The Questions People Ask: 15

QUESTION 15: "In Jeremiah 20: 7 the prophet speaks to God in prayer about being deceived by Him. How can a holy and just God deceive people? God is a God of truth not lies (Heb. 6:18), He doesn’t even tempt people to sin (Jam. 1:13).  How does one reconcile this seeming contradiction about God supposedly deceiving the prophet Jeremiah?"  

ANSWER: This is another challenging question. However, the Word of God has the answer. God’s Word does not contradict itself as we soon shall see in the answer to the above question. So the question stands, "did the Lord deceive Jeremiah?" It appears when one first reads Jeremiah 20: 7 that God had deceived the prophet Jeremiah. However this is not the case at all. The word "deceive" in the text…