The word of the Lord is sure and it is important. Jehoiakim may have destroyed the scroll but
he cannot destroy or break the word of God.
Is there a bit of a parallel here with the breaking of the tablets of
the Ten Commandments by Moses after the sin of the Golden Calf? Jeremiah is instructed to re-write the scroll
of the prophecy and confront the king with it after his sin of burning the
first one. The prophecy, however, is now
expanded to include the reality that no son of Jeconiah will sit on the throne
of Israel, his line is permanently prohibited from occupying that role for his
sin. Zedekiah, son of Josiah, will take
the throne instead. We may deny God’s
Word but our denial does not invalidate it.
“Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and
flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and
kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.” The purpose of persecution, Jesus says, is for
His sake and to bear witness. Paul never
forgot this truth. He always bore
witness to Jesus when he was dragged before governors and kings, always looked
at it as an evangelistic opportunity. Should
we begin to develop that same mindset given the legal changes in the US? Jesus says not to worry about what we will
say in that event but that we will be speaking the Father’s words as we give
our testimony. He promises that these
men will be hated for His Name’s sake and that persecution will be their lot,
that they will go from one town to the next in flight from it.
The purpose of manifestations of the Spirit, Paul argues, is
the building up of the church. For this
reason, he sets prophecy over against tongues as a superior gift, one for which
all should yearn. Prophecy builds up the
church by speaking God’s word to the Body.
Building up may take the form of conviction of sin in the Body or it may
take the form of encouragement. We see
both in the letters to the churches in the Revelation. The Lord affirms what is to be continued and
speaks into the problems in the churches that need to be corrected. Building up sometimes requires tearing down
of man-made edifices and artifices in order to restore properly. Paul is not criticizing or saying there is no
gift of tongues, he is placing it in its proper place. Apparently the gift of tongues has always had
a great appeal to some as an exotic and therefore more valuable seeming
gift. We need to speak clearly and distinctly
for the Lord.
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