‘Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.

Here was the problem. This is why there was the need for straight talking. Here were a people who looked good on the outside. They seemed to be spiritually hungry. They looked like godly people. They were very good at the externals and rituals of religious profession. But God knew the truth about them.

‘The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ (1 Samuel 16:7a).

It’s been said that ‘character is what you are in the dark’ – where the lights are off and no one else can see.

PRAYER: Lord make my heart to be one that pleases you. Remove all hypocrisy from me. Cause me to be real.