There is another reason why Jeremiah was given two negative and only one positive injunctions regarding his preaching to disobedient Israel (In the last blog we noted that negative preaching is both unpleasant for those who hear it, and it is difficult to do well. Here, I want to mention a third):  You can’t build or plant until first you clear the ground.

Unless you tear down the old building there is no way to build in its place. Unless you pull up the weeds, there is no room for new plants. The Bible talks about putting off the old ways before putting on new one in their place, thus, under a new metaphor, saying the same thing.

So, preacher, keep in mind you are going to fail if you try preaching only the positive.