Jeremiah 27:8-15 – Be careful who we listen to

God had ordained that Babylon should be the dominant power at that time. He told all the emissaries of the Edom, Moab, Ammon Tyre, and Sidon who had been gathered in Jerusalem to form an alliance to go against Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon. God told them that it was pointless to resist as this was His plan. 

In Jeremiah 27:8-11, the message from God was for them and all nations also to serve Nebuchadnezzar. Whoever would not acknowledge the power of Babylon, God would punish. Sword, famine, and pestilence meaning would be sent upon the nation that would not submit to Babylon as her overlord.  He guaranteed that the fierce conflict, famine, and disasters would not stop till that nation had been destroyed. Those who were inclined to accept the pronouncement of the self-acclaimed prophets, diviners, dreamers, soothsayers, or sorcerers, God told them not to listen or believe in their false proclamation. If they continue to resist and would not yield to Babylon, they were only courting disaster and devastation.

Turning to King Zedekiah in Jeremiah 27:12-15, God warned him and Judah of the same thing he said to the other nations. He told him not to pin his hopes on the lies prophesied by the false prophets that he had surrounded himself with. They were goading him not to give in to Babylon something that did not come from God. He did not send those false prophets; hence their words were all lies. They had prophesied falsely in the Lord’s name. God then guaranteed Zedekiah that by heeding those lies, he together with the false prophets would be driven from the land.

It is important who we listen to in life. We court needless trouble by not discerning the people we should go to for counsel. One false step will take us years to correct and realign and adjust.  Many people end up in misery and had to go to great lengths to undo the result of their missteps and errors. Wisdom dictates that we seek always to do and act right in our walk with God. If not, we will need the time to do it again. Thus, listening to the right counsel matters. The incident in Numbers 13 leaves us with an example of always listening to the right counsel. The people of Israel then, ended up meandering in the wilderness for another 40 years till they all died there. All because they chose to listen to the ungodly counsel of the ten spies and refused to listen to the godly counsel of Joshua and Caleb. We must be careful who we listen to in life!