In Jeremiah, chapter two, verse eight, “The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.” The priests were so insensitive to the presence and power of God that they did not notice He had left them; they never wondered why the Lord’s presence and blessing were missing in God’s nation. Today, spiritual leaders should be greatly concerned when God’s presence and the manifestations of the Holy Spirit are not evident in their congregations. A true servant will ask, “Where is the LORD?”
How sad it is that one can be a student or teacher of God’s Word and yet not know the Lord as a personal Savior and an intimate friend. The prophets were expected to point the people back to God’s Word and to call for repentance; they were to speak only the Word of the Lord. Yet many of Judah’s prophets were so backslidden that they prophesied by the demonic power of idols. If pastors and leaders preach the humanistic ideas found in much contemporary psychology, philosophy, and liberal theology rather than the Word of God, they themselves become as guilty as the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day.
The priests were presenting, but there was no presence of God from above. The pastors were performing, but no power from on high. The prophets were prophesying, but there was no potential for manifestation and not coming from heaven. The Lord was missing in action. In Mark eight, verse thirty-six, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Without God, priests, pastors, and prophets can do absolutely nothing, can’t help anybody.