Ignoring the Word of the Lord

Michael David Cohen had ignored all the warnings. A great white shark had been spotted on the beach in Cape Town, South Africa, sirens had sounded, the white flag was flying, the beach was closed but he swam out fifty yards from the beach anyway. You don't need too vivid of an imagination to guess what had the potential of happening. The shark attacked this man taking off both of his legs. Anybody with common sense would tell you he shouldn't have ignored the warnings. As important as it is to listen to what people say at times, isn't it even more important to listen to the Word of the Lord? This morning we'll look at the story of Jeremiah to see what happens when you ignore the Word of the Lord when he was being ignored by King Zedekiah.
Jeremiah was a prophet of God.
Prophets in the Old Testament served two main purposes: they were forthtellers, proclaiming the Word of the Lord (i.e. Zech. 1:1-3) and they were foretellers, prophesying what was to come (i.e. Deut. 18:5). Jeremiah prophesied from 628-586. He began his work as a prophet in the thirteenth year of King Josiah and he served until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah when Jerusalem was captured by Babylon. He is known as the weeping prophet, evidenced by the terminology in Jer. 9:1. He was persecuted and ignored. Consider the following evidence in his book: Pashhur had him beaten and put in stocks because he didn't want to hear what Jeremiah was saying (Jer. 20:1-2); the priests and prophets wanted him killed when he was spoke in the name of the Lord (Jer. 26:11); Jehoiakim took the scroll on which Jeremiah had written the words of the Lord and cut it into pieces and threw them into the fire (Jer. 36:23); the officials beat and imprisoned him when they thought he was trying to flee to the Chaldeans (Jer. 37:15). Jeremiah was simply doing what God wanted him to do by proclaiming the Word of the Lord as His prophet.
Zedekiah refused to listen to Jeremiah.
In much the same manner as the others who didn't want to hear the Word of the Lord, Zedekiah acted no differently. Jeremiah had already warned Zedekiah in chapter thirty-seven that he would be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon (17ff.). When several of the people heard that Jeremiah was saying that all who stayed in the city would die, Zedekiah allowed them to put Jeremiah in the cistern where he sank in the mud (Jer. 38:1-6). When Zedekiah asked Jeremiah for a word from the Lord, Jeremiah told him to surrender to the Chaldeans (Jer. 38:17ff.). However, when Jeremiah's warning came true and the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, Zedekiah and all his soldiers fled out of the city by night (Jer. 39:4). He ignored the Word of the Lord that was given to him through Jeremiah.
I remember a time when my brother, Chris ignored my parents. It was a winter day and there was ice on the roads. My parents were needing to go somewhere and they left my brother and I at home. Before they left they gave specific instructions for us not to go anywhere, but to stay put in the house. If I recall my brother had just started driving. Not long after they left, my brother took a .22 rifle out of the gun cabinet. I said "where do you think you're going?" He told me that he was going squirrel hunting with a friend. When I reminded him of what our parents had warned us not to do, he didn't pay it any attention. A bit of time passed when I glanced out the window to see a wrecker truck with the blue GMC Jimmy that he was driving on the back. Mom and Dad were on their way back to the house when they saw blue lights ahead of them. Dad jokingly said "that's probably Chris." It turns out he was right. Chris had hit a patch of black ice after he picked up his friend and the vehicle flipped over in the ditch. I remember hearing several conversations between them concerning him ignoring what they told us that day. Bad things happened because he ignored them.
Bad Things Happen When We Ignore the Word of the Lord.
Consider the bad things that happened to Zedekiah because he ignored the Word of the Lord: he was captured in the plains of Jericho, his sons were slaughtered before his eyes, the nobles of Judah were slaughtered, his eyes were blinded, he was put in chains, the houses were burned, the walls were broken and the rest of the people left in the city were exiled to Babylon (Jer. 39:5-9). All of this that happened to Zedekiah and Jerusalem could have been avoided if he had listened to the Word of the Lord from Jeremiah.
In much the same way people today don't listen to the Word of the Lord. They ignore the plan of salvation in God's Word. They ignore what God's Word says about homosexuality. They ignore that Hell is a real place according to God's Word and that those who ignore the Word of the Lord will go there as eternal punishment. These are just some examples, but I think you get the idea. Bad things happen when people ignore the Word of the Lord.
Have you ignored the Word of the Lord lately? We can see over and over again in the Bible that God is not to be ignored. Consider the following passages from the book of Jeremiah: Jer. 6:10; 8:9; 9:12-14. What a travesty it is when people ignore God and go their own way. Keep in mind that bad things happen when we ignore the Word of the Lord!

King Forever?

Recently there has been a lot of turmoil over who is in charge. When a presidential election takes place where the incumbent wins, there are going to be people unhappy because they wanted a change. Even though another four-year term will pass with the same leadership in place, at least there will be another democratic election at the end of that term to put a different public official in the highest office of the United States. Some people have been crying for change with the University of Tennessee football program. Regardless of what the outcome is for their current coach, rest assured that the status of the program will not stay this way forever. We know that with elected officials and coaches that their tenure is not forever.

However, there is a kingdom which does have an unlimited tenure. The kingdom that we know as the church was prophesied in Daniel 2:44 as the kingdom that the God of heaven would set up that would never be destroyed. Christ is now the head of the church (Eph. 5:23), reigning from Heaven at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 10:12). Once the end of this world has come and death has been abolished, Christ will hand this authority back to the Father according to 1 Corinthians 15:24. Isn't it wonderful knowing we will never have to worry about having concerns about leadership in Heaven? Rulers in this world are human beings. They will make mistakes. They will make decisions we don't agree with. They will let us down at times. Don't let earthly leadership thwart your picture of heavenly leadership. God and His Son will never provide reason for turmoil in their rule over us. John reminds us of the eternal nature of God's kingdom in Revelation 5:13 when he writes '"To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever."'