Do Not Pray !
“Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.” Jeremiah 7:16
It is a shocking request to the prophet to refrain from intercession, especially from the One who had said to another prophet, “I sought for a man to stand in the gap”. God was instructing Jeremiah to not pray. God was not only not going to hear the prayers of a spiritually destitute, and flagrantly disobedient people, but he was preventing even the weeping prophet to pray for them. And this command is repeated three times in later chapters.
When I read this I have to ask myself, is it possible for me, to so vex God that He not only cannot hear my prayers, but it becomes impossible for another to make intercession for me. If the hope of turning to God is taken away, if His longsuffering is squandered, His mercy exhausted, what can a man do? If I have bankrupted myself of money or fame or even health, I may have hope, but what does one do when God bids farewell? More specifically, what is this posture of a heart that can makes God say goodbye, and make prayer ineffective?
It is interesting to note the times and the general culture of the people when these words were spoken. Judah was in midst of peace and prosperity under the reformer King Josiah. The Book of the Law had been found, and the favorite book of the people was Deuteronomy. The people had an eclectic worship experience combining much of the ceremonial law and ignoring its moral aspect, added with other forms of worship influenced by the nations around them. Assyria was a power that was waning in significance as Babylon grew as a vigorous rival, and they saw in that the first steps to the fulfillment of Nahum’s prophecy of the destruction of Assyria. The preachers preached “Peace!” and smugly they attributed all of this to the blessings of God promised in Deuteronomy. What could be more evident of God’s blessing than unprecedented prosperity? And in the midst of this, Jeremiah stood as a lone voice with a gloomy outlook. Literally the words, “Do not pray”, stand in the midst of God asking Jeremiah to go stand outside their worship place and as people go in, to say these gloomy words to them. And reading the complete context of the passage, one sees a people who believed in God’s promises without evaluating their own actions. They were a people who rejoiced in God’s promises of blessings, but glossed over the warnings.
I think the most dangerous place for a person is when they seem to easily believe in God’s promises, but hardly consider His warnings. When one is convinced of their own righteousness, even God cannot convince them otherwise. It is this posture where prayer becomes powerless, and intercession is ineffective. We live in comparative peace and prosperity. We have many blessings, and have seen God’s provision. Is it possible that we can become so smug about our righteousness, delight over His promises, and forget to evaluate our actions? Are our thoughts and actions in obedience to God’s word? As we rejoice over His blessings, are we also fully cognizant of His warnings. I suspect a good test of genuine trust in God’s Word is if we believe the judgments of the Lord with the same intensity as the promises. I have often found more genuine piety trembling over the judgments of the Lord rather than smugly claiming the blessing of the Lord. Perhaps someday someone will compile a “Warnings of the Bible” as a companion volume to the “Promises of the Bible” to keep us of a balanced mind.
It is interesting that even in God’s instruction to Jeremiah not to pray, God is working to bring the people to Himself. In a later chapter (14), He says not to pray for their own good, and then after the captivity, we hear these words that have been a keystone of hope for God’s people through the ages. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” God told Jeremiah not to pray, so that he could get them in a place where they could genuinely pray and be drawn back to Him.
Danesh Manik
It is a shocking request to the prophet to refrain from intercession, especially from the One who had said to another prophet, “I sought for a man to stand in the gap”. God was instructing Jeremiah to not pray. God was not only not going to hear the prayers of a spiritually destitute, and flagrantly disobedient people, but he was preventing even the weeping prophet to pray for them. And this command is repeated three times in later chapters.
When I read this I have to ask myself, is it possible for me, to so vex God that He not only cannot hear my prayers, but it becomes impossible for another to make intercession for me. If the hope of turning to God is taken away, if His longsuffering is squandered, His mercy exhausted, what can a man do? If I have bankrupted myself of money or fame or even health, I may have hope, but what does one do when God bids farewell? More specifically, what is this posture of a heart that can makes God say goodbye, and make prayer ineffective?
It is interesting to note the times and the general culture of the people when these words were spoken. Judah was in midst of peace and prosperity under the reformer King Josiah. The Book of the Law had been found, and the favorite book of the people was Deuteronomy. The people had an eclectic worship experience combining much of the ceremonial law and ignoring its moral aspect, added with other forms of worship influenced by the nations around them. Assyria was a power that was waning in significance as Babylon grew as a vigorous rival, and they saw in that the first steps to the fulfillment of Nahum’s prophecy of the destruction of Assyria. The preachers preached “Peace!” and smugly they attributed all of this to the blessings of God promised in Deuteronomy. What could be more evident of God’s blessing than unprecedented prosperity? And in the midst of this, Jeremiah stood as a lone voice with a gloomy outlook. Literally the words, “Do not pray”, stand in the midst of God asking Jeremiah to go stand outside their worship place and as people go in, to say these gloomy words to them. And reading the complete context of the passage, one sees a people who believed in God’s promises without evaluating their own actions. They were a people who rejoiced in God’s promises of blessings, but glossed over the warnings.
I think the most dangerous place for a person is when they seem to easily believe in God’s promises, but hardly consider His warnings. When one is convinced of their own righteousness, even God cannot convince them otherwise. It is this posture where prayer becomes powerless, and intercession is ineffective. We live in comparative peace and prosperity. We have many blessings, and have seen God’s provision. Is it possible that we can become so smug about our righteousness, delight over His promises, and forget to evaluate our actions? Are our thoughts and actions in obedience to God’s word? As we rejoice over His blessings, are we also fully cognizant of His warnings. I suspect a good test of genuine trust in God’s Word is if we believe the judgments of the Lord with the same intensity as the promises. I have often found more genuine piety trembling over the judgments of the Lord rather than smugly claiming the blessing of the Lord. Perhaps someday someone will compile a “Warnings of the Bible” as a companion volume to the “Promises of the Bible” to keep us of a balanced mind.
It is interesting that even in God’s instruction to Jeremiah not to pray, God is working to bring the people to Himself. In a later chapter (14), He says not to pray for their own good, and then after the captivity, we hear these words that have been a keystone of hope for God’s people through the ages. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” God told Jeremiah not to pray, so that he could get them in a place where they could genuinely pray and be drawn back to Him.
Danesh Manik
posted by Danesh Manik | 2:13 PM
|
0 comments
