Have you ever found yourself in one of those times when God doesn’t seem to be anywhere around? You just find yourself in one of those places where God seems to be stretching you and enlarging your faith by His seeming withdrawal. All of us have at one time or another and they sure aren’t comfortable. They’re the times when if we push through to the end we look back and see some of our greatest spiritual growth. We stand at the backside of the silence and realize that we have grown a lot closer to the Lord as a result of His absence. But that’s not what I want to focus on here.

In Hebrew the word batstsoreth (bat-tso-reth) means dearth or drought. That is the word God used in the prophetic vision He gave Jeremiah in the middle of a drought that caused a great famine in Palestine.

Jer 14:1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.

God told Jeremiah to take a word to His people and He wrapped it in terms of their current physical condition, which represented their spiritual condition. Judah had brought this all on herself by “hewing out cisterns” of her own making and forsaking the fountains of the living water of God. His words throughout Jeremiah 14 and 15 were filled with references to famine, sword, pestilence and captivity. Here drought was added to the list as a consequence of disobedience to the covenant God made with Israel. The heavens that once provided rain they had taken for granted and now they failed to bring any. As a result the land that produced its fruit now yielded none as it was dry and cracked. It had fallen into a useless and unproductive state because of Judah’s pride.

The same thing is happening in America today within the bride of Christ. Many who call Jesus their bridegroom have found themselves in the middle of a spiritual “batstsoreth.” They have compromised the message of God with the message of the world, and like the church at Laodicea (Rev 3:14-22) they have become lukewarm. They have sought their answers in the world and not in God and their wells have become dry and their land parched.

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Many today have sought comfort in the world and, sadly, they don’t even realize it.

They’re sitting in lukewarm churches listening to lukewarm messages that are designed to “tickle” the ears and “comfort” the soul. They have started that precipitous backward slide that will only gain momentum the longer they continue down that path. They have not only wandered down this path, they love it and have not turned back. These members of the bride are only warming the pews, not their hearts. Their acquaintance with the Lord has become a casual one, so casual they no longer know His Word but yet are so quick to complain.

Jer 14:10 Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

While studying the Book of Jeremiah I ran across a story in John Guest’s commentary and the picture it painted had a profound impact on me. I could see some of the bride of Christ who have loved to wander they have not refrained their feet.

There was a man who operated a giant drawbridge. One day he took his young son with him in order to show him what it was he did every day. He led the young lad down into the cavernous workings of the bridge that they might marvel together over its powerful machinery. While down there the man received a phone call that a train, well ahead of schedule, was speeding toward the bridge. There was just enough time for him to race to the top of the tower and flip the switch to lower it into place. Patiently he instructed his son not to budge from his tight position of safety.

The father reached the tower with just enough time to lower the bridge. In that same split second he looked down to find that his son had moved into the jaws of the powerful machinery. He had to decide between the hundreds of lives speeding toward him in the train or the precious life of his only son. In great pain and anguish he flipped the switch. Down came the bridge, grinding the life out of his son. The train rushed by and as it did he could see people sitting there, in the comfort of their dining cars, chatting merrily with one another, totally oblivious to the enormous sacrifice that had just been made for their lives. Beating his fists on the tower window, the man screamed out against the stiff faces streaking past, a people for whom he had made so dear a sacrifice. Don’t you know that I gave my son for you? Don’t you know that you are alive now because he yielded up his life? Does anybody care?

For similar reasons God sent forth a message to His wife through Jeremiah that I believe are words for some of Jesus’ bride in America, as well as for those who are leading her down this treacherous path. She knows better, she knows she is on that “train” because He cared, because He made that sacrifice. But she has replaced it with the comfort of the world.

Jer 14:13-14 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place. 14 Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.

This is the watered down message that is designed to not “offend anyone” and to “increase” numbers on Sunday. It is a message that God did not give them or call them to preach. In the words of John Guest: They have yielded to telling the people what they want to hear, preaching the popular gospel. Not only are they telling lies, but they are using God to endorse them. It is a message that leads the bride away from her bridegroom and God will not tolerate them or their message. The very dangers they preach that they say will not come the way of the people they will reap themselves because they failed to preach them; by sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

Jer 14:15 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

Because they twist the truth to fit that message — compromise the Word of God — God says that His Spirit will not lead them. And those who seek out their message and follow it will suffer for it. They will find themselves in a batstsoreth; a place of spiritual unrest, loss and great discomfort. Their soul will find itself in the midst of a spiritual famine and out of God’s will for their life. What they sow to the flesh will be reaped by the flesh at the expense of the spirit. Know for a certainty that we have responsibility for the kind of preaching we accept into our spirit and we will be held accountable at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Jer 14:16a And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword;

These were very harsh words that carried great consequences for Judah and they should sound an alarm to the bride in America in today. Not only will the deliverers of these messages suffer, so will all those who submit themselves to the message. Messages that compromise the truth, are tainted, false, misleading and compromise the Cross of Christ. These are the messages that keep the bride of Christ from entering into His rest; entering into the Holiest Place where she has been invited to boldly come in faith, appropriating the grace that He paid for on the Cross. These are the “dry times” of the drought brought about by her own failings, the times when God withdraws and leaves her in her own place in her own power and strength.

Jer 14:12a When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them:

As the bride of Christ we cannot afford to play around with the world’s system; to play at religion. If we do we will find ourselves as did Judah, in a dry and desolate place; a place without the Word of God and the strength and power of His Spirit where our cries and prayers don’t reach beyond the ceiling. The world, its system and its compromised message are no substitute for our bridegroom.

Jer 14:17-18 Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow. 18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.

However, if she will look around her with her spiritual eyes she will see what her bridegroom sees and understand how much He loves her. What He sees is a bride that has been “broken” by a heavy blow from the world and many that are lost and suffering a great spiritual famine. And sadly He sees those who are leading them in that same place. But thank God He will not leave us in our dry and desolate condition “if” we want to once again drink of His living water.

Jer 14:20 We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.

Those of the bride of Christ who find themselves in this batstsoreth need to heed the advice the Lord gave His bride at the church of Ephesus that had likewise lost their first love. He told them to first remember from where they had fallen; to go back to that place where they began to slide away from Him. Secondly He told them to repent as did Jeremiah when he led Judah to acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness … we have sinned against thee. And thirdly He told the Ephesians to do what they had done in the beginning. Begin with what you were doing when your love was like that of new bride.

Jeremiah’s message to the people of God was to show them that the reason they found themselves suffering so grievously was the result of their turning away from God and looking to the world for their needs.

Jer 14: 22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Lord our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.

At the end of the day the world had proven that it could not — and never would — meet their needs; the deep needs of the spirit. That could only come from God and the only way to return to the well watered place was to remember, repent and do while waiting on the One who created it all to return.

The answer for the bride of Christ in America is the same one the Lord gave to His churches in Revelation: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. The Spirit is warning the bride to beware of the world, its message and those who falsely deliver it in the name of the Lord. She needs to be seated like Mary at her bridegroom’s feet in the Holiest Place, resting from “her works” in His mercy and grace. It is only there that she will find true victory and the abundant life, a life abundant in the works of the Spirit and in the strength and power of the Spirit.

As God showed forth His tears for His wife through the words of Jeremiah, so the Spirit is here today to show the bride the tears of her bridegroom for her lukewarm state. He is calling out to her every day to draw her into a closer relationship with Him; a deeper relationship in which she will find her spiritually fulfilled life. There is so much to do and the time is so short that we cannot afford to spend one minute out of the Lord’s presence. If you are in that part of the bride of Christ that finds herself in the midst of a spiritual famine and drought the answer is as close as the words are to your spirit … remember, repent and do!

He stands knocking at your door with all of His love and grace but He won’t force the door open. You have to rise from slumbering in the world and bid Him to come in. The precious promise is that He will come in!