Scripture Daily

Context No. 1096 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 23:7-14: in context

7“Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that they will no more say, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’ 8but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up and who led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will dwell in their own land.” 9Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of his holy words. 10“For the land is full of adulterers; for because of the curse the land mourns. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right; 11for both prophet and priest are profane. Yes, in my house I have found their wickedness,” says the LORD. 12Therefore their way will be to them as slippery places in the darkness. They will be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation,” says the LORD. 13“I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one returns from his wickedness. They have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”

Jeremiah first announces a coming new exodus: a day when people will no longer swear by the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, but by the God who brought them back from the land of the north, out of exile. Then his tone breaks. Concerning the prophets, he says, my heart is crushed within me, all my bones shake, I am like a drunken man, because of the LORD and his holy words. The land is full of adultery and lies, and worst of all, prophet and priest are corrupt. The false prophets prophesy by Baal, walk in lies, and strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from wickedness.

The damning charge against the false prophets is this: they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness. That is what makes false teaching so dangerous. It is not merely that it is untrue; it is that it comforts people in their sin, reassures them that all is well, and removes the very discomfort that might have driven them to repent. A true prophet disturbs the comfortable so they will turn; a false one soothes the guilty so they will not. By telling people what they wanted to hear, peace, peace, when there was no peace, these prophets ensured that no one repented, and so they were complicit in the ruin. And notice Jeremiah's own reaction to this: his heart is crushed, his bones shake, he is undone like a drunk man. He is not smug about being right while others are wrong; the corruption of the prophets breaks him. There is a warning here for anyone who speaks about God, that the test of a message is not whether it soothes but whether it turns people from sin toward God, and a comfort that keeps people in their wickedness is a betrayal, however pleasant it sounds.

Do I prefer the voices that soothe me in my sin, and when I speak of God to others, does my word turn them toward repentance or comfort them in staying as they are?

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