Evil shepherds and the righteous Branch
23
📚“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. 2 📚Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the shepherds who tend my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them. See, I will punish 📖 you for your evil deeds, says the LORD.23:1-2 The sheep were the people of Judah, the shepherds were their wicked leaders and rulers. God would repay them in full for what they had done to Judah.⚜
23:3-4 The prophets often spoke of the return of Israel from exile – Isa 11:10-12; Jer 27:22; 29:10-11; 34:11-16; Ezek 37:20-28; Amos 9:15. Some of their prophecies were fulfilled in the days following the fall of the Babylonian empire (2 Chron 36:20-23; Ezra 1:1-5). But a more complete restoration than that seems required to fulfill the language of the prophets.⚜
5 📚“See, the days are coming,
says the LORD,
when I will raise up for David a righteous
Branch 📖, and a King will reign and prosper,
and will administer judgment and
justice in the earth.
6 📚In his days Judah will be saved,
and Israel will dwell safely.
And this is his name,
the one by which he will be called,
The LORD Our Righteousness 📖.
23:6 This did not occur at Christ’s first coming.⚜
7 📚“Therefore, see, the days are coming, says the LORD, when they will no longer say, ‘The LORD lives, who brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt’, 8 📚But, ‘The LORD lives, who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country’, and from all countries where I had driven them. And they will live in their own land”.
Deceitful prophets
9 📚My heart within me is broken because
of the prophets.
All my bones tremble.
I am like a drunken man,
and like a man overcome
by wine, because of the LORD,
and because of his holy words.
10 📚For the land is full of adulterers;
for because of swearing the land mourns.
The pleasant places of the wilderness
are dried up, for their course is evil,
and their might is not right.
23:9-10 Jeremiah again speaks of his inner pain that came because of what was then taking place in his land, and the message of destruction the Lord had given.⚜
11 📚“For both prophet and priest
are profane. Yes, in my house I have
found their wickedness,
says the LORD.
23:11 Beginning here and going on to the end of this chapter God speaks of the false prophets who were such a plague in Jeremiah’s day. Neither they nor the priests tried to conceal their wickedness, even in the temple. They were openly contemptuous of both man and God.⚜
12 📚Therefore their way will be to them
like slippery paths
in the darkness.
They will be driven on, and fall in them;
for I will bring disaster on them,
the year 📖 of their punishment,
says the LORD.
13 📚And I saw folly in the prophets
of Samaria.
They prophesied by Baal 📖, and caused
my people Israel to go astray.
23:13 Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom. God is reminding Judah of the sins of Samaria which brought its destruction (2 Kings 17:7-20).⚜
14 📚I have also seen a horrible thing
in the prophets of Jerusalem.
They commit adultery and walk in lies,
and they strengthen the hands
of evildoers,
so that no one turns from his wickedness.
All of them are like Sodom to me,
and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15 📚Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts 📖 concerning the prophets:
See, I will feed them with wormwood,
and make them drink bitter water.
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
godlessness has gone out into
the whole land.
23:14-15 This is the most severe condemnation imaginable of Jerusalem’s prophets. They said they were God’s spokesmen, but lived for Satan. They were wicked themselves and encouraged wickedness in others. They were no better than the people of Sodom and had no right to expect a better fate (Gen 13:13; 19:24-25; Isa 1:9-10; 2 Pet 2:6). Alas, such people are still with us propagating lies and promoting wickedness in the churches (2 Tim 3:1-7; 2 Pet 2:1).⚜
16 📚Thus says the LORD of hosts:
Do not listen to the words of the prophets
who prophesy to you.
They give you vain hopes 📖.
They speak a vision of their own heart 📖,
and not from the mouth
of the LORD.
17 📚They still say to those who despise me,
‘The LORD has said,
You will have peace’, and they say to everyone
who follows the imagination
of his own heart,
‘No harm will come on you.’
18 📚For who has stood in the council
of the LORD, and has seen
and heard his word?
Who has paid attention to his word,
and heard it?
19 📚See, a whirlwind from the LORD has gone
forth in fury, a violent whirlwind.
It will fall violently on the head
of the wicked.
20 📚The anger of the LORD will not return,
until he has carried out the thoughts
of his heart and until he has
performed them.
In the last days you will understand
it perfectly.
21 📚“I have not sent these prophets,
yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them,
yet they prophesied.
23:18-21 The false prophets were ignorant of God’s plans. They were saying that no harm would come to a sinful people. God declared that great harm was on the way. Verses 19,20 are repeated in Jer 30:23-24.⚜
22 📚But if they had stood in my council,
and had caused my people
to hear my words,
then they would have turned them
from their evil way,
and from their evil deeds.
23:22 This is the work of true prophets of God. It can be accomplished only by those who spend time in God’s presence and get God’s message.⚜
23 📚Am I a God at hand,
says the LORD, and not a God afar off?
24 📚Can anyone hide himself in secret places
so that I will not see him?
says the LORD.
Do I not fill heaven and earth?
says the LORD.
23:23-24 Did not the false prophets know how impossible it was to conceal anything from the omnipresent God? (Gen 3:8; Ps 139:7-12; Amos 9:2-4; Heb 4:13).⚜
25 📚“I have heard what the prophets said, those prophesying 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? Yes, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, 27 📚who think they can make my people forget my name by their dreams which each one of them tells to his neighbour, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.
23:25-27 Having dreams was one of the ways the false prophets claimed to receive messages from God. For other ways see Jer 14:14. The falsity of their so-called revelations from God is seen in their results (v 27. See Deut 13:1-5; 18:22).⚜
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, see, I am against the prophets each of whom steals my words from his neighbour, says the LORD.
23:30 False prophets were taking from each other false interpretations of God’s words, or words that they wrongly supposed came from God.⚜
31 📚See, the LORD says, I am against the prophets who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’
23:31 This is not uncommon in our own day. Then and now there are those who are called prophets or God’s spokesmen who falsely declare that the words which come out of their own minds are revelations from God.⚜
32 📚See, the LORD says, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, and tell them, and make my people go astray by their lies, and by their recklessness 📖, yet I did not send them or command them. Therefore they will not profit this people at all, says the LORD.
33 📚“And when this people, or a prophet, or a priest, asks you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of the LORD?’ you shall then say to them, ‘What oracle 📖? I will 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 punish that man and his household. 35 📚Thus every one of you will say to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 36 📚And you will not mention the oracle of the LORD any 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 word to you, saying, ‘You must not say, The oracle of the LORD’, 39 📚Therefore, see, I, I myself, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and drive you from my presence. 40 📚And I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which will not be forgotten”.
23:33-40 Terrible punishment awaits those who declare that their own words are messages revealed by God. Observe carefully in v 36 how widespread this practice was in Jeremiah’s day and what the result of it was.⚜