“They are just the poor…they don’t understand the way of the LORD…I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely, they know the way of the LORD…However, these also had broken the yoke and torn off the chains.” - Jeremiah 5:4–6 CSB
At first, Jeremiah thought that the problem was with the common people (“the poor”). He had delivered God’s warnings to them, but they had not responded. Perhaps, he wondered, they just didn’t know enough about God and His Word. Perhaps they did not have the necessary background or education.
Jeremiah concluded that the response would be different if he spoke to the elite people of the society instead: leaders and scholars, those who were highly educated. The people who, he might have thought, were more intelligent and receptive to messages from God. But Jeremiah was wrong. He discovered that his biases were wrong. In fact, regardless of their backgrounds, all the people responded in the same way: no one received the Word of the Lord.
We all can be like Jeremiah, jumping to conclusions based on appearances. We tend to make assumptions based on what seems to be true from our subjective perspective. Jeremiah learned that people could reject (or accept) God no matter their station in life.
God chose David, who was not even considered by his own father. Both his father, Jesse and the prophet, Samuel was looking at the seven other brothers due to their stature, military training and experience (1 Sam. 16:5-12). God looked at none of that and used a untrained, uneducated young teenager with a slingshot to their shame. "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things...and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him" (1 Cor. 1:27-31).
We need to remember that God has a completely different perspective. As He told the prophet Samuel, “The Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). Be careful before forming opinions of others just because of their circumstances. Ask God for discernment. Seek His wisdom. Always remember that He sees things differently than you do.
Father, help me to see others the way You see them. Give me discernment. Use me to minister to those in our lives without bias. In Jesus’ Name…Amen.
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