Jeremiah 23:16-22

2. The message of the fake prophets (Jeremiah 23:16-22)

TRANSLATION

(16) Thus says the LORD of hosts: Do not hearken to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are causing you to become vain! They speak a vision of their heart and not from the mouth of the LORD. (17) They say continually to those who despise Me, The LORD has said: You shall have peace; and to all who walk in the stubbornness of their heart they have said: Calamity shall not come upon you. (18) For who has stood in the secret council of the LORD that he might see and hear His word?[229] Who has paid attention to His word and heard it? (19) Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in fury, a whirlwind; it shall whirl upon the heads of the wicked. (20) The anger of the LORD shall not be turned back until He has accomplished and performed the plans of His heart. In the end of the days you will fully understand it. (21) I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran! I have not spoken unto them, yet they prophesied! (22) If they had stood in My council, then they would have caused My people to hear My words, and they would have caused them to turn from their wicked way, and from the evil of their deeds.

[229] His word may also be read My word. The ancient versions are divided on the translation. Actually it makes little difference which reading is adopted.

COMMENTS

The prophets of Judah are bolstering the false hopes of the people with false prophecies. Jeremiah calls for the people to repudiate these deceivers. Their prophecies did not come from the mouth of the Lord but from the vain imaginations of their own hearts. Giving heed to such empty prophecies would only cause the people to act in a vain and foolhardy way (Jeremiah 23:16). The false prophets were continually grinding out their pious platitudes. The Hebrew uses a grammatical device to emphasize the ceaseless flow of words which were pouring forth from these pseudo prophets. To the hardened and rebellious sinners of Judah these men were giving assurance that all would be well. The Lord has said, You shall have peace. No calamity will befall you! The expression the Lord has spoken nowhere else in the Old Testament introduces a revelation from the Lord. If this was the formula by which these false prophets actually introduced their supposed oracles, then it differed from those formulas used by Jeremiah and the other prophets whose books have been preserved in Scripture.

By means of two rhetorical questions Jeremiah denies the authority of the false prophets and at the same time implicitly affirms his own inspiration. Who has stood in the council of the Lord that he might see and hear His word? The answer is obvious. Corrupt men like the false prophets could never have stood in the presence of God. Amos asserted, Surely the Lord will do nothing unless he reveals His secret counsel (same word used by Jeremiah) unto His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). David declared that God extends His secret counsel to the pious (Psalms 25:14). Sometimes the prophets had visions in which they saw the Lord in consultation with His trusted servants (Isaiah 6:1; 1 Kings 22:19). Eliphaz asked Job, Were you listening in the council of God? (Job 15:8). The picture here is of the heavenly council chambers. True prophets are privy to the decisions of God relating to the children of men. This is another way of saying that the prophet receives direct revelation from God. The second rhetorical question of Jeremiah 23:18 points to another way in which man can ascertain the will of God. Who has paid attention to His word and heard it? When one gives heed to the word of God as revealed in Scripture, he too can learn the will of God. The false prophets had not been privileged to stand in the secret council of God nor had they paid heed to His written word.

The message which Jeremiah brought in the name of God was quite different from that which the false prophets brought. God's judgment is already approaching like a whirlwind. It will literally dance around upon the head of the wicked. The hurricane of divine wrath is upon them (Jeremiah 23:19). Nothing will turn back God's wrath. Attempting to thwart the plans of God by human means is as foolish as trying to tame a tornado at the height of its fury. Though the people may not presently be able to understand the plans and purposes of God, someday they will understand it all. At that time they will realize that they have been justly punished for their sins against God and man (Jeremiah 23:20). The term end of days has been explained in three ways. (I) Some think that the end of days refers to the consummation of the world. The idea would then be that at the end of the age, possibly after the second coming of Christ, men will be able to understand clearly all of God's dealing with men. It cannot be sustained from the usage of this term in the Old Testament that it refers to the end of the world. (2) Others think that end of days refers to the Messianic age as in Jeremiah 48:47; Jeremiah 49:39; Isaiah 2:2; Hosea 3:5. The idea would then be that God's dealing with Israel would be placed in proper perspective when the Messiah comes. (3) A third view is that the term end of days simply means in future days. Cheyne points to an Assyrian inscription where precisely the same phrase is used in the general sense of future time. It is the view of this writer that end of days refers to the New Testament age.

In Jeremiah 23:17-20 Jeremiah emphasizes the point that the message of the false prophets is diametrically opposed to true revelation. God had not sent these prophets yet they eagerly ran to assume their prophetic office. God had not spoken to them yet they had the audacity to prophesy in His name (Jeremiah 23:21). As further proof that these men were deceivers Jeremiah points out that their preaching was not designed to effect any moral change. Their message has no rebuke for sin and no appeal for reformation. Therefore these men cannot be true prophets of the Lord! If they truly had stood in the secret council of God they would be diligently laboring to turn people from their evil ways (Jeremiah 23:22).