Pretentiousness

“And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.” (Jeremiah 3:11, ESV)

I remember once endeavoring to mentor a person in the ministry. I would often sit with this person and give some constructive feedback, both positive and negative. At the end of our sessions together, he would always state thank you, expressing appreciation for the exchange. However, it seemed that none of the feedback was ever taken to heart. It seemed a bit pretentious to me that he would indicate that he would work on the issues that I would identify and then not implement any of the changes necessary. It was as if to say, he knew better and did not need my advice.

Here in this verse, I saw something that puzzled me for a second. It seemed that the Northern Kingdom, Israel had been much worse historically than the Southern Kingdom, Judah. The reason was that Israel had engaged into gross idolatry from the time of their separation from the Nation of Israel after Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king of the nation. Moreover, Israel never had what we would consider a good king who turned to the Lord.

Considering the history of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, how was it then that the Lord would say, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah”? The reason for this statement is this. While Judah had indulged in idolatry, attempted to make alliances with foreign nations rather than trust the Lord, and had grown apostate in heart, they put on the image of a nation that was devoted to God. They were pretentious. They put on the costume of being fully devoted to God but were in fact half-hearted in this. This was irksome to the Lord.

It is fully possible for professing believers and churches to fall into the same trap today. This is why the Lord gave this condemnation to the church at Laodicea. “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!” (Revelation 3:15, ESV) It seems that the Lord was telling this church it would be better for them to be cold than to be lukewarm. Of course, the Lord desired that they would be hot rather than either lukewarm or cold.

It is unfortunate, but often we as believers can go through times of spiritual doldrums when our hearts grow cold. Yes, we will go through the motions. We will attend church worship services, serve on church committees, and ministries, and carry our Bibles around, while our hearts are far away from the Lord.

These times should not be, but they do happen. What is the solution for us as believers? The remedy is confession with repentance. It is to recognize and agree with God that we have grown cold and then to change our cold-hearted attitudes towards our relationship with the Lord our God. This will result in seeking Him with all our heart.