I wonder if Solomon knew how true his words would ring throughout the generations. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecc 1:9.
The more one studies the word and the prophets, the more one realizes how the Christian church has simply gone ahead and copied Israel’s errors.
I fear the church at large believes they have escaped repeating these errors. Supposing that the Jews alone were stubborn, hard hearted and rebellious. Furthermore a certain pharisee like attitude seems to be evident from the pulpit, that the church has earned a special place of assured salvation. Pretty sure that John the Baptist would have a few things to say about that.
When I was reading the scriptures the other day I noted that Paul was highlighting the fact that the last days of the church period would be likened to a time not unlike the times of rebellious Israel.
A time when the prophets would be sent to the people with a message similar to the following verse from Jeremiah. Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear. Jer 5:21. And from this point the prophet would declare the unrighteousness that the Lord was aware of, amidst His people.
Yet I was struck when I noted the similarity in apostle Paul’s warning in 2 Timothy 3:7. For Paul basically uses the same wording as the prophets concerning the last days state of the church.
Compare Isaiah’s words to Paul’s.
Isaiah 6:9 He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
2Timothy3:7 Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
- Isaiah : Ever hearing, ever seeing – Paul : Always learning
- Isaiah : Never Understanding – Paul : Never able to acknowledge the truth.
Paul doesn’t present his text in a “thus sayeth the Lord” format. But his teaching is no less prophetic.
There is this thing, and THING is the only word I can think of to describe it at this time. This thing that I see amidst the congregation of the Lord which horrifies me. We aspire to truth, we embrace it, we look for it and speak wonderfully of it. But that truth goes no further than what I would call mental assent.
God’s people know what righteousness is, but scarcely do we live it. We see what the Saviour’s life looked like, but scarcely do we imitate Him. We read His commands and continue on our way.
This THING that I behold is the most awful of THINGS. We are forever learning, forever seeing, forever reading, forever hearing, forever seeking greater understanding, yet at the very same time, never TRULY understanding. And this is the very same thing that the prophets were alluding to.
The bottom line is that they were pointing to the condition of peoples hearts. It seems God’s people were doin the religious thing, and they were paying lip service to the Lord, but there was little evidence of inward change, evidenced by the prevailing unrighteousness. Their hearts remained in rebellion, calloused and hardened. And so in spite of all of their teaching and listening and reading and hearing they did not truly HEAR.
On a sidenote, interesting isn’t it that the following four words, all relevant to this subject, all contain the word ear.
EAR > HEAR > FEAR > HEART.
With the ear we hear, and with the hearing of the word we ought to fear, and with this fear our heart is inclined to believe.
Listen to Jeremiahs words and look at the order of the wording (in bold).
5:21 Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear: 22 Should you not fear me?” declares the Lord. “Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it. 23But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
When the heart believes, that is to say when we truly hear, the fruit thereof is righteousness. But what I and many others are seeing in the church today, the THING is not righteousness, but mental assent, agreement with the word, nodding heads, even embracing the truth, but no evidence that the heart is being renewed, and no evidence of fear amongst much of the household of God.
Paul knew that the people he refers to in his 2 Timothy3 scripture were living a lie. Though they had the godly facade, the praise and worship, the yes’s and amen’s, the churchy exterior, the fact could not be ignored, they were following the beast. And this was evidenced by the very denial of Christ in their lives.
Lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.
These are the attributes of the devil; pride, self love, selfishness. Who could believe that our hearts could so deceive us, that we could be unaware of them to the degree that we actually worshiped the beast. Yet we see in scripture, time and time again that this is what can happen to people who think that they are of God, in Christ, whatever! And have ears, but do not hear.
In a day in which knowledge is increasing, and the word of the Lord being unveiled in so many ways. We ought to remember that the teachers of the law most likely believed that their understanding of His word would save them. Yet as we found out, they too followed the beast and were of their father the devil.
Unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the pharisees and the teaches of the law, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
As for me, I realize that I am able to fool myself with my confession, and my knowledge. And I am coming to the conclusion very fast that I will not be assured of my righteousness until I see Christ in me. And then it will be His righteousness in me, and when I see this I will rejoice. Until then I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
