Bailing Wire, Duct Tape and Hose Clamps:
When "Whatever Works" Doesn't
By Wes Strubhar
Editor's Note: Pramatism is winning the day in many churches. No longer is the important question asked: "What does God's word say about it?" Instead, the question to ask is, "Does it work? Will it fill the pews? Will it draw a crowd?" "If it draws a crowd," the reasoning goes, "then it must have God's blessing." This message challenges this new (really it's very old) way of thinking. - D.R.
Farmers and truck drivers are often known for coming up with inventive ways of dealing with equipment failures. These aren't permanent fixes, mind you, just something to hold it together for the day or maybe for the rest of the week. It doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to work. There's a phrase about it that you might hear sometimes: "Whatever works". For some things, "whatever works" is just fine. For others, it is a recipe for failure.
We will be looking today at some passages from the prophet Jeremiah. There is an interesting exchange that takes place over the space of a few chapters. When I saw it I thought we could learn something from it.
It starts out sounding pretty good. We'll start in Jeremiah chapter 42:
1 Then all the commanders of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people both small and great approached
2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please let our petition come before you, and pray for us to the Lord your God, that is for all this remnant; because we are left but a few out of many, as your own eyes now see us,
3 that the Lord your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do."
4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you. Behold, I am going to pray to the Lord your God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole message which the Lord will answer you. I will not keep back a word from you."
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole message with which the Lord your God will send you to us.
6 "Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the Lord our God."
Here's why they wanted Jeremiah to inquire to God for them. They were considering running off to Egypt to escape from King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. They were afraid because he had conquered them and destroyed Jerusalem, then appointed a man named Gedaliah to rule over them. Some time after this, Gedaliah was murdered. They expected that the king would blame them and kill them or carry them off to Babylon.
You see, they already had a reputation for rebelling against the king. He had conquered them and carried a few of the leaders off to Babylon (including Daniel, by the way) several years back. Within a few years they rebelled. Nebuchadnezzar's armies came back, defeated them again, and took two more groups of people captive to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar appointed a man named Zedekiah to be king in Jerusalem. All was well for a while, but even though he had sworn by God to serve him, after 7 or 8 years Zedekiah and Jerusalem rebelled again. The Babylonians came back and built a siege wall around the city. Jerusalem was so well fortified that an army couldn't just come up and break in or climb over the walls. But armies had figured out a tactic against that situation. They would build another wall all the way around the city, and they would guard that wall. If we can't get in, then we'll make it so you can't get out. Then they just waited for the people to starve and get so weak they couldn't resist any more. After a two year siege Jerusalem was defeated again. As the city was being broken into, Zedekiah and the soldiers with him ran away in the middle of the night. Nebuchadnezzar's army chased them down. His soldiers scattered and Zedekiah was captured. This time they didn't hold anything back. They broke down the walls of Jerusalem, burned its gates, burned the houses inside and tore down the temple as well. Many of the people were killed.
Zedekiah's sentence was arguably worse than death. It was typical that one of a king's sons would become king in his place if he was killed or taken captive. They lined up Zedekiah's sons in front of him, and then killed them while he watched. As if that wasn't horrible enough, they also blinded him so this was the last thing he would ever see. And then they bound him with chains and took him away to prison. The message the Babylonians were sending was loud and clear. "Anyone who rebels will pay dearly for it".
This brings us back to Gedaliah. Most of the people who lived through that last battle for Jerusalem were taken captive to Babylon. Only a few of the poorest and unskilled were left, and maybe a few that were good at hiding. King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah over the few people who were left, to remind them not to rebel again. That is exactly what he did. But now someone had killed him. See why they were afraid? They had good reason. It could easily be perceived as an act of rebellion.
Now, back to Jeremiah - picking up in chapter 42, verse 7
7 Now at the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
8 Then he called for Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him, and for all the people both small and great,
9 and said to them, "Thus says the Lord the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him:
10 'If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I will relent concerning the calamity that I have inflicted on you.
11 'Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid of him,' declares the Lord, 'for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand.
12 'I will also show you compassion, so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own soil.
13 'But if you are going to say, "We will not stay in this land," so as not to listen to the voice of the Lord your God,
14 saying, "No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of a trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there";
15 then in that case listen to the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "If you really set your mind to enter Egypt and go in to reside there,
16 then the sword, which you are afraid of, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there in Egypt, and you will die there.
17 "So all the men who set their mind to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence; and they will have no survivors or refugees from the calamity that I am going to bring on them."'"
18 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "As My anger and wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach; and you will see this place no more."
19 The Lord has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, "Do not go into Egypt!" You should clearly understand that today I have testified against you.
20 For you have only deceived yourselves; for it is you who sent me to the Lord your God, saying, "Pray for us to the Lord our God; and whatever the Lord our God says, tell us so, and we will do it."
21 So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the Lord your God, even in whatever He has sent me to tell you.
22 Therefore you should now clearly understand that you will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence, in the place where you wish to go to reside.
Why did God wait ten days to send the answer? I think He was reminding them who was in control. This was for their benefit. Because it was critical that they heed the message Jeremiah had for them.
And if you noticed from Jeremiah's answer, they had already made up their minds what they wanted to do. That sure isn't the impression they gave when they came to Jeremiah at first. They were going though the motions of seeking God's will, but they were only willing to accept one answer. Bad plan.
You might think such a strong answer would get their attention. But if you thought that, then you are underestimating just how strong-willed these people were. We call it stubborn; Jesus called it being stiff-necked.
They went to Egypt anyway. Instead of just unloading on them, God warned them again. Look over at Jeremiah 44:1-14:
1 The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt, those who were living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and the land of Pathros, saying,
2 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'You yourselves have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are in ruins and no one lives in them,
3 because of their wickedness which they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn sacrifices and to serve other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers.
4 'Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again, saying, "Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate."
5 'But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods.
6 'Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a ruin and a desolation as it is this day.
7 'Now then thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, "Why are you doing great harm to yourselves, so as to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, from among Judah, leaving yourselves without remnant,
8 provoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning sacrifices to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are entering to reside, so that you might be cut off and become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
9 "Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
10 "But they have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My law or My statutes, which I have set before you and before your fathers."'
11 "Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am going to set My face against you for woe, even to cut off all Judah.
12 'And I will take away the remnant of Judah who have set their mind on entering the land of Egypt to reside there, and they will all meet their end in the land of Egypt; they will fall by the sword and meet their end by famine. Both small and great will die by the sword and famine; and they will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach.
13 'And I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine and with pestilence.
14 'So there will be no refugees or survivors for the remnant of Judah who have entered the land of Egypt to reside there and then to return to the land of Judah, to which they are longing to return and live; for none will return except a few refugees.'"
Okay, that one really got their attention, right? Well... look at their reply, starting in verse 15:
15 Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying,
16 "As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you!
17 "But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune.
18 "But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine."
Did you catch their logic? Basically, they are saying that they are just doing whatever works. We're going back to doing what worked for us in the past. But I think they reveal for us some flaws and potential traps in that way of thinking or acting. They reveal for us some pitfalls of pragmatism.
1. Selective Memory
Their first problem with "whatever works" had to do with a selective memory. Their version of history wasn't entirely accurate. But there was a bit of truth sprinkled in here and there.
Under Saul, David and Solomon Israel had (at least most of the time) been united. They were twelve tribes who were God's people. But because of Solomon's worship of the gods of his foreign wives, and Israel following him into this, the nation was divided. Ten tribes in the north were still known as Israel, and the people in the south were known by the name of the tribe of Judah. The story of Israel from that point on was a steady slide downhill. They kept picking up practices from people around them and worshipped almost everything under the sun. If you remember a bit further back, Israel came to be in this land because God had driven out the previous inhabitants for their wickedness. God warned Israel again and again - even sending a three and a half year drought at one point to get their attention. But the Bible writers record that Israel got even worse than the nations that had been there before them and the ones which were around them. God allowed them to be defeated and most of them were killed or taken captive and carried off.
The folks we are dealing with here were from Judah. Their history was a little better, but not much. They did have Jerusalem for their capital, so they at least had the temple to remind them about serving God. Every once in a while one of the kings would actually try to do things God's way. But as they descended into the same sins that had entangled Israel, they were warned that destruction was coming. It seems like several times they would turn around just as God was about ready to unload on them. But it didn't last for more than a generation or two and they were right back doing the same things. The destruction didn't come immediately after the predictions. God was patient. He was more than patient. They mistook that patience for a license to do every evil thing under the sun.
Josiah was the last good king Judah had. During his lifetime he tried to turn the nation around. But his sons and their sons went right back to doing almost everything God had told them not to do. Judah continued to sin and provoke God even more than Israel. Eventually the time came when the best thing God could do for them was to follow through on the predictions of destruction He had made through many prophets over the years.
So there were periods when they were doing evil and things seemed to be going fine. Because God didn't turn them into a smoking crater the minute they started following after the sinful practices of the nations around them and worshipping their gods, they had a warped view of what was "working". They had plenty of information to come to the right conclusion about why good or bad things happened to them. But they employed selective memory to support the conclusion they wanted to draw. That is a danger of making choices based on "whatever works".
2. Side-stepping
When messages from the Lord didn't fit people's desired path, they had to do something with that information. Ezekiel was another prophet that was warning the people during the time of Jeremiah. The people didn't listen to him any better. In Ezekiel chapter 20 and verse 49, he had this to say:
49 Then I said, "Ah Lord GOD! They are saying of me, 'Is he not just speaking parables?'"
Basically, they were just saying not to take the message literally. When that didn't work, they tried to discredit the messenger. This time it is Jeremiah again, in chapter 43, verses 1 through 3:
1 But as soon as Jeremiah, whom the Lord their God had sent, had finished telling all the people all the words of the Lord their God--that is, all these words--
2 Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, "You are telling a lie! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, 'You are not to enter Egypt to reside there';
3 but Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us to give us over into the hand of the Chaldeans, so they will put us to death or exile us to Babylon."
If you can't defeat or refute the message, sidestep it and divert attention to elsewhere.
3. Outright Defiance
Look at the first thing the refugees from Judah had to say to Jeremiah, in chapter 44, verse 16.
16 "As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you!
This wasn't the first time they had been so defiant. Back in the days of Jehoiakim (one of Josiah's sons who was king after him) the king had set the example for not just ignoring, but defying the words of God. Look back in Jeremiah 36:1-3, and 21-24.
1 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 "Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.
3 "Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them, in order that every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin."
21 Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it to the king as well as to all the officials who stood beside the king.
22 Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier before him.
23 When Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe's knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.
24 Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments.
4. Application
Before God's wrath is unleashed on the refugees from Judah living in Egypt, God explains the error in their thinking one more time, through Jeremiah. Turn back to chapter 44, verses 20-23
20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and women--even to all the people who were giving him such an answer--saying,
21 "As for the smoking sacrifices that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your forefathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them and did not all this come into His mind?
22 "So the Lord was no longer able to endure it, because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations which you have committed; thus your land has become a ruin, an object of horror and a curse, without an inhabitant, as it is this day.
23 "Because you have burned sacrifices and have sinned against the Lord and not obeyed the voice of the Lord or walked in His law, His statutes or His testimonies, therefore this calamity has befallen you, as it has this day."
The "whatever works" mentality didn't die with that generation. It is still alive today. Some of the words have changed. Maybe it's a bit more subtle. But it is still here.
As a nation, we yawned at a president who lied under oath, and then lied about that, and then lied about that. Why? Because the economy seemed good. Maybe it was wrong, but most Americans didn't care. Because whatever he was doing was "working". What a surprise when a few years later we found out that many business leaders had been lying to the public and their investors. They engaged in all sorts of deception to make reality look like what people wanted to hear. And until they got caught, it "worked".
The economic shock that followed should have been enough for all of us to finally wake up. But instead that same sort of thinking has continued to propagate. It is making the rounds inside the churches. Leaders are setting aside plain Biblical commands, because presenting a more tolerant view fills up their buildings. It "works". Teaching with any real substance is replaced with philosophical and entertaining cotton candy. This appeals to a large number of people. The buildings fill up. It "works". In other places, folks react to this by going to the opposite extreme and taking dogmatic stands that are found no where in Scripture. If liberal standards are bad, then restrictive ones must be better. This also appeals to a certain segment of society. For them, it "works".
Books aimed at Christian leaders advise them to "find where the Lord is working, and join Him". But how can a person know where the Lord is working? If whatever people are doing is "working", then the Lord must be blessing it. Islam is experiencing growth in this country. Does that mean God is blessing it? Does that mean God approves of it?
That way of thinking is not so much different from those refugees from Judah. People change the emphasis of their meetings and their teaching. Of course they will say that God led them to make these changes. The only problem with that is they already knew the direction they wanted to go before they "sought God's will" about it. And how do they "seek God's will" about such matters? By reading books or devotionals written by people who have already gone that direction. If they can find a verse somewhere that supports the conclusion they have already made, then they are off and running. Put the emphasis on feeling or knowing. Don't bother people with the "doing" part. And any part of God's Word that opposes what they want to do obviously should not be taken literally. Just like Judah didn't want to take Ezekiel's message literally. Or if it couldn't have been figurative, then it was only for their society and it doesn't apply today. Go ahead, cut off another strip and throw it into the fire.
God made a statement in Jeremiah chapter 5, verses 30 and 31 that we should heed.
30 "An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land:
31 The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?
Good question! What if these stories about old testament Israel and Judah were a prediction for the future of the church? What if we're not really that different from them? What if these events were recorded as a warning to us about our future. Does that sound too far fetched? Am I stretching it too far? Take a look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and verses 6 through 12:
6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.
7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drik, and stood up to play."
8 Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.
9 Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.
10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
I've never heard of a modern congregation where God struck half of the people dead. No snakes are making their way through the pews delivering God's wrath. So we're off the hook, right? In the words of Al from "Home Improvement" - "I don't think so, Tim". First of all, we could be experiencing discipline as happened to the church in Corinth as mentioned 1 Corinthians 11:27-32
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.
32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
Maybe God is already disciplining us and we haven't realized it.
We also shouldn't get too wrapped up in the physical. The church is a kingdom that is not of this world, right. We fight spiritual battles, not physical ones. Maybe we won't be defeated and carried off as captives physically. Maybe it is happening in the Spiritual realm, in concepts, thoughts and beliefs. What if the church were to stop battling ideas that are opposed to God, and start trying to adopt or include them instead? What if we forgot even how to battle in the first place? Do you suppose that would be a victory for the enemy? Am I the only one who is concerned that this may already be happening?
Look with me at one last passage. Second Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 7 through 12:
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;
9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,
10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.
11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,
12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
That warning is for us, brothers and sisters; for you and for me. Loving the truth will be the dividing line between those who are saved and those who perish. And it's not just about believing or feeling, it is about doing.
We have seen how Israel and Judah fell into a trap of doing "whatever worked", which just also happened to coincide with what they wanted to do. They forgot and twisted their personal and collective history. They brought in practices and standards from the people around them - things God had plainly commanded against. They justified, rationalized and finally just outright defied God's warnings to them. God was patient beyond measure, but the destruction He promised did finally come.
Does this warning apply to us here - in this building today? Try this little exercise: Think of how you would describe a "healthy" marriage relationship. Does your description match what God says a marriage should look like? If you moved and had to find a new church to attend, what would you look for? Does that match what God has said He wants the church to be like? Does it emphasize what He has chosen to emphasize?
Or are we following in Judah's footsteps? Are we doing the same things? Have we learned from our collective and personal history? Or are we employing a selective memory to distort the facts to support what we feel like doing? I'm afraid I see a lot more of these things in my own life than I would like to see. Let's learn from their example, and instead be faithful to God and His Word. Don't fall for the "whatever works" mentality. Because from God's perspective, what is right always ultimately works.
Bailing wire, duct tape and hose clamps are fine for holding a tractor or truck together for a few more days. But it will be disastrous to build our lives and our faith on anything less than the solid foundation God has given us in His Word.
Copyright © 2004, The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.- The author of this sermon, Wes Strubhar, may be reached at: mr_wes@yahoo.com
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