We Cannot Make Them Hear

Jeremiah replied to Zedekiah, "If I tell you, you will kill me, won't you? Besides, if I give you advice, you won't listen to me anyway." - Jeremiah 38:15

Jeremiah, mud still caked between his toes from his days spent in the king's cistern, was taken to Zedekiah for the stated purpose of delivering a message from God. Fresh from his "deeper life" experience, Jeremiah found it hard to believe that the king really wanted to know what God was thinking.

Have you ever come across anyone who said that they wanted to hear from God, but their actions seemed to suggest a different reality? Perhaps they were angry or apathetic, as Jeremiah suggested Zedekiah would be. What should a bearer of God's message, a proclaimer of truth, do in a situation such as this?

Receptivity is not our domain, though it is a consideration. While we are all called to be messengers of the gospel and can in some ways measure another's willingness to listen, we cannot make them hear. When summoned by the Spirit of God to speak, that is exactly what we must do, no matter the difficulty, the consequences, or the response.

We might just need to watch our tone.

Many, it may be feared, appear moved and touched and roused under the preaching of the gospel, while in reality their hearts are not changed at all. - J. C. Ryle