A Generation of Deaf Ears (Jer. 25:3)

Parents complain that their children will not listen to them. Teachers have the same lament. Sometimes politicians and journalists wage an endless battle to get people with power to change their policies, but are just ‘voices crying in the wilderness’.

Jeremiah, too, was a lone voice, warning, pleading, denouncing and prophesying for years while no one took a scrap of notice, as he spoke God’s word. It was God they refused to hear and heed.

That is the lot all too frequently of the preacher, the evangelist and the missionary. A fire burns in their bones, the word God sends, but no one will listen. Some spend a lifetime pleading with their hearers to repent, to obey God, to accept Jesus, to forsake their evil ways, to be born again - but to no avail. Many come to the end of their lives wondering if all the sacrifice was worthwhile, why all the patient pleading was in vain and querying whether they were really called by God in the first place.

The present generation is no different: the word is spoken faithfully, clearly and strongly. The gospel is preached and the good news is announced, but all too often it goes unheeded, falling on deaf ears, and the murder, the adultery, the futility, despair and emptiness go on. What will those people, who have not listened, do when Jesus comes?

Bro. David Banda Yelulani (Banket, Zimbabwe)