Spiritual Mirages It is so easy to be misled in life.

Things appear to be a certain way when the reality is they are just the opposite of what they seem to be. Ask any young man or woman or husband 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 an illusion and the object of their affections was in reality ready to dump them. The first reaction is one of shock and disbelief. Only later are they able to look back and perhaps pick 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 one comes 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 found in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, God's prophet, had been prophesying for years to Judah to repent and amend their ways lest God send a foreign force to their country for their destruction and ruin. They never listened and so God did indeed send the Babylonians resulting in death for many and Babylonian captivity for those that were left alive. Only the very poorest of the land were left in Judah to till the land under the leadership 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 assassinate Gedaliah which mission they accomplished. This put great fear into the Jews left in the land fearing that the king of Babylon would return and punish them over the affair even though 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 not to 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 the land 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 go to 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 Egypt dragging 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). We now get to the lesson I want to emphasize for this article. The people respond to Jeremiah's prophesy by saying: "As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to 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 streets of 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 drink offerings 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, and herein lies the lesson we all must learn and take to heart. There is a great tendency on man'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 indication his religion is pleasing to the God he worships and that God is with him blessing him as a 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 able to tell from reading the New Testament the Pharisees of Jesus' day were doing just fine as far as the blessings of this world were concerned but they were experiencing their own 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 plenty of 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 into even in our own time. We easily deceive ourselves just as was the case here in Jeremiah's time. The God of heaven is generally patient with man although no man should sin thinking God will give him time to repent. God is under no obligation to give man time to repent from 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 3:9 NKJV) One sees this not only in the book of Jeremiah where Jeremiah urged repentance and a turning back to God for years before tragedy finally struck but it is a common Old Testament theme as apostasy was common among God's people throughout most of Old Testament history and the prophets were continually calling for repentance with God giving time and opportunity. Romans 2 verse 4 helps us see God's patience and longsuffering with sinful man. I quote it here from the New Living Translation which means it is more a paraphrase but I think it is an accurate one. "Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?" (Rom. 2:4 NLT) The NKJV reads, "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness 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 repent thinking our life is pleasing to God and we are being blessed because of our godly life all the while knowing we cannot read specific Bible passages without them condemning us--our life, our faith, or our conduct. We like the Jews of old will not listen to God's specific word. We convince ourselves in one way or another that things have changed today and the passage or passages that prick us are no longer relevant to modern day life and religion. Either that or we twist such passages to make them mean what is more pleasing 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 not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." (Rev. 3:17 NKJV) His message to them ends up being "be zealous and repent." (Rev. 3:19 NKJV) Yet, that was the 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 eye salve so they could see (Rev. 3:18). I am convinced people today are just as easily misled into erroneous thinking about their status with God as they were back in Bible times. A person can look at their life and 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 God and 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, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness..." (2 Cor. 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 religious groups. Do not be misled by size and appearances. If one wants to please the masses it can be done. There are ways to tear down the old building and build bigger and fill the

parking lot up (and how this is done is no secret) and then say God blessed you as a religious body. If you have been observant you probably know how it is done as well as I do. The question that has to be answered, however, is what brought them inGod or the appeal to the fleshly man? Was it an appeal to faith and duty or an appeal to that which satisfies the natural man? The conclusion of the matter is thiswhile all blessings come from God and we should be thankful for every one of them we ought not to jump to conclusions about why we received them. Many a man blessed abundantly in this life will be found in hell in the next one for the goodness of God in his case did not lead him to repentance while the poor widow (Luke 21) having given up even her two mites along with the beggar Lazarus (Luke 16) will be there in heaven. (One assumes the poor widow continued faithful until death.) It continues to trouble me greatly how people just assume, make assumptions, all of the time in the realm of religion. All seems to be well with them and God (in their mind) just because they feel it is so. Their religion is based on emotion and is purely subjective. It is a matter of how I feel about it (just like in Jeremiah's day) versus book, chapter, and verse from God's word. When the choice is between the actual word of God as can be quoted versus their emotions God's word will take second place. That is living life based on a spiritual mirage, an illusion that will be shown up for what it is on the last day. Jeremiah spoke the word of God. The Jews should have heard it. They paid the penalty for doing it their way. We will pay the penalty for doing it our way unless our way has the word of God behind it.