"Peace, Peace!" When there is none - Jeremiah 7-11

There is a new book out that is getting plenty of press from the world's publicity machine (Rob Bell's book, "Love Wins"). It is a book that simply says God's wrath is no longer active and God's love is the winning formula for all of life's ills. The book goes on to say that everyone will be saved because God's love will win over and defeat God's wrath, which is now dormant. To get a good sale from a book you have to have great publicity. What you have in this false manuscript that is being pushed by a greedy author and his publicist, is someone standing in the street and yelling, "Peace, Peace!" Yet, in the background the fire is burning. In Jeremiah's day the same thing was true. In fact I wonder if Rob Bell has ever read Jeremiah 8. Jeremiah was sent to condemn the false prophets who, despite God's warning of pending doom, stood in the street and published their fancy words and yelled, "Peace, Peace!" while in the background the Assyrian army was bearing down on Jerusalem (8:11). Jeremiah had a tough job. He had to proclaim truth when truth was gone (7:28). Don't be persuaded by the flashy sounds of publicity to sell books and build egos. There has always been false prophets claiming, "Peace! Peace!" when there was no peace. That is what makes the gospel so compelling. In the midst of war, disaster and wrath God offers His love to those He would rescue. That is the true peace. Jeremiah had the best publisher and when He publishes something we should not only buy it we should believe it.