RTW 2023

Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for these people anymore. When they fast, I will pay no attention. When they present their burnt offerings and grain offerings to me, I will not accept them.”

Jeremiah 14:11-12a

LORD, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. So let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy? You have planted them, and they have taken root and prospered. Your name is on their lips, but you are far from their hearts.

Jeremiah 12:1-2

• But I said, “Oh, Lord God! Behold, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see a sword, nor will you have famine; on the contrary, I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility, and the deception of their own minds. Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying: ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end!
  Jeremiah 14:13-15 (NASB)
• Priests and leaders continued to do what looked good, and gave the appearance of doing holy things that God asked them to do, but these shiny looking things, these attempts to pacify God while practicing evil and selfishness, were unacceptable. All their sacrifices and rituals and fastings were a cover-up for their abuse of power and their own destructive ways.
• “For even your brothers and the household of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you, even they have called aloud after you. Do not believe them, though they say nice things to you.“
  Jeremiah 12:6 (NASB)
• But Moses tried to pacify the LORD his God. “O LORD!” he said. “Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand?
  Exodus 32:11
• So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the LORD as a whole burnt offering. He pleaded with the LORD to help Israel, and the LORD answered him.
  1 Samuel 7:9
• Are we trying to cover up with things that look good on the surface for ourselves or for others, when there is wrong being done? Is there sin underneath the facade that needs to be exposed?

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Be honest with ourselves and with others, seek to live a life of authenticity before God and others.