Is God missing?

They did not notice that the Lord was missing. They worshipped what their own heads had conceived and their own hands had made

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In the television drama series “The West Wing”, which is about the executive branch of the American government (the President’s own staff), there is a scene where the press secretary and her staff have been up all night preparing for an important political event. It’s important because it is a breakfast for the leadership of both of America’s political parties – the Democrats and the Republicans. It is intended to show to the American people that although the two parties are in opposition to each other, they get along well in conducting government business.

Well as we can imagine one of the most important aspects of the breakfast is who is sitting next to who, so that no one gets offended that they are considered less important than someone else of equivalent rank, and certainly in regard to someone from the opposite party. Having “burned the midnight oil” in debating the seating and moving people around, they declare themselves satisfied with a good job well done. In the middle of these congratulations the White House Communications Director comes in to work and glances at the model where all of the people’s names are displayed. Instantly he says “you’ve missed someone out”. A couple of minutes of minute examination of the layout leads someone to exclaim – “my goodness he’s right – we missed out the President”!

Jeremiah 2:5-9 tells a similar story but is far more telling. This is what the young prophet says:

This is what the Lord says: “What did your ancestors find wrong with me that led them to stray so far from me? They worshiped worthless idols, only to become worthless themselves. They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us safely out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness - a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and death, where no one lives or even travels?’ “And when I brought you into a fruitful land to enjoy its bounty and goodness, you defiled my land and corrupted the possession I had promised you. The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who taught my word ignored me, the rulers turned against me, and the prophets spoke in the name of Baal, wasting their time on worthless idols. Therefore, I will bring my case against you,” says the Lord. “I will even bring charges against your children’s children in the years to come”.

God’s people, a people used to seeing the miraculous and having God fight on their side, had not noticed that these things were not happening anymore. They did not notice that the Lord was missing. They worshipped what their own heads had conceived and their own hands had made. How was it that they did not realise that the miraculous and wonderful had departed and been replaced by their own fabrications?

Worse maybe; their spiritual leaders did not say “where is the Lord”? Those who taught and interpreted the word of the Lord for them did not know the Lord, so their teachings were spurious, dry and lifeless discourses - replacing the living Word of God with lifeless academic teaching and eventually giving rise to religious traditions – well in place by the time of Jesus. Jesus in fact accused the spiritual leaders of replacing God’s word with the traditions of men. In Mark 7:6-9 Jesus replies to the Jewish leaders: … “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.” Then he said, “You skilfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. 

This ignorance led to a situation where even learned, sincere spiritual leaders were spiritually blind. Jesus talked to the leading Pharisee Nicodemus concerning being born again. Nicodemus’s reply was one of amazement “How can these things be”? he asked. Jesus replied “How can you a leader in Israel not know these things”!? 

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Paul warns Timothy saying that: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons …” (1 Timothy 4:1). In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 he says more: “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away”!

This failure of the spiritual leaders to challenge the “establishment” as it went off course, gave way to rulers of the people who did not consider God in their thinking. Despite the legacy of the people being a nation of righteousness and promise, heirs to the Kingdom of God, charged with demonstrating what the character of God was like; their rulers presided over and encouraged wickedness, cruelty, abuse and exploitation. The law was intended to bring them close to God but they ignored it and ruled selfishly often purposely flouting God’s instructions, purposes and laws.

In Jeremiah 2 the prophet says that they behaved like this – rulers, priests, prophets, teachers and the population – and no one realised that God was not with them. Having experienced the provision of God in the wilderness and relied on Him in war, now they were in a comfortable place they abandoned their trust in Him and love for Him. The Lord points out the irony of the situation where their neighbours who were worshipping false gods, phony gods and demonic gods did not forsake their dedication to them; whereas the Children of the one true God - heirs of the Kingdom and partakers of His favour and promises, forsook Him. The Lord declares: “13 “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me - the fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!

What are we to take from this today? Well, we live in a nation that has been blessed. We have known God’s provision and favour in many ways and His salvation in war. There is a long church history of revivals and moves of God and knowing the wondrous, extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives. Again and again, I can’t get away from the cry of Jeremiah 2. They did not know that God had left them and they had formed their own “churches” and worship and teaching as it suited them and didn’t interfere with what they wanted to get on with. There is the same cry in Revelation 3:17 to the Laodicean church:  “ … you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked …” The tragedy is that they did not know – they thought that everything was OK. It looked good, it sounded good, they felt good – but God was missing.

The questions that these thoughts prompt for me are:

Is the Lord with “the church”?

What message have children of the Kingdom got for “the church”, society and our government?

How do we tell them?

Author: Chris Pearson

May God bless and enrich your life

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