You were hypocrites

For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, “Pray for us to the LORD our God, and according to all that the LORD your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.’ And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, or anything which He has sent you by me. – Jeremiah 42v20-21

The more I read of Jeremiah the more I see that things really don’t change a whole lot. The religious Jews were saying, much like many Christians today, ‘Just show us what God has to say and we will do it!’

The Israelites knew they were in trouble so they asked Jeremiah to pray and then tell them what God wanted them to do to avoid destruction. Jeremiah did just that but they did not obey. Indeed they did not obey the word of God or anything that Jeremiah had said.

Therefore, according to Jeremiah they were ‘hypocrites in their hearts.’

Hypocrite is an ugly word – ‘two-faced’ is even uglier, but it is a good alternative.

Yet this is what God calls people who say they want to hear God’s word, but when they do they ignore it.

‘That is a terrible thing!’ we might say. ‘How can so called Christians do that?’

But I wonder how honest our mirror of self-reflection is? I wonder if it is not more like those trick mirrors that twist and distort our true reflection.

How often do we hear a message or read something in our devotions that reapply speaks to our heart. We know right away that it is something we need to deal with. We are determined to do right. But then, the next time we are tempted we ignore everything and go back to the thing we knew we were supposed to deal with.

If the word ‘hypocrite’ applied to these Israelites is it too harsh a word to use for us?