“Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods… answered Jeremiah, saying: ‘As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you!’” Jeremiah 44:15-16
After God declared through Jeremiah that He would punish the Jews who fled to Egypt for refuge instead of to God (44:1-14), those Jews defiantly declared, “We will not listen to you!” (44:16). These men listened to “their wives” who “had burned incense to other gods” in Egypt (44:15) instead of to God. Their idolatrous traditions kept them from hearing and seeing the truth of God’s Word.
How can we effectively reach people with the gospel who are deeply entrenched in religious traditions whose customs and practices keep them from hearing and interpreting the gospel in the way God intended?
1. Take them to the Lord in prayer because only the Holy Spirit can convict them of their sinfulness and their need to believe in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life (John 16:7-11).
2. Express appreciation for their commitment to glorify God by following traditions. Although their traditions may be wrong or unnecessary, they may be very sincere about doing what they think is right.
3. Encourage them to study the Bible for themselves, reading out of the text what it says in comparison to what they were taught about their traditions (cf. John 5:39).
4. Ask the Lord to bring one or two people who were saved out of the same tradition who can effectively share their testimonies with them (cf. Acts 18:24-28).
5. Build them up with the hope that God could use them to reach others from the same tradition. They do not have to abandon their loved ones, but they can return to them with the life-changing message of the gospel of grace (cf. John 1:40-51)!
(Adapted from EvanTell’s 2014 The Evangelism Study Bible, p. 864).