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Jeremiah Thinks about
9When I think of the prophets,
I am shocked, and I tremble
like someone drunk,
because of the Lord
and his sacred words.
10Those unfaithful prophets
misuse their power
all over the country.
So God turned the pasturelands
into scorching deserts.
The Lord Will Punish
11The Lord told me to say:
You prophets and priests
think so little of me, the Lord,
that you even sin
in my own temple!
12Now I will punish you
with disaster,
and you will slip and fall
in the darkness.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
13The prophets in Samaria
were repulsive to me,
because they preached
in the name of Baal
and led my people astray.
14 And you prophets in Jerusalem
are even worse.
You're unfaithful in marriage
and never tell the truth.
You even lead others to sin
instead of helping them
turn back to me.
You and the people of Jerusalem
are evil like Sodom
and Gomorrah.
15You prophets in Jerusalem
have spread evil everywhere.
That's why I, the Lord, promise
to give you bitter poison
to eat and drink.
The Lord Gives a Warning
The Lord said:
16Don't listen to the lies
of these false prophets,
you people of Judah!
The message they preach
is something they imagined;
it did not come from me,
the Lord All-Powerful.
17These prophets go to people
who refuse to respect me
and who are stubborn
and do whatever they please.
The prophets tell them,
“The Lord has promised
everything will be fine.”
18But I, the Lord, tell you
that these prophets
have never attended a meeting
of my council in heaven
or heard me speak.
19They are evil! So in my anger
I will strike them
like a violent storm.
20I won't calm down,
until I have finished
what I have decided to do.
Someday you will understand
exactly what I mean.
21I did not send these prophets
or speak to them,
but they ran to find you
and to preach their message.
22If they had been in a meeting
of my council in heaven,
they would have told
you people of Judah
to give up your sins
and come back to me.
23I am everywhere—
both near and far,
24 in heaven and on earth.
There are no secret places
where you can hide from me.
25These unfaithful prophets claim that I have given them a dream or a vision, and then they tell lies in my name. 26But everything they say comes from their own twisted minds. How long can this go on? 27They tell each other their dreams and try to get my people to reject me, just as their ancestors left me and worshiped Baal. 28Their dreams and my truth are as different as straw and wheat. But when prophets speak for me, they must say only what I have told them. 29My words are a powerful fire; they are a hammer that shatters rocks.
30-32These unfaithful prophets claim I give them their dreams, but it isn't true. I didn't choose them to be my prophets, and yet they babble on and on, speaking in my name, while stealing words from each other. And when my people hear these liars, they are led astray instead of being helped. So I warn you that I am now the enemy of these prophets. I, the Lord, have spoken.
Reflect
It is a sad development in our political discourse when “fact-checking” is employed after every public debate or speech. We would hope that those who strive for high office would be honest and tell the truth but increasingly we (and our media) doubt this.
In this section of Jeremiah God is angry with the leaders of Judah and the prophets who all claim to speak the truth, who claim to speak for God. Again and again God calls out the popular and prominent prophets who preach “in the name of Baal and led my people astray” (v 13b), who are “unfaithful in marriage and never tell the truth” (v 14) and who “lead others to sin instead of helping them to turn back me” (v14). God goes on to call them false prophets (v 16) because they claim to speak in his name when they have never truly heard him give them a message. God does a “fact-check” on them and they turn out to have lied again and again.
But how does an average person decide who is telling the truth when both false and true prophets/preachers/leaders say “we have a message from God”?
There is a simple test: true prophets tell their listeners to give up their sinful ways and turn back to God (v 22b). They speak without self-interest in mind. Their words, like God’s words, have a kind of “fire” and are like a “hammer that shatters rocks.” They do not match the easy and passive voice of those who tell us “everything you do is okay with God.” When we are never challenged in our sinful ways nor prodded to consider the holy ways of God, we are surely listening to a false prophet!
Respond
O God of truth, speak words to me that are good and true. Help me to have ears that hear those words and a heart that is willing to act in obedience, even if that is challenging. In the name of your son, Jesus, I pray, Amen.
Henry Friesen
Henry A. Friesen has lived in Saskatchewan, Canada all of his life. He and his wife Eleanor have three children and one grandchild. Henry took his post-secondary education at the U of Regina from which he earned his BA (History) and the Canadian Theological Seminary from which he earned his MDiv (Pastoral Studies). He served as an Adult Ministries pastor for 16 years but has recently retired. Among his many interests are Biblical history, adult education and family history.