Jeremiah 23:30-40: a reflection

30“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who each steal my words from his neighbor. 31Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who use their tongues, and say, ‘He says.’ 32Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,” says the LORD, “who tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting; yet I didn’t send them or command them. They don’t profit this people at all,” says the LORD. 33“When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, asks you, saying, ‘What is the message from the LORD?’ Then you shall tell them, ‘“What message? I will cast you off,” says the LORD.’ 34As for the prophet, the priest, and the people, who say, ‘The message from the LORD,’ I will even punish that man and his household. 35You will say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ and, ‘What has the LORD said?’ 36You will mention the message from the LORD no more, for every man’s own word has become his message; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of Armies, our God. 37You will say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 38Although you say, ‘The message from the LORD,’ therefore the LORD says: ‘Because you say this word, “The message from the LORD,” and I have sent to you, telling you not to say, “The message from the LORD,” 39therefore behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off with the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence. 40I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which will not be forgotten.’”

God pronounces judgment on the false prophets of Jeremiah's day, and their sin is precisely defined: they were passing off their own words as God's message. I am against the prophets, God says, who use their own tongues and declare, God says. They took their own thoughts, their own imaginings, their own agendas, and labeled them the message from the LORD, until, God says, every man's own word has become his oracle, and they have perverted the words of the living God. Their crime was claiming divine authority for what was merely their own.

Notice the specific sin: attaching God's name to our own words. The false prophets did not necessarily deny God; they invoked him, they said the LORD says, they claimed to speak his message. But what they spoke was their own, their own opinions and desires dressed up as God's word. And God regards this as a grave offense: to put his name and authority on what he has not said, to make our own words into his message.

That is a temptation worth taking seriously, in an age full of people claiming to speak for God. It is possible to attach God's authority to our own opinions, preferences, and agendas, to present as God's will what is merely our own thinking, to say in effect the LORD says about things God has not said. It is a way of using God's name to give weight to ourselves. Be very careful about claiming to speak for God. Do not dress your own opinions and desires in his authority, or present as his word what is merely your own. Speak humbly, distinguish your own thoughts from God's clear word, and do not pervert his words by making your own into his message.

Lord, you were against the false prophets who passed off their own words as your message, claiming to speak for you about things you had not said, perverting your words by making their own into your oracle. Guard me from that sin. Keep me from attaching your name and authority to my own opinions, preferences, and agendas, presenting as your will what is merely my own thinking. Help me speak humbly, to distinguish my own thoughts from your clear word, and never to use your name to give weight to myself. Let me handle your word with reverence, not presumption.