15 “Because you have said, ‘The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon’— 16 for thus says the Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile— 17 thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness. 18 I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence; and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a horror and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19 because they have not listened to My words,’ declares the Lord, ‘which I sent to them again and again by My servants the prophets; but you did not listen,’ declares the Lord. 20 You, therefore, hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
21 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you falsely in My name, ‘Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will slay them before your eyes. 22 Because of them a curse will be [j]used by all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon, saying, “May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, 23 because they have acted foolishly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken words in My name falsely, which I did not command them; and I am He who knows and am a witness,” declares the Lord.’”
Yikes, well that cat is out of the bag! This goes back to something I alluded to the other day, as one of the motives of these false prophets. Certainly, one was to gain influence and power over the people, by claiming to speak for God. But here we see it revealed that they were also giving these false messages to either cover up their sin, or to imply that God was okay with what they were doing.
There’s this word picture earlier in the passage (v. 17) where God compares their rebellion to “split-open figs”. They don’t become rotten because they are split-open and expose, but rather they are split-open and exposed because they are already rotten. God wants His people to know that this is most definitely not okay, and that they do not represent Him.
Similarly, it’s kind of incredible how many examples we see today of supposed Christian leaders who are exposed for their evil deeds. I would say it’s more prevalent for someone claiming to be Christian to be exposed than for someone who is not making any such claim. Now certainly, some of those people are actual Christians who have just royally screwed up.
God can, and often does show mercy, and incredible patience, to those who actually belong to Him. But we should not be deceived, no not by these charlatans, but also not in our own lives. God does not want rottenness to fester in our lives, and so we should be diligent to examine our own hearts, often. Don’t wait for it to be exposed, but ask God to cleanse and purify your heart once more.
He can do miracles in and through us, and it isn’t something we can do on our own. We need His help, and we need to listen to His voice, which most easily happens when we take the time to listen. Sure, He can hit us over the head and get our attention, but I pray it won’t take anything that drastic, for me or for you either. Let His fire purify you from the inside out, so that the fire of the world comes nowhere near.