In today's reading God condemns the religious leaders who proclaim a false version of God's Word--twisting it or just plain making it up--which, in turn "strengthens the hands of evildoers." Sound familiar? This is a huge problem today. Some of the largest church bodies, including one that calls itself "Lutheran" (ELCA), question the authority of God's Word, the Bible, and then begin to toss out major teachings. The People's Bible commentary on this section of Scripture applies just as well to these church bodies today:
"The worst thing they had done was to strengthen the hand of evildoers. For this they would be punished most severely. By their prophecies they had emptied the Lord's Word, the law, of its meaning. They allowed anyone to make his own convenient interpretation, an interpretation suited to cover his own self-chosen, sinful actions. The result was that no one heard or heeded God's call to repentance. Feeling confident in the assurance the false prophets had given, everyone continued on in sin. From the false prophets ungodliness had spread over the whole land. Such failure to fulfill their high calling, a calling so vital to the lives of the people, merited the severest judgment."
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