I did not realize that ‘Don’t shoot/stone the messenger’ is from the Bible in the Book of Jeremiah. The phrase is not exactly there but certainly the sentiment. Jeremiah is faithful in the calling God has assigned him. He is a mouthpiece for God and another precursor of Jesus. There are many books, short and long, focused on prophecy. The major prophetic books are longer than the minor books – easy. Beginning near Chapter 37, Jeremiah is beat up and stowed in a dungeon. He is accused of weakening Judah’s soldiers by proclaiming that they will be overcome by a foreign army. Yes, morale may have been down but God was trying to save His people who were never good listeners. Then he is placed in a cistern and left to die. It does not say how deep the mud at the bottom was but I picture the worst. He was rescued. The mention of their city being burned with fire (is there any other way to burn a city?) was more bad news that did not cheer this disobedient people. If they had trusted that God was speaking out of love through Jeremiah, many would have been saved.
I think a lot of what I don’t understand to be odd. For instance, when the prophecies came true and the people were taken away, the poor were left behind. If you were royal there was execution. If you were, say, middle class, you became enslaved. The nobodies were left behind to farm the remaining fields. Maybe that was also a kind of slavery. A word I did not recognize is execration. It means the act of cursing or denouncing. Disobeying God by worshipping false gods puts a curse on you. Is that curse hell instead of Heaven?
Jerusalem became desolate because they did not honor the one true God. So I look at the world I am in today and so much of the political, legislative, medical, lifestyle, holly-weird, social trauma or ‘curse’ on people is sourced by denying God’s love for you. Today’s irritants I will list. You have your own and the offenses to God are endless. I am offended by abortion because it denies that God has the authority over life. I am offended by legalizing same sex marriage because it is saying the God’s original design is flawed and you idea about who to love is your own idea and superior to God’s idea. I am offended by people who are not in the 3% of truly needy and destitute not wanting to pay taxes and expecting that I should work for them. I am offended by the open border that, again, is a math story problem. If someone is called an illegal immigrant then they have done something illegal. Name it. Sex ed for kindergarteners – hell no. Please pardon the language. Today I will publish these whines and tomorrow I will think of more. The truth is that we have to speak up for godly principles that allows God to have the final say on everything we think and do. God is full of compassion but He did not shut up when people were stupid but tried to save them all. Those who spit in His eye chose death over life. That is what some of our neighbors are doing and Jeremiah is dead. About 570 BC, while in Egypt, he continued to rebuke his fellow exiles and they stoned him to death. We should not fear men but only God and speak the truth in love.