Jeremiah 23:9-40; 18:18-20:18
To whom do you listen?
Yes, I asked this question just a few days ago. Well? Have you given it any consideration? Do you, perhaps, need to change the channel? Or do you think that the question is intended for everyone else, but not you? Perhaps you’ve been a Christian for decades, so you are confident in your faith, and think yourself immune from being led astray. Or perhaps you are so comfortable with your life patterns that you don’t want to reassess anything. Or maybe, just maybe, you’d rather avoid the question altogether. Is it just too uncomfortable to think (or admit) that perhaps you have believed false prophets?
But you must not avoid the question. It is of critical importance.
I know other persons, however, whom an abysmal lack of wisdom and prudence so deceives and tricks that they think that the faith that they pretend to have will help them before God without the works of justice. They commit abominable crimes without fear by reason of this kind of error, while they believe that God is the avenger not of crimes but of lack of faith. Not only are they willing thus to ruin themselves, but also they strive by their snares to trap others in whom there is not light of divine knowledge. Do not listen to the words of the prophets who invent a vain vision for themselves, which they speak as false prophets from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord. They say to those that reject the words of the Lord, “Peace shall be yours,” and to all who walk according to their own desires, to everyone who walks in the error of his heart, they have said, “No evil shall come to you.”
Saint Augustine, from “The Christian Life,” 13
No, we must not avoid this question, because we cannot avoid the LORD.
Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:24
Sooner or later we must face Reality. Sooner or later we must face the Truth. And it is far better sooner than later.
Listen to Him: “Come to Me, all you who labor.” You do not put an end to your labor by running away. You prefer to run away from Him, do you, not to Him? Find somewhere and run away there. But if you cannot run away from Him, for the good reason that He is present everywhere, the next thing to do is run away to God, who is present right where you are standing. Run away, then. So, you see, you have run away beyond the heavens, He is there. You have gone right down to hell, He is there. Whatever solitary spaces of the earth you may choose, there He is, the One who said, “I fill heaven and earth.” So if He fills heaven and earth and there is nowhere you can run away from Him, do not go on laboring with all that trouble. Run away to Him where He is present right beside you, to avoid experiencing Him as He comes to judge you.
Saint Augustine, from Sermon 69.4
To whom do you listen?