The background to the text is that God told Jeremiah to go to Jerusalem and preach to the people, warning them that if they didn’t repent they would be punished. Seems simple enough, right? All the prophet has to do is point out the sins the people had committed, assure them of God’s willingness to forgive, and warn them about God’s seriousness to punish them if they don’t repent.

Being a preacher isn’t so hard, right?

Well…

 Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. 

(Jeremiah 26:8)

The final four words of the verse are the ones to remember: Jeremiah did exactly as God commanded. He preached what God told him to preach. He did not alter the message in any way. Had he—had he added some of his own beliefs in addition to what God told him—then he would share in the consequences of the people’s response. He didn’t. Jeremiah kept his opinions to himself. As a result, he is not responsible for the message at all: He merely repeated what he was told. And yet, after hearing it, the sinful priests and false prophets said “thou shalt surely die.”

They want to kill Jeremiah because they don’t like what he said. How is that, in any way, fair? Why are they trying to kill Jeremiah? He’s just a messenger boy. This is not the first time an audience of disgruntled people tried to shoot the messenger, nor would it be the last. It still happens today (usually in more of a metaphorical sense, but still). In light of that, let me propose an alternative response…

If you don’t like the preaching, don’t kill the preacher: Kill God. It’s His sermon. It’s His Word. If you don’t like what is said, and if it makes you so furious you must kill the one who wrote it, then kill God. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Pick up your weapon, march over to God’s holy throne, and take Him out. I’ll be here when you get back.

(you’re not coming back)

A real better alternative would be: Don’t shoot any messenger. Instead, repent and obey the Message.

~ Matthew