teach him that he was his own worst enemy:
Of course, Jonah’s anger wasn’t serving him well. However, God didn’t give up on Jonah and continued to provide object lessons to expose his anger and rebellion for what they were. Overnight, He provided Jonah with a plant to shade him from the intense sun. God then destroyed the plant, and Jonah foolishly became angry at it – another teachable moment:
When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:8-11)
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