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Spiritual Mirages
It is so easy to be misled in life. Things appear to be a certain way when the reality isthey are just the opposite of what they seem to be. Ask any young man or woman orhusband or wife who has been deeply in love and then found out to their utter dismay that the love they felt sure was mutual between them and their beloved was all just anillusion and the object of their affections was in reality ready to dump them. The firstreaction is one of shock and disbelief. Only later are they able to look back and perhapspick up on some signs that should have clued them in all along, signs which at the time were hidden to their eyes. Sadly, this sort of thing happens all the time and when onecomes to the knowledge of the truth it is never pleasant.In the realm of religion, just as in the realm of personal relationships, there are mirages.People think they see things that are in reality only illusions. One such example is foundin the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, God's prophet, had been prophesying for years toJudah to repent and amend their ways lest God send a foreign force to their country fortheir destruction and ruin. They never listened and so God did indeed send theBabylonians resulting in death for many and Babylonian captivity for those that wereleft alive. Only the very poorest of the land were left in Judah to till the land under theleadership of a man appointed by the king of Babylon for that job, Gedaliah.Due to some outside intrigue by the king of Ammon men were sent to assassinateGedaliah which mission they accomplished. This put great fear into the Jews left in theland fearing that the king of Babylon would return and punish them over the affair eventhough they were not involved in it. The desire was to flee to Egypt for their safety.(Read the account in Jer. 40:13-41:18) Before leaving for Egypt, however, they consulted with Jeremiah asking him on their behalf to seek God's will in the matter.Having done so and received from God an answer they were instructed and warned notto go to Egypt."
Then hear now the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'If you wholly set your faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there, then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in theland of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to goto Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.
'"(Jer. 42:15-17 NKJV)The people did not believe Jeremiah, accused him of lying (Jer. 43:2), and left for Egyptdragging Jeremiah along with them. Once there they continued their idol worship (Jer.44:8) and continued ignoring Jeremiah's prophetic warnings (Jer. 43:8-Jer. 44:14). Wenow get to the lesson I want to emphasize for this article. The people respond toJeremiah's prophesy by saying:"
 As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listento you! But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn
 
incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done,we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streetsof Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drinkofferings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine
." (Jer. 44:16-18 NKJV)Here is the spiritual mirage, the illusion, the miscomprehension, the self-deception, andherein lies the lesson we all must learn and take to heart. There is a great tendency onman's part to believe that if he is actively involved in spiritual affairs, sincere in it, and if his life as it pertains to this world seems to be prospering that all of that is an indicationhis religion is pleasing to the God he worships and that God is with him blessing him asa result of his spiritual life.Just because things are going relatively well for us in our life does not mean things are well with us spiritually. Just because we have a spiritual life, one we are actively involved in, does not mean it is the right religion or pleasing to God. As far as I am ableto tell from reading the New Testament the Pharisees of Jesus' day were doing just fineas far as the blessings of this world were concerned but they were experiencing theirown spiritual mirage.The Jews with which Jeremiah was dealing could not have been more wrong than they  were with regards to their concept of cause and effect. While they may have "
had plentyof food, were well-off, and saw no trouble" 
(the effect) the cause was not because they  were worshipping "
the queen of heaven
" as they so attributed it. They were involved with a spiritual illusion, a spiritual mirage, and one which man is very easily led intoeven in our own time. We easily deceive ourselves just as was the case here inJeremiah's time.The God of heaven is generally patient with man although no man should sin thinkingGod will give him time to repent. God is under no obligation to give man time to repentfrom sin. Nevertheless, most men are given time as God "is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9NKJV) One sees this not only in the book of Jeremiah where Jeremiah urgedrepentance and a turning back to God for years before tragedy finally struck but it is acommon Old Testament theme as apostasy was common among God's peoplethroughout most of Old Testament history and the prophets were continually calling forrepentance with God giving time and opportunity.Romans 2 verse 4 helps us see God's patience and longsuffering with sinful man. Iquote it here from the New Living Translation which means it is more a paraphrase but Ithink it is an accurate one. "Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patientGod is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that His kindness isintended to turn you from your sin?" (Rom. 2:4 NLT) The NKJV reads, "Or do youdespise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that thegoodness of God leads you to repentance?" (NKJV)
 
The Jews of Jeremiah's day were attributing God's goodness and longsuffering to them,meant for their repentance and salvation, to blessings from the idol they were worshipping--the queen of heaven. Whether that particular idol had or took the form of an image makes little difference. While we do not worship idols today, save in a very few places in the world, aren't we in danger of doing something very similar to the Jews with whom Jeremiah was dealing? Everything is going well; we see no need to repentthinking our life is pleasing to God and we are being blessed because of our godly life allthe while knowing we cannot read specific Bible passages without them condemningus--our life, our faith, or our conduct. We like the Jews of old will not listen to God'sspecific word. We convince ourselves in one way or another that things have changedtoday and the passage or passages that prick us are no longer relevant to modern day lifeand religion. Either that or we twist such passages to make them mean what is morepleasing to us rather than what they clearly say and thus clearly teach.The church at Laodicea can serve as an example of how we can delude ourselves. They  were saying to themselves, "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing."(Rev. 3:17 NKJV) However, what does Jesus say about them? He says "and do notknow that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." (Rev. 3:17 NKJV) Hismessage to them ends up being "be zealous and repent." (Rev. 3:19 NKJV) Yet, that wasthe very thing they saw no need of, at least without a direct message from Jesus himself.Things evidently were going very well for them according to outward appearances. They  were pleased and satisfied and yet Jesus says their eyes needed to be anointed with eyesalve so they could see (Rev. 3:18).I am convinced people today are just as easily misled into erroneous thinking abouttheir status with God as they were back in Bible times. A person can look at their lifeand see all kinds of blessings and think God is being so good to me and must be pleased with my religious life. That is not necessarily the case at all.That kind of reasoning would lead to the conclusion that Paul was displeasing to Godand living an ungodly life for he spoke about what he had experienced when he said,"From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, insleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness..." (2Cor. 11:24-27 NKJV) he lived his life and worse was to come for if we can believe history his faith finally led to his death.Blessings from God do not necessarily equate with God being pleased with you and the way you are living your life. Jesus himself while living on earth had little to nothing of this world's goods. He once said he had no place to lay his head (Matt. 8:20).The same point that is being made about individuals here can also be said of religiousgroups. Do not be misled by size and appearances. If one wants to please the masses itcan be done. There are ways to tear down the old building and build bigger and fill the
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