1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
2 And though they say, The Lord liveth; surely they swear falsely.
3 O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction:they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish:for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God.
5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God:but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. 6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities:every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces:because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
7 How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods:when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots 'houses.
8 They were as fed horses in the morning:every one neighed after his neighbour's wife. 9 Shall I not visit (judge) for these things? saith the Lord:and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end:take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord' s.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord.
12 They have belied the Lord, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them:thus shall it be done unto them.
14 Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord:it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.
17 And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat:they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds:they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees:they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword. 18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not make a full end with you.
19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, 21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
22 Fear ye not me? saith the Lord:will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it:and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season:he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men:they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. 27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit:therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. 28 They are waxen fat, they shine:yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked:
they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
29 Shall I not visit (judge) for these things? saith the Lord:shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so:and what will ye do in the end thereof?
Comments by Joan Boney
I see this in our church groups today:
30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31 The
prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so:and what will ye do in the end thereof?
As the ministers do many wicked things to the Holy Scriptures, as they pervert the Word of God, the people sit there in the congregation with big smiles on their faces, loving to have it so ...
Here is a dream God gave me concerning the churches today:
In
this dream, I went into a room where a meeting was going on. There was
one vacant seat on the aisle and I sat down and began listening to a
man who was speaking to the group. Another man rushed and went to the front of the room and said, "Stop ... wait ... can't you see ... It's too late! It's already begun."The
first man resumed speaking to the group.
I looked out the window and
was shocked at what I saw.
There was a tall, civil defense type pole
with a yellow warning speaker on top of the pole. Out of the speaker
was coming a poison gas. I knew it would kill the people and
shockingly the gas was coming from our own speaker which was supposed to
warn us.
I looked at the man who was sitting next to me. He was
sitting upright. He had a big smile on his face. He was looking
directly at the speaker in an attentive way. But this man was a corpse. He was dead though he looked alive.
Then
I looked at people around the room and they were already dead also.
And as I sat back in my seat, I felt myself falling asleep, dying as I
listened to the speaker.
As I have visited various church groups, I have witnessed this over and over. The pastors speak perverse things, even twisting the scripture to their own destruction and to the destruction of the people who "happily sit" in the congregations. No one seeks truth but they are happy in lies and praise the speaker of lies.
Once I visited a church group where the pastor was teaching from John 8, concerning the woman taken in adultery. He said, "And when the woman taken in adultery was brought before Jesus she was naked from her waist up." I was shocked! The people in the congregation just smiled. I saw no one reach for a Bible to check John 8 for truth. They just sat there smiling as the pastor spoke. (This is the poison gas dream where the speaker is killing the people in the congregation with the poison gas that comes from his own mouth... And Jeremiah says: and My people love to have it so:)
Over and over, I visited churches and heard pastors speaking things which are not true and saw entire congregation sitting there doing nothing at all about the lies that were coming forth ... they just sat smiling ... they were already dead.
During these years, I went to each pastor I heard speaking wrong things and talked to each pastor in private. Not one repented. Not one expressed sorrow. Each pastor struck out at me.
But the people in each group just praised the lying pastor.
I can identify with everything Jeremiah wrote for I have seen it today in the churches ... and at some point God will visit (judge) these pastors and the congregations who worship these pastors who speak lies and twist the Word of God to suit themselves and to suit their hearers for the people love to have it so ...