Jeremiah - Lesson 23B

• Chapters 1-6 The LORD calls Jeremiah as a prophet to Judah in the final years of the kingdom. The LORD’s people, Israel and Judah, had rejected their God by worshipping false gods without repentance. The LORD is sending a nation from the North as judgment, yet not for the complete destruction of His people.

  • Chapter 7-11 Jeremiah calls out the impending destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem. The people have been led into the worship of false gods, signs in the heavens and idols by their spiritual leaders, forsaking the LORD and violating His covenant. The necessity for discipline is not pleasing to the LORD. Many want to silence the LORD’s prophet,

  • Chapter 12-17 The wicked seem to prosper.

    • The LORD is not deceived and rejects empty worship. The false prophets were not removed by the people. A drought is sent as a warning, but the hard hearts of the people continue in worship of false gods with no regard for the commands of the LORD.

    • Jeremiah brings warning of impeding destruction to kings, leaders and all the people, remembering the evil of king Manasseh.

  • Jeremiah laments his calling as a prophet but repents and continues to speak the words of the LORD, though alone and persecuted, denied by the LORD to mourn, or pray for the nation, yet the LORD will protect him and confirm his words.

    • There will be restoration for the nation in the future.

• Chapter 18-22 The LORD is the sovereign ‘potter’ over all His creation. The LORD will destroy Judah and Jerusalem because of the shedding of innocent blood and child sacrifice. King Zedekiah seeks a miracle from the LORD who preforms wondrous acts.

  • Jeremiah persecuted for the message he brings to the people’s leaders.

  • The LORD continues to speak through Jeremiah prophecies concerning each of the last kings of Judah.

• Chapter 23 Began with days are coming in the future for Israel when the LORD will gather them from all the nations of the world and provide them a righteous ruler, the Messiah.

Jer. 23:9 As for the prophets:
My heart is broken within me,
All my bones tremble;
I have become like a drunken man,
Even like a man overcome with wine,
Because of the LORD
And because of His holy words.
Jer. 23:10 For the land is full of adulterers;
For the land mourns because of the curse.
The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
Their course also is evil
And their might is not right.
Jer. 23:11 “For both prophet and priest are polluted;
Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.
Jer. 23:12 “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them,
They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it;
For I will bring calamity upon them,
The year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.

• Verse 9 This verse begins with, ‘as for the prophets’.

  • The topic is changing to prophets as the LORD dealt with the last kings of Judah in chapter twenty two and began in chapter twenty three with a woe for the shepherds of His people.

    • The shepherds are the leaders of the people, kings and princes and administrative leadership.

  • Now there is a shift to the prophets.

    • Jeremiah is a prophet to Judah and to the nations.

    • Jeremiah says his heart is broken within him.

  • The grief Jeremiah reveals is described as one with bones trembling, and like one who is unable to stand or function in a normal way like men who are drunk.

    • This grief was brought on by what the LORD’s holy words were concerning the prophets.

    • This reference to the LORD’s words given in the second person demonstrates these words are not the LORD’s words but Jeremiah’s.

• Verse 10 Jeremiah declares the land is full of adulterers.

  • This was clearly called out by the LORD back in Jer. 3:6-10, 5:7

Jer. 3:6 Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there.
Jer. 3:7 “I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Jer. 3:8 “And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.
Jer. 3:9 “Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
Jer. 3:10 “Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the LORD.

Jer. 5:7 “Why should I pardon you?
Your sons have forsaken Me
And sworn by those who are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
They committed adultery
And trooped to the harlot’s house.

• There was an increase of sin in the land which included the people committing adultery but this adultery is the spiritual adultery of the people committed against the LORD in their worship of other gods.

  • Jer 32:10 Continues by saying the land mourns because of the curse. This was explained in Jer. 12:4.

Jer. 12:4 How long is the land to mourn
And the vegetation of the countryside to wither?
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it,
Animals and birds have been snatched away,
Because men have said, “He will not see our latter ending.”

• The land is cursed because of the wicked who dwell in it.

  • Sin has an impact outside of ourselves in Judah’s case it polluted the land.

• Jer. 32:10 also says the path of the prophets is evil and they abuse their power.

  • The path of immoral behavior leads to people abusing their power often for a gain of notoriety or political influence as well as for financial gain.

• Verse 11 The prophets and the priests are guilty of this sin before the LORD, the priests have brought this wickedness into the temple, His house.

  • Verse 12 This evil path they walk down becomes slippery, meaning they will continue with no way to regain their footing again and do what is right before the LORD.

    • They have left the light of the true word of the LORD and now they are blind to the truth.

    • This is the reason the LORD is bringing calamity on them.

Jer. 23:13 “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing:
They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.
Jer. 23:14 “Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing:
The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood;
And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.
All of them have become to Me like Sodom,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
Jer. 23:15 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets,
‘Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood
And make them drink poisonous water,
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
Pollution has gone forth into all the land.’”
Jer. 23:16  Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.
They are leading you into futility;
They speak a vision of their own imagination,
Not from the mouth of the LORD.
Jer. 23:17 “They keep saying to those who despise Me,
‘The LORD has said, “You will have peace”’;
And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,
They say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’
Jer. 23:18 “But who has stood in the council of the LORD,
That he should see and hear His word?
Who has given heed to His word and listened?
Jer. 23:19 “Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath,
Even a whirling tempest;
It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.
Jer. 23:20 “The anger of the LORD will not turn back
Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart;
In the last days you will clearly understand it.
Jer. 23:21 “I did not send these prophets,
But they ran.
I did not speak to them,
But they prophesied.
Jer. 23:22 “But if they had stood in My council,
Then they would have announced My words to My people,
And would have turned them back from their evil way
And from the evil of their deeds.

• Verse 13 The LORD continues by pointing out He witnessed the prophets of Samaria prophesying by Baal leading His people astray.

  • The reference to the prophets of Samaria points to the nation of Israel that He had judged already. 1 Kings 16:29-33

1Kings 16:29 Now Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.
1Kings 16:30 Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all who were before him.
1Kings 16:31 It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him.
1Kings 16:32 So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria.
1Kings 16:33 Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

• This worship of Baal, established in Samaria, continued throughout the existence of this nation and through Jeremiah He says it led His people astray.

  • Verse 14  The LORD now calls out the prophets of Jerusalem.

    • They are committing adultery and are lying.

    • This adultery is physical adultery not the spiritual imagery of adultery addressed earlier.

    • This was called out in Jer. 7:8-11.

Jer. 7:8 “Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.
Jer. 7:9 “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known,
Jer. 7:10 then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ — that you may do all these abominations?
Jer. 7:11 “Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the LORD.

• What made the sin of the prophets in Judah worse than those in Israel was they were using the name of the LORD in bringing their lies to the people.

  • Jer. 23:14 Continues with this same condemnation for the priests and prophets in Jerusalem.

  • They give power to the wicked and do not call on them to repent, the result will be these men will be judged as the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with no survivors.

• Verse 15 The LORD of hosts is going to destroy these prophets by feeding them wormwood and poisonous water. This is a also covered in Jer. 9:15.

  • Jer. 9:15 therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

    • Wormwood is a plant with bitter juice.

    • Water was often made poisonous by adding a bitter herb.

    • The judgment the LORD is bringing on His people is bitter, the people left Him no option.

  • A modern phrase used to convey this thought is, that is a bitter pill to swallow.

  • This judgment is because this prophets brought this pollution of evil throughout all the land.

• Verse 16 The LORD continues saying to not listen to the words of those prophets that were prophesying in that day in Judah.

  • These men were not His prophets and leading His people astray, not speaking the words of the LORD but their own desires.

  • This was covered in-depth in Jer. 14.

• Verse 17 These false prophets are those who despise Him as they say the LORD has said the people will have peace even though they are walking in the stubbornness of their own hearts.

  • First the claim of diminishing the serious of sin and then the lessening of the judgment that follows.

• Verse 18 The LORD is looking for someone who can say they have seen and heard His word and drawing others to heed, meaning obey His word.

  • This would be a reference to the word already revealed from the LORD through the Law, the Torah.

• Verse 19 The LORD again says His judgment is coming described as a storm and it will come down on the heads of the wicked.

  • Verse 20 This is the anger of the LORD being poured out and it will not now be turned back as it is to carry out the purposes of His heart.

  • The meaning of this judgment will be understood in the last days meaning after the fact, in hindsight.

• Verse 21 The LORD declares He did not send these prophets but they went out as if sent by Him.

  • They do not speak words from Him though they declare they to speak for Him.

• Verse 22 The LORD says of these prophets if they had received His council they would have pointed the people back to His word given in the Law to turn back from their evil ways and deeds.

  • This would have been a simple test of the prophets at this time.

  • The prophets were not calling the people to repentance.

Jer. 23:23 “Am I a God who is near,” declares the LORD,
“And not a God far off?
Jer. 23:24 “Can a man hide himself in hiding places
So I do not see him?” declares the LORD.
“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
Jer. 23:25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’
Jer. 23:26 “How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart,
Jer. 23:27 who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?
Jer. 23:28 “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the LORD.
Jer. 23:29 “Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

• Verse 23 The LORD declares He is a God who is near and not far off.

  • This is asked in question form and may be drawing the obvious comparison to the false gods who were worshiped being far away like the things being worshipped in the heavens.

• Verse 24 The LORD continues by declaring there is nothing that happens on the earth He created that He does not see or know.

  • Verse 25 The LORD says clearly He can see every prophet that is speaking falsely in His name.

    • They are professing to have had dreams where their revelations are coming from.

• Verses 26-27 The question of, ‘How long’ is of course rhetorical and means how long before their false declarations will be seen as such.

  • The prophets speak from their own deceived hearts to mislead the people.

  • The deception to the people is to make His people forget His name and replace it with another in their worship.

  • This happened in the past to the forefathers or ancestors of these same people.

• Verse 28 The comparison is made between a prophet who relates a dream to one who relates the LORD’s word in a truthful manner.

  • The two have nothing to do with each other.

  • The picture of straw, which does not have value as does nutritional grain.

  • They are not interchangeable.

    • In this case prophets were not relating the sin of the people with coming judgment.

    • Continued promised peace is a lie next to continued unrepentant, blatant sin.

    • These two things can’t coexist, not then and not now.

• Verse 29 The LORD’s word is like fire, in that it reveals truth and burns up falsehood and like a hammer that can shatter a rock or something hard like a hard heart.

  • Nothing to stand up to the LORD’s word. It always wins in a game of rock, paper, scissors.

Jer. 23:30 “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the LORD, “who steal My words from each other.
Jer. 23:31 “Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the LORD, “who use their tongues and declare, ‘The Lord declares.’
Jer. 23:32 “Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the LORD, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the LORD.
Jer. 23:33  “Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying, ‘What is the oracle of the LORD?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle?’ The LORD declares, ‘I will abandon you.’
Jer. 23:34 “Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’ I will bring punishment upon that man and his household.
Jer. 23:35 “Thus will each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’
Jer. 23:36 “For you will no longer remember the oracle of the LORD, because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.
Jer. 23:37 “Thus you will say to that prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’
Jer. 23:38 “For if you say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ surely thus says the LORD, ‘Because you said this word, “The oracle of the LORD!” I have also sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’”’
Jer. 23:39 “Therefore behold, I will surely forget you and cast you away from My presence, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers.
Jer. 23:40 “I will put an everlasting reproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten.”

• Verse 30 Because the prophets delight in their dreams and not revealing the truth given to them in the known Law and prophets of their time the LORD says He is against these prophets.

  • He accuses them of stealing their false teaching of His word from each other.

  • They repeat the lies of each other instead of calling out the lies when they differ from the LORD’s word.

• Verse 31 The LORD calls out those prophets who have the audacity to say their words are from the LORD when they are not.

• Verse 32 The LORD calls out those prophets who have declared prophesy from their false dreams.

  • These false dreams are being repeated to the LORD’s people with the effect of leading the people astray from the LORD’s revealed truth.

  • These men are boastful when they make these declarations.

  • The LORD announces He did not send them and they brought nothing profitable to His people.

    • The LORD used dreams to communicate throughout the OT; Abraham, Joseph, and Daniel to name a few.

    • The interpretation of the dream is always sought from the LORD.

    • These men were not seeking true council from the LORD as the LORD clearly calls them out.

• Verse 33 The LORD gives specific directions to Jeremiah as to how he is to respond to a question that will come to him from his people, prophets or priest.

  • The question will be asking what oracle from the LORD Jeremiah has for them.

  • Jeremiah is to say, ‘what oracle.’

    • The meaning of oracle is to carry, take or lift something, like a prophet carrying a burden of words the LORD has given to him to be shared with other.

    • There may be a mocking sense as the words Jeremiah has brought were heavy or burdensome in tone.

  • Jeremiah is to clarify the only thing the LORD has to say to those seeking is, ‘I will abandon you’.

  • The play on words from oracle being a burden to be lifted may be why the LORD says I will unburden myself of you.

• Verse 34 Then when that answer does not suffice and they ask for more from the LORD, tell them I will bring punishment upon that man and his household.

  • Those who asked for an oracle and did not like the answer and come back to Jeremiah seeking another oracle the LORD makes it personal.

• Verse 35 The question of what the LORD has to say to the people will be shared with each other not each of the people wanting to hear from the true prophet.

• Verse 36 The result of this form of communication of the oracle being shared person to person will be each man will have his own interpretation of the oracle.

  • The people have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.

• Verse 37 Now the question is to be put to the prophets.

  • What did the LORD answer you or what did He say to you?

• Verse 38 The LORD is sending a message to these false prophets that they have used the words, ‘The oracle of the LORD’, before preceding to give false words to the people as if they are from Him.

  • The message is they are to stop saying they have an oracle from the LORD.

• Verse 39 This will be one of the reasons these men will be forgotten and cast away from the LORD’s presence.

  • This will happen to the city of Jerusalem as well.

  • The very city these prophets kept saying would not be taken from the nation.

• Verse 40 The LORD is going to put an everlasting reproach and humiliation that will not be forgotten.

  • The prophets were not calling the people to repentance.

  • The prophets were in fact encouraging the false worship and then later a false narrative when it came to trying to negate the words from men like Jeremiah when they brought the true word of the LORD which was about judgment.

    • The LORD is not fooled by false worship or by false prophets, not in Jeremiah’s day and not in our day.

    • The people in Jeremiah’s day had the Law and the prophets they knew what the LORD had given to them in His commandments.

  • The false prophets and priests seemed to have fallen into a life of sin through adultery, lying and general criminal and moral misdeeds.

    • They allowed the false prophets to continue.

  • The prophets should have held each other accountable and called out the false narratives but the truthful voices became the minority and then they became nonexistence except in the unique case like that of Jeremiah in his day.

    • The false prophets would not be truthful about the coming judgment and that only repentance could change that.

  • Current false teachers as well neglect to share the reality of sin and the consequences of sin and thus can’t teach about the true power of the salvation offered through Jesus alone to forgive such sin.

    • The twisting of the scriptures is common from many pulpits and platforms around the world.

    • Those leaders who have fallen from high regard because of immoral or criminal behavior seem to be more in the news today than past years.

• Teachers of God’s Word have a special burden to get it right as they will be held accountable before God one day for what they teach.

James 3:1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.

• This section of James is the beginning of discussing the impact of the tongue so the teacher would be one with more words to be judged by just like the prophets of the Old Testament.

  • The LORD holds leaders responsible because they are the ones who should be bringing His word to His people and to the world.

  • There is much that could be said about many false teachers within the modern day church but let us no forget the millions of people outside the world of Christianity who have fallen victim to the enemy based on dreams or visions given to men:

    • Islam

    • Mormonism

    • Buddhism

    • Sikhism

    • Zoroastrianism

    • Bahá'í Faith

    • Indigenous and Shamanic Religions

  • This is not a complete list by any means but it is comprehensive enough to make the point.

• The enemy knows how to lead people astray and repeats his work over and over again.

  • The scriptures give a clear demarkation for the church age that God has given clear words for man and there is nothing else that needs to be gleaned from dreams or visions. Heb. 1:1-2

Heb. 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
Heb. 1:2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

• The decent of the false teaching to the LORD’s people began with spiritual idolatry.

  • From there the leaders indulged in immoral behavior including adultery and abuse of power for personal gain, both social standing as well as financial gain.

    • This is all brought into the place of worship that should have been maintained as holy.

    • These false teachers cease to hear from the LORD.

  • These teachers focus on their desires and not a message to glorify the LORD of hosts and point these people back to the ways of the LORD given in His word.

  • These teachers negated the word of the LORD in regard to the commands of the LORD concerning sin and the LORD’s definition of sin and the outcome of judgment for sin.

  • These teachers elevated their desires above the word of the LORD disguising their desires in dreams.

• To avoid being lead astray a believer is to know the word so they can recognize false teaching when it happens.

  • It is proper to hold leaders to a high moral standard, when they fail they may not be rejected in a spiritual sense by the LORD but they are rejected to carry the mantle of leadership for the LORD over His people.

  • A teacher who puts an emphasis on experiential measurements versus scriptural measurements should listened to with great caution.

  • A teacher who deemphasizes the impact of sin or avoids the discussion of sin should also be more throughly scrutinized.

• God has revealed Himself and His plans for His creation through His word. Heb. 2:1-4

Heb. 2:1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
Heb. 2:2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty,
Heb. 2:3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,
Heb. 2:4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

• The word spoken through the angels was the Law and it was unchangeable to Israel.

  • The word spoken through the Lord Jesus, confirmed through His disciples and verified by God with signs, wonders and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit is to be heeded.

  • This word is to be near and dear to our hearts as it is the way to salvation and eternal life.