The oracle of the Lord?

Thus every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, 'What has the LORD answered?' and, 'What has the LORD spoken?' And the oracle of the LORD you shall mention no more. For every man's word will be his oracle, for you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. Thus you shall say to the prophet, 'What has the LORD answered you?' and, 'What has the LORD spoken?' But since you say, 'The oracle of the LORD!' therefore thus says the LORD: 'Because you say this word, "The oracle of the LORD!" and I have sent to you, saying, "Do not say, 'The oracle of the LORD!' " therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you and forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of My presence. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.' " – Jeremiah 23v35-40

Of all the bad stuff going on in Jeremiah’s day one of the worst were the actions of the preachers. When people asked what God had to say about a situation they forgot what God said, but instead made ‘every man's word will be his oracle, for you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.’

We don’t use that word ‘oracle’ much anymore. The problem was in replacing God’s word with their opinions and their agendas. They equated and even elevated their words above God’s.

It would easy to sit back and say, ‘Well, that was then, this is now. We have the written word of God. We don’t have to depend on His oracles anymore. Surely that does not apply to anyone today?’

Doesn’t it?

What happens when we have an opinion or a view that we really think others should share? Perhaps it is something that the word of God does not deal directly with, but we are sure that we have it right. We search the scriptures but can’t find any solid support for our view, but does that stop us?

Sadly, no.

I think at some point or another all of us preachers have fallen into the trap of stretching the word of God to fit our viewpoint. We take some passage of scripture, sometimes even out of context, and use it to suit our agenda.

Is this really any better that replacing the ‘oracle of God with our own oracle’ and in doing so perverting the word of God.

The word of God is powerful enough on its own. It does not need your or my stretching, moulding, or perverting. Let’s be careful that we let God’s word do its work.

And this is not only for preachers. All believers need to be careful that when we say the Bible says something it really does say it.

Come on, isn’t God smart enough to deal with those situations we face?

Preach the word. Full stop!