Jeremiah 23:23-32

3. The methods of the false prophets (Jeremiah 23:23-32)

TRANSLATION

(23) Am I a God near at hand (oracle of the LORD), and not a God far off? (24) Can a man hide himself in secret places that I am not able to see him (oracle of the LORD)? Do not I fill the heavens and the earth (oracle of the LORD)? (25) I have heard that which the prophets who have been prophesying lies in My name have said: I have dreamed! I have dreamed! (26) How long? Do the prophets who prophesy falsehood and are prophets of the deceit of their own heart think, do they plan to make My people forget MY name with their dreams which they relate each one to his neighbor as their fathers forgot MY name because of Baal? (28) The prophet who has a dream, let him relate a dream; and the one who has My word let him speak My word faithfully. What does straw have to do with wheat (oracle of the LORD)? (29) Is not My word like fire (oracle of the LORD) and like a hammer that shatters rock? (30) Therefore behold, I am against the prophets (oracle of the LORD) that steal My words everyone from his neighbor. (31) Behold, I am against You, O prophets (oracle of the LORD), who take their tongue and say, Oracle. (32) Behold, I am against the prophets of lying dreams (oracle of the LORD) who narrate them and cause My people to err with their lies and their recklessness when I did not send them nor did I command them nor will they profit this people at all (oracle of the LORD).

COMMENTS

In a series of three rhetorical questions Jeremiah presents deep theological truth. (1) Am I a God near at hand and not a God far off? (Jeremiah 23:23). This question brings out the thought of God's transcendence. Unlike the pagan gods the Lord is not restricted to one place at a time. He was not confined to a temple or shrine. He dwells afar off where no man can approach Him, let alone manipulate Him. (2) Can a man hide himself in secret places that I cannot see him? This second question brings out the thought of God's omniscience. God's vision and knowledge embrace all things happening on the earth. The remote past and the distant future are equally known to Him. (3) Do not I fill the heavens and the earth? (Jeremiah 23:24). This question points to the fact that God is omnipresent. He is everywhere at once. Three times in Jeremiah 23:23-24 the phrase oracle of the Lord occurs. This transcendent, omniscience, omnipresent God is the Lord, Yahweh, the great I Am who is unlimited by space and time. The false prophets have not escaped the notice of God. He has heard the lies which they have been prophesying in His name. These prophets boasted of their dreams as though the mere claim to having received revelation was sufficient to prove that they were prophets of God (Jeremiah 23:25).

The question here is whether or not dreams in the Old Testament were a legitimate mode of divine communication. In Deuteronomy 13:1 a fake prophet is described as a dreamer of dreams. God did at times reveal His will through dreams (Genesis 15:12; Genesis 20:3; Genesis 31:24; Genesis 37:5). In Numbers 12:6 God is said to make himself known to prophets by visions and dreams. Joel 2:28 predicts that in the Messianic age the old men will dream dreams. It is interesting however that between Numbers 12:6 which refers to the very early period of Israel's history and Joel 2:28 which refers to the distant Messianic age scarcely anything is said of dreams as a medium of revelation to prophets. Often times prophets received communications from God in the night but these are called visions and not dreams (2 Samuel 7:14; 2 Samuel 7:17; Zechariah 4:1). While dreams were not then an illegitimate method of receiving divine revelation, as a matter of fact those who were true prophets rarely received revelation in that particular manner. The present passage seems to discredit the false prophets on the grounds that they claimed to receive divine revelation through dreams. Furthermore the fact that the prophets permitted what God had forbidden in His word stamped their dreams as products of their own heart (cf. Deuteronomy 13:1-3).

Jeremiah 23:26-27 are difficult to translate. Two questions are asked in these verses. The first question is quite general: How long? How much longer will these men continue their deception and falsehood. The second question is more penetrating, probing the possible motives of the false prophets. Is it their purpose to cause the people to forget the name of God and all that His name stands for? Error and false teaching lead men away from the Lord. As these prophets peddled their pernicious platitudes from door to door (lit., each man to his neighbor) they were sabotaging the true faith. False doctrine is as dangerous as idolatry. Jeremiah's generation was in as much danger of being deceived by a false theology as their fathers who had been deceived by Baal worship (Jeremiah 23:27). There is nothing wrong with these men relating their dreams. But when they do so they should make it very clear that they are relating only a dream and nothing more. They should not pretend that these dreams are divine revelations. Chaff and wheat, the word of God and the dreams of men, must be kept separate. That which is worthless should never be allowed to contaminate in the least that which is pure. A preacher who presents personal views and opinions and theories from the pulpit as if they are the word of God is no better than the false prophets with whom Jeremiah struggled. Those who preach the word of God must speak it faithfully, honestly, forthrightly (Jeremiah 23:28). When this is done the word of God has dynamic power to accomplish the purpose of God. The word of God is like fire: It burns the conscience, purifies the life, illuminates the mind, energizes the will, warms the heart, fuses the fellowship, and consumes the ungodly. God's message for Jeremiah's day was a message of judgment, crushing like a hammer (Jeremiah 23:29). What a contrast between the feeble falsehoods of the pseudo prophets and the dramatic truth of the pure word of. God!

Three times in Jeremiah 23:30-32 God declares that He is against the false prophets. His opposition to them is threefold. (1) They have stolen the words of God from their neighbors i.e., another prophet who had received a genuine revelation from God. What elements of truth may have been in the message of the false prophet were stolen. No doubt these men carefully scrutinized the sermons of Jeremiah and tried to imitate his style and technique. Perhaps to a certain extent they even copied the content of his message. (2) They used the official prophetic formulas to give their utterances the aura of truth. They used the word oracle, a technical term used by a prophet whenever God put words in his mouth. The false prophets were palming off their own delusions by adopting the same forms as the true prophets used (Jeremiah 23:31). (3) God opposes these prophets because they are causing the people to err. The major trouble with false teachers is that they always gain a following. The people of Judah believed the lying dreams related to them by the false prophets. How presumptuous, how arrogant, how boastful of these men to claim to speak the word of God when in fact they had nothing more to share with their countrymen than their own wishful thinking. Such men are of no value at all to a nation (Jeremiah 23:32).