Day 3: The One Thing a Preacher Must Never Do
The Watchman’s Devotional: Encouragement and Guidance for Men of God from the Book of Jeremiah
The word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
Jeremiah 1:2
“Attendance is up! Why preach against sin?”
When things are going well at church, it can be tempting to grow quiet about sin.
The church is at peace. The people are happy. The pews are filling.
Why stir things up with “fire and brimstone” from the pulpit?
This notion is reasonable, but it is not of God.
The Lord requires his servants to expose and denounce sin at all times, even when things, from our perspective, are going well.
Jeremiah’s calling into ministry affirms this. But not in the way you might expect.
The Charge
Jeremiah’s preaching bore down relentlessly on the people.
In chapter 1, the Lord said he was to “pull down, destroy, and throw down” nations and kingdoms (10) by uttering “judgments against…all their wickedness” (16).
And this he did.
He preached against kings, princes, priests, and false prophets; he attacked Jerusalem, Judah, Egypt, and Babylon; he called out idolatry, theft, murder, adultery, covetousness, and oppression.
He set ablaze everyone and everything in his path, tirelessly fulfilling his charge to be a “fortified city, iron pillar, and bronze wall against the whole land” (1:18).
But you already know all that.
The Reform
What you may not realize, however, is when the Lord called Jeremiah to do all this.
The text says the word of the Lord came to him “in the days of Josiah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.”
We don’t talk much about Josiah, but he was actually one of the most remarkable kings in Israel’s history.
His central accomplishment was destroying the abominations instituted by Jeroboam.
After Solomon’s death, Jeroboam split the kingdom, led the northern ten tribes away, and established an idolatrous worship system.
During his reign, a prophet appeared to him and predicted that a man named Josiah would eventually obliterate all he had created.
That prophecy came to pass when Josiah, in the twelfth year of his rule, sent men through all Israel, executing Jeroboam’s priests and burning down his altars.
His purification of the land was so great, and his devotion to Yahweh so complete, the Bible declared him the greatest king the nation had ever seen (2 Kings 23:25).
The Timing
What’s intriguing here is the timing. Jeremiah’s call to preach came one year after Josiah started the most thorough purification the nation had ever seen.
(Remember, Josiah began his reforms in the twelfth year of his reign, and Jeremiah was called in the thirteenth year of his reign.)
So, at this point in time, the people are beginning to obey, their idols are being destroyed, and, spiritually speaking, things are improving.
Why, then, send Jeremiah?
Because there was still so much sin in the land, so much idolatry, so much apostasy. And someone needed to call it out.
The same is true in our time.
We are thankful for the improvements we see in our churches, and we pray Christ will send us even more.
But we cannot be fooled into thinking sin is no longer in our midst. It is always there, it is always destructive, and it is always offensive to the Lord.
How about you, man of God? Have you seen improvement in your people? Has this caused you to pull back from calling out the sins you see all around you?
Let Jeremiah’s example remind you that this is one thing you can never do.