Upsetting and Overturning The Apple Cart
7/18/20
Have you ever been told something or shown something that
goes totally contrary to what the majority of your friends believe is a fact or
to be correct? How do you get treated by
them and by those that they tell about your information? Most of the time relationships and
friendships in this situation are tested and tried with many not falling
through with what was expected. The most
difficult time that humans have is when they find themselves in disagreement
with one another over issues that are personal on all sides. God understands this and that is why He
repeatedly states in His Word that we must keep our eyes and hearts steadfast
on Him at ALL times. If and when we
complete this type of living we shall understand times and seasons as the
approach, as they are over us, and as they are behind us. God promises us these facts. So, this means that there is only one reason
why we differ and that is we do not have our eyes and hearts in full focus on
God and His Definition. As of this
moment, we can change this but our time is very short indeed.
Most of you that have read the Bible know that in many
times within these written instances, people of Israel or the early Church
found themselves in dire settings that should have been obvious enough that
they needed God instead of the ways they chose.
But as we continue to read these Scripture passages, we find that humans
ignored the Truth about their ways and lives and forged their existence as they
saw fit, proving that the ways of humanity lead to destruction and death. The wonderful people of the Bible that are
referred to represent the apple cart of society, ways, and means that most
“civilized and advanced” places should have the necessary answers when it came
to such prolific conditions that such settings demanded. Have you sit down and studied these passages
and placed your life into one of these settings and then asked yourself if you
qualify as being a part of the apple cart system or not? All of us have been in this category and if
you say that you haven’t, you have not looked deep enough or allowed God to
look according to His authority.
Upsetting the apple cart can be somewhat of a comical
setting, for when God speaks to those who need His wisdom and guidance He never
sugar coats things, He always shoots straight and tells the truth like our
lives depended upon it; uh, His Word to us does and is just that! If you want to see a jovial mood disappear
quickly, then begin talking about the controversial matter with others who may not
see eye-to-eye with you or what you are speaking on. The “funny” thing about this example is that
when it occurs, the so-called “enlightened” ones go to work putting their spin
on these statements or words, and sometimes these folks have to repeat
themselves or add to their “beliefs” about how wrong God is about what He is
telling us. On the other hand of this
subject, it is sad to watch unfold because it shows to others that the Church
is still divided on not only the Word of God but God Himself also and gives
Satan a fertile ground to divide the Church further and to place deeper targets
on those who are weak in faith or new to God.
This apple cart scenario can represent any establishment
or accepted belief with almost any item not excluded from this prestigious
stage. As we know, the deeper the apple
cart the more likely the mess will be when it is overturned. Also, we know that turning over the so-called
apple cart is not just a single episode but a process of repeated lectures,
talks, guidance recitals that dig into the established policies and make
painful accusations or telling that do not set well as the agitation cycle
continues. We know that when entire
societal atmospheres are challenged, tensions rise quite frequently and those
whose cackles are being stood up will not continue to stand alone for very
long, none as much as what religious settings pose, especially when the
cornered market on a certain belief is challenged. You want to see hideous acts against humans?
Challenge someone to talk on a controversial topic and then watch the
fireworks start. If not squelched soon,
protests, rebuttals, and reprimands are soon to follow. Unfortunately, these acts are exactly what
occurred throughout the Bible when leaders and representatives disagreed with
what God was actually saying and warning His people.
This direction of controversy and the response it brings
represents where we will going in this article, for God wants us to understand
that His Ways are not our ways and that when we force Him to show us His Ways
it SHALL NOT be in a method that we believe will occur. As we will find out in our entire passage one
or two statements from certain people will not carry much weight with the
multitudes, but when extraordinary circumstances are on the horizon and the
people hear messages from the men of God that go contrary to what they believe
is correct. In this case, we will be in
Jeremiah 20 and while not all of this chapter is going to be read, the short
portion shall give us a clear understanding of why the clergy of the day was
upset at the words of God through Jeremiah, it shall also give us a reminder
course on just how true and vivid God’s Word can be and how people who really
do not believe in Him shall respond.
Jeremiah 20:1-6
“Now Pashur the
son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD,
heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the
prophet, and then put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin,
which was by the house of the LORD. And it came to pass on the morrow, that
Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then saith Jeremiah unto him,
The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur but Magormissabib. For thus saith the
LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and
they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it:
and I will give all of Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall
carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. Moreover I
will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and
all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah
will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take
them, and carry them to Babylon. And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine
house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou
shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou
hast prophesied lies.”
Wow, there is a bunch of information that transpires in
these six verses and such information that carries a huge amount of weight
according to the battle between God’s Kingdom and Satan’s kingdom. There will always be confrontation present
when people try and limit God and place Him in a box against those who hear
what God is saying and obey by telling God’s heart as it is speaking. This passage of Scripture describes just how
far people will go in order to silence those who disagree with the established
agenda or in this case, the conditioned and seasoned apple cart. From the moment Jeremiah started speaking to
the leaders of the religious order and to the people of Judah, his words were
of one origin, warning. Because of these
words, the leaders did on several occasions threaten him, curse him, beat him,
and as we see here in this passage lock him up in the stocks all because of
what God had told him to say to them.
These words did not fit into the plans of what the other prophets
claimed were true, nor did it paint a pretty picture about what was going to
occur to Judah, opposite to what others had taught for so long.
In the middle verses of this passage, we find that God’s
warning was now directed at a certain person and everyone on his level of
living. The warning did not change in
nature or stature either, it was precise and accurate as all of the previous
warnings Jeremiah spoke concerning what God had spoken. The people and leaders did not like such
words being spoken for they believed that they knew how to live and that God
was still in good standing with them; this attitude brought on the thought that
they could continue to live with the ways of the world in their heart and yet
turn back to see if God was really there or not. While it may not be the exact setting or
condition as Lot’s wife, the same spiritual principle is in play here with their
actions. The manner in which God
instructed Jeremiah to speak and the words that he spoke were one of completion
and ones that were to follow without exception.
They were marked in stone if you wish to place it in that arena. Again, the words of prophecy that Jeremiah
had spoken previously did not change and came to pass, and so did the words of
Jeremiah in these middle verses.
Many of us love to ignore what God is trying to say about
our hearts and pawn His Words and warnings off as another way that God is going
to always protect us no matter what we do because we are His people. What we fail to realize is that when these
religious leaders did not believe Jeremiah, for they knew what Jeremiah stood
for and how he did not compromise anything, then watered down his message from
God they were enacting their own service of deceit by not believing the Word of
God. God allowed them to believe in this
way, but Jeremiah knew the truth about what was coming, yet the other prophets
believed their watered-down humanistic lies instead of the eternal most high
God. Anytime we ignore what God says to
us as a warning, nothing good can come about from its presence. When God shows a warning and it lines up with
what His definition proclaims, how can we afford not to heed to this
advice? God shows us this type of
warning all throughout the Bible and more times than naught, the recipients of
these warnings ignored what was being conveyed to them. Once again, the words of the Bible are
present but we choose to not listen and take to heart what they mean.
What the other priests did to Jeremiah was brutal but
even though these actions are proof that their love of the world and their
status far outweighed their heart for God.
Yes, God was present in their lives and they knew the standards of God
but chose to incorporate superficial and popular worldly beliefs instead of
holding God and His Ways in their lives.
Do you find it concerning these actions from the people considered to be
the apple of God’s eye? Do you suppose
that if these blessed and set apart people could make dire and grave choices
about God and His warnings that we could do the exact same? You bet your last dollar we could and we are
currently speeding toward such a climatic setting. Why do we as the Church believe in the same
manner as the leaders and other prophets of Judah and Israel? Why do we doubt the Word of God and believe
that our hearts are good even though we have no true relationship with God?
When we read this passage, it is clear that the people of
Israel and Judah did not believe that their actions and lifestyles offended God,
and if those actions did they really did not care. How much different are we today than what
these precious people displayed back in Jeremiah’s day? Not one bit, for we epitomize their behaviors
and beliefs even deeper and further than anyone has ever taken. We have adopted and built upon the exact same
apple cart that was presented in this passage and we have done our best to keep
it full of our own selfish dreams.
Jeremiah did his job when he spoke against this apple cart and spoke to
them that listened of how that apple cart needed to be overturned and that it
would far better if we did this procedure ourselves instead of waiting for God
to do it. Jeremiah knew his words of
truth was being ignored so God changed His message to a completed and direct
one, one that could not be changed.
So, here we are folks, at the place where our apple cart
is about to be overturned but not because of our choice. In fact, our choice is to expand further our
apple cart and to pile on more sinful desires and lusts that not only defile
the One True God but our own lives as well.
This nation was supernaturally warned back in 2016 when a surprise was
given to us in November. Is this
President the answer to all of the issues of this nation or is he even a true
political interest? No way, but he is the
one and the only one of the modern presidential age who has had the guts enough
to attack the political atrocities from their origins to try and correct them
before it was too late. It was the
choice of the people and still is today to publicly and violently reject what
he was sent to do. Our eyes remain shut
and as we continue to protest, scream, and demand that our selfish ways be
advanced, we build our apple cart longer, higher, bigger, and deeper. God says, okay. But now it is His turn to grab our attention.
Church, we have had plenty of time to change the world
but instead of fulfilling Jesus’ command, we have filled our own apple carts
with superficial knowledge about God and His Son enough to warrant us “ready”
to meet Them in the sky but that is all.
Guess what, your feet shall stay on the ground when Jesus does come back
for you are the definition and the picture of a lukewarm church. As we have discussed many times in the past,
we have voluntarily given up our “C” and replaced it with the current “c”. What God wants most is for us to choose Him
in all of our ways, and we have failed miserably in this feat, but even though
this nation’s time is short we can still turn around and begin to tell people
about God before our land sinks. Jesus
still loves us and we can still start this process of witnessing before things
run out. Repent! And get right with God because
we may have some idea of what is about to present itself in the world, we have
no idea if we will even survive it, but we still need to be right with
God. Yes, there will be Immers that will
knock you about but when Truth is shared the world shall always react with
force against it. What they do not
understand is that their actions defend their apple carts and it defines their
love for the world and not God. It is
this apple cart that Jeremiah preached about for so long, and it is what the
Church needs to be preaching about today because one day God shall overturn
these apple carts of ours if we do not.
DLB
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