“Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel. The Lord has filed a lawsuit against you listing the following charges:
- No faithfulness
- No kindness
- No knowledge of God
- You swear
- You lie
- You kill
- You steal
- You commit adultery
- Violence everywhere
- One murder after another.” (Verses 1-2).
These were at one time “God’s people”; the ones he brought out of Egypt into the Promised Land; God loved them as He did no other country. On Mt. Sinai, God had instructed them on how to live. He first gave them the 10 Commandments; these were the primary instructions on how they were to treat Him and one another. Second, He gave them their religious law with priests, and sacrifices. Finally, He gave them a civil law to follow. But now, all of these were forgotten and violated. Who was to blame for this mess their country was in?
“Look, priests, I am pointing My finger at you . . . My people are destroyed because they don’t know Me, for you yourselves refuse to know Me; therefore, I refuse to know you as my priests . . . The priests rejoice in the sins of the people; they lap it up and lick their lips for more! And thus it is: ‘Like priests are wicked, the people are too.” (Verses 4, 6, 8-9).
Yes, even religious leaders can mislead people about sin, righteousness, and eternal life. There have been many people who have started false religions by claiming to have received visions from angels, claimed to be prophets or even claimed to be a messiah.
There are other reasons God disapproves of religious leaders. Some are over doctrinal issues and some are over ethical issues (sin). But many churches fail simply because the pastor does not feed the congregation to build them up in the faith. Young people leave the church because they find nothing that feeds their hearts and minds to live for Christ, to have a purpose to live for, no vision of how to praise God and draw close to Him.