Call to Commitment

 

Chapter 23, Part II

 

 

  Self-appointed prophets walking in their hearts’ deceit

21.  "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 

 22.  But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings. 

 23.   "Am I a God near at hand," says the LORD, "And not a God afar off? 

 24.    Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?" says the LORD; "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the LORD. 

 25.  "I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, 'I have dreamed, I have dreamed!' 

 26.    How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, 

 27.    who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal. 

 28.  "The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the LORD. 

 29.    "Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 

 30.  "Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who steal My words every one from his neighbor. 

 31.  Behold, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "who use their tongues and say, 'He says.' 

 32.  Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams," says the LORD, "and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all," says the LORD.

 Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John to be fishers of men (Mk.1:16-20). He spent an entire night in prayer before choosing the twelve as apostles (Lk.6:12-13). Later, he appointed 70 others, whom He sent out two by two (Lk.10:1). Paul often tells that he was called to be an apostle. Every prophet was called of God and kings and priests were anointed. At the beginning of this book, we read of Jeremiah’s calling: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jer.1:5). Divine calling is essential to genuine ministry.

The greatest part of this chapter exposes men, who were self-appointed, the first characteristic to appear in human-powered religion. They ran on a mission, without being sent, delivering a message, without hearing from God (21). Let us learn from this passage, so that we can detect false ministry among us in these days of great deception.

 A second characteristic follows: The message of the false prophets will not bring people to repentance. The word of God surely will, turning them from their evil ways and deeds. The text mentions both ways and deeds, because there is a difference between the two. The ways of sinners are deeply established in their heart and deeds are outward manifestations of inner depravity. Every anointed preacher of the gospel will publicly root out sin, and when God’s counsel is declared, men will turn from sin. It is clearly stated in verse 22 and it is the natural product of every legitimate ministry. 

 We must witness this from our preachers. "If they had stood in My counsel." This is a beautiful expression of intimate relation, for the Hebrew word indicates precisely intimacy, which is translated counsel here. It is sometimes translated "in My secret". So we will conclude that the messengers, who are in an intimate relationship with the Lord, will preach repentance to sinners. What should we conclude, if preachers do not preach repentance?

In verse 23, God speaks of His clear vision of things near and far and His attention given to the affairs of mankind. The context indicates that no one can hide from Him, as Adam and Eve tried to do in the beginning (24). that God fills the universe and beyond that, the universe cannot contain Him. It magnifies His immensity. These prophets had a small concept of God, by which they took liberty to conduct their office in any way that they chose. We have before us a prime example of the chief purpose of Scripture; it is, first and foremost, a revelation of God. 

We proceed to observe the ‘ministry’ of the self-appointed prophets, in relation to this revelation. These false prophets use the name of the Lord to promote their cause, without receiving their messages from Him. Outside the sphere of His personal anointing and inspiration, are only lies. There is no neutral zone in spiritual exposition; God’s ways and thoughts do not run in the same vein with fallen humankind. There are only the ways of man and the ways of God, and they oppose one another.

 It would seem that the popular means of the prophets in Jeremiah’s day was the use of dreams, given in dramatic form, as verse 25 indicates. We need to admit that, in the Bible, the Lord has revealed His will through dreams, however, this is an area that demands caution. Dreams are mystical phenomena that tend to fascination. A dream can come from the enemy, as well as God, but most commonly comes from our natural subconsciousness. Dreams are usually a normal function of the mind, yet they are mystifying, begging for interpretation, although usually none is necessary. Tozer once remarked, “I never have had a dream that I could not relate to something I ate at the evening meal.”  That kind of thinking will help to disrobe the covering of a pretended divine inspiration.

 In the cases that Jeremiah uncovers, dreams are a substitute for divine inspiration. Verse 26 shows that God expects that this source of ‘ministry’ should cease. The false prophets are deceived from the heart and their talk springs from personally contrived ideas about God. Their motivation is very important, whether it is conducted in a conscious or unconscious manner; the intent of the method of resorting to dreams is to turn the people away from concentrating on the true God. The effect is to produce social conversation, which will pervert the popular concept of God and veer towards idolatry. He shows that this already has taken place to lead the people into Baal worship. (27).  

 The false prophet’s dream is contrasted with the word of God (28). Obviously, the dreams do not convey His word, but turn the speaker away from faithfulness to it. The dream is compared to chaff, empty shells, while His word is deemed seed, the entire, weighty kernel of truth. Let us remind ourselves, at this point, that we are getting this observation from the God of heaven, no less. These men can do no more that tell and interpret their dreams; that is as far as their office can carry them. We cannot expect any more from them, but the one to whom God has given His word, let him be totally faithful to it.  

 The Lord goes on to define the properties of His word. It is like a fire and will take its effect, when it is lit. It will consume evil ways and deeds, as earlier inferred. It will break hardened hearts like a hammer and expose them to a higher force. God says that His powerful word will definitely do that. On the other hand, the ways of man… his dreams in this case… are without true benefit (29). As Jesus proclaimed in His gospel, “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn.15:5).

 These means are against the purposes of God, and for that reason, God is against the prophets, who utilize those means. Here is another effect of false prophecy: It robs the work of the word that God has sown in the heart (30). See this important doctrine from the apostle Paul, which puts a final touch on Jeremiah’s godly teaching: “We also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Th.2:13). What clear insight to add to our lesson!

 Parenthetically, I just want to bring to your attention the two-word phrase without ceasing: He does not mean, obviously, that he is thanking God 24-hours-a-day for this characteristic in this one church. It signifies that Paul habitually is grateful to God for it. I say this because some have interpreted “Pray without ceasing” (1 Th.5:17) to mean that we are to be in prayer every minute of every day. That is very poor exegesis of those two words.

 The Lord repeats and confirms His opposition to the spoken lies, coming from the dreams, then from the tongues of the false prophets (31). When God called Isaiah, he saw clearly and declared, “I am a man of unclean lips”. A seraphim touched his lips with a live coal from the altar of God saying, “Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged” (Is.6:5-7).  

 Today, false messengers deviate from Christianity and turn their followers into false cults. Joseph Smith is one, whose iniquity was not taken away and who surely walked in the steps of the false prophets of Israel with his false dreams and so-called revelations. Verse 32 adds recklessness to their characteristics. To refer again to the chaff of verse 28, they are weightless, taking their position lightly, not governed by the fear of God. People receive no real benefit from self-appointed prophets.

 

A broader scope

 33.  "So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, 'What is the oracle of the LORD?' you shall then say to them, 'What oracle?' I will even forsake you," says the LORD. 

 34.  "And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, 'The oracle of the LORD!' I will even punish that man and his house. 

 35.  Thus every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, 'What has the LORD answered?' and, 'What has the LORD spoken?' 

 36.  And the oracle of the LORD you shall mention no more. For every man's word will be his oracle, for you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. 

 37.  Thus you shall say to the prophet, 'What has the LORD answered you?' and, 'What has the LORD spoken?' 

 38.  But since you say, 'The oracle of the LORD!' therefore thus says the LORD: 'Because you say this word, "The oracle of the LORD!" and I have sent to you, saying, "Do not say, 'The oracle of the LORD!' " 

 39.  therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you and forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of My presence. 

 40.  And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.' " 

 Beginning in verse 33, the Lord broadens the scope of His enemies, to the people, prophet and priest”, whose questions reveal a lack of spiritual understanding, as did those of the Jews, the Pharisees, Sadducees and others, in Christ’s day. That word oracle in the NKJV is sometimes translated burden or prophecy. There is a general, mocking curiosity as to what the Lord is truly speaking and His prophet, Jeremiah, is to answer, “What oracle?”  He means, “Do you want to hear what God is saying? His oracle is, and He says, ‘I will abandon you!’” Continuing in the next verse, when one of these same people refers to the oracle of the Lord, He individually punishes him and those who he influences most… those of his household (34).

 The punishment will evoke a better response among the people, when they converse. They are not now lightly jesting about the oracle from God, but are genuinely listening for the next word (35). But the answer is as the oracle and remains unchanged. The individual’s disobedience in pronouncing the word “oracle”, has thereby determined his own destiny. The Lord has forbidden him to use the term, because he takes away from the gravity, which he has determined against him. This is God’s word to every individual, notice, “every man’s word”, even though it was used, in general, by the population. Each man will bear his own sin (36), and it will weigh heavily upon him. The spiritual principle declares that every word that the individual utters, though spoken under the influence of a crowd’s mania, will be dealt with personally by God.

 Verse 37-38 is a summary of the earlier ones, revealing the offense that the Lord has taken to the lightness and disobedience of the people. Each one will come to regret his attitude and now will come with sincerity to the prophet, but the word of the Lord remains constant. He does not reverse his sentence upon him, that which will prove disastrous, more so than any other judgment could be: “I will utterly forget you,” He says, removing His benevolent hand from their lives (39). His chosen earthly dwelling place, where people, over centuries, sought in prayer His help and presence, will no longer be available to them. The holy city of Jerusalem is forsaken and the people will be expatriated from the Promised Land, to a foreign country, far away from His blessing (39).

 A certain curse will come upon them, which can never be removed, expelling with them all national pride, drowning them in shame. They will come to live eventually as outcasts in strange lands around the world. It is this shame that cannot be shaken off, but will bring them to their knees and keep them there, as they wander throughout the world (40).