Don't Misuse God's Word

Jeremiah 23:29f: "'Is not my word like fire,' declares the LORD, 'I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. Yes,' declares the LORD, 'I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, 'The LORD declares.' Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,' declares the LORD. 'They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,' declares the LORD . . . . 'If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, 'This is the oracle of the LORD,' I will punish that man and his household . . . . every man's own word becomes his oracle and so you distort the words of the living God, the LORD Almighty, our God . . . . I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your fathers. I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace-everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.'"

If there is one thing that we learn from the above citation, it is the sacredness of the Word of the Lord. Our Great God has given to us His choice morsels of truth that we are not to distort to satisfy our own wanton lusts; rather we are to revere and obey these Words for they are the timeless, directive proclamations given to us that we might know His ultimate Will for our lives! The problem with the people of Judah during the days of Jeremiah was that their religious leaders were distorting the words of the Lord to condone their wicked ways. They adjusted their interpretation of Scripture into one that justified their defiance of God's propositional truths that had been given to the Israelites 1000 years before (see Deuteronomy 28).

God was very direct with these wayward leaders. He proclaimed that He would severely punish all those who would distort His Word; these religious figureheads would not escape the eternal punishment of the Lord for propagating their wickedness as something encouraged from the Word of the Lord.

This is a good word for us today. We regularly find in our culture many different groups that attempt to purport their sinful ideologies by manipulating Scripture to say something that it has never said or by attempting to discredit the Word of the Lord to a place of insignificance to their contemporary experiences.

Just as God would not hold the person in Jeremiah's day guiltless for distorting the truths of God's Word to meet his selfish desires, so too we will find that our Lord will punish the man today who treats the Scriptures with such contempt. We are not to manipulate the eternal Words of God to satisfy our longings, rather we are to surrender ourselves to the Righteous, Holy Words of the LORD and let them saturate our souls with conviction (leading to repentance) and inspiration (leading to obedience and worship of the One True God).

May we ever treat the Holy Bible as just that . . . HOLY . . . that is "Set Apart" and worthy of our focused attention, reverential fear, and determined obedience. It is only then that the blessings of Our Sovereign Lord will flow to us as we follow His will for our lives.