Sunday Sermons
Dream On
Jeremiah 23:9-40
This section of Scripture is God’s denunciation of the false prophets who existed in the time of Jeremiah. Seeing that false prophets will exist in our time as well (Matthew 7:15; 2 Peter 2:1-3), there is a great need to learn how God sees such individuals and how God’s people can remain faithful to Him in spite of this threat.
23:9 “As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me”: “Jeremiah's heart was filled with indignation against the prophets that dishonor the Lord and His holy Word by placing their word on a level with God's, palming off the dreams of their deceitful and wicked heart as the oracles of the God of truth” (Laetsch p. 197). Many Christians can identify with the feelings of Jeremiah. It is so frustrating and depressing to watch multitudes in the religious world flock to hear a false teacher. There are times when we feel completely powerless and helpless to do anything about the rampant apostasy that surrounds us. And we stand just amazed at the brazenness of those who completely ignore plain teachings of Scripture and substitute their will for God's will. Jeremiah informs us that a broken heart is not a reaction motivated by legalism or self-righteousness but rather it is the way a godly man reacts.
23:10 “For the land mourns because of the curse”: “The worship of Baal, the Canaanite fertility-god, far from producing the hoped-for fertility of the land, had produced the opposite effect” (Thompson p. 493). 23:12 “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them”: Departing from God and His word cuts us off from "firm-footing" and dependable guidance (Psalm 35:6). “They will be driven away”: When you abandon God, you become a slave of your own desires (Titus 3:3; 2 Tim. 3:13). “Wicked men are driven forward to ever more treacherous ground until they finally will fall to their destruction” (Smith p. 410).The word "driven" suggests the addictiveness of most sins.
23:14 “The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood”: False teaching often leads to moral breakdown (2 Peter 2:18-22). In addition, those in positions of authority or influence in "religion" are tempted to downplay or excuse their own sins in view of all the "good" they are accomplishing. “There is no exemption for the leaders among God’s people when it comes to divine judgment!” (Smith p. 411, see James 3:1). “And they strengthen the hands of evildoers”: They give sinners an excuse to remain in their sin. I cannot help but make a modern application at this point. Sadly, a good amount of the preaching being done in the religious world only keeps people from repenting. The hands of evil-doers are only strengthened by such popular doctrines as: “Everyone is on the same road to heaven”, “Hell does not exist or it is not eternal”, “Unbelievers will get a second-chance at the judgment day”, “Once saved always saved”, “It is not necessary to abide in the doctrine of Christ to be saved”, “One is saved by faith alone”, and so on. “So that no one has turned back from his wickedness”: Something is wrong with preaching that never rebukes sin or calls upon men and women to repent. We are going backward and not forward when we start thinking that we are too modern and sophisticated to extend the Lord's invitation or talk about sin. “All of them have become to Me like Sodom”: One popular modern theory of preaching is that if we only talk about positive things in the minds of the audience, people will just naturally want to live better. From Jeremiah we learn that such a theory does not work (2 Timothy 4:2-4).
23:16 “They are leading you into futility”: Notice that God does not see any value in the messages from these false prophets. “They speak a vision of their own imagination”: We cannot be naive. Religious leaders do lie. People do lie about the real "source" of their messages. When some religious scholars claim that various sections in the Bible are not authentic nor inspired of God, we need to remember that they did not learn such from studying the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17),rather they are only presenting their own preconceived assumptions. Much of what passes today for religious scholarship is nothing more than “a vision of their own imagination”.
23:17 “They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace”: Just like some modern speakers who calm their audiences by assuring them that hell does not exist, God will save everyone, what you do in your personal life does not matter, or that believers can never lose their salvation and so on (2 Timothy 4:2-4). “And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart”: Here is the bottom line of why people do not follow God’s instructions in His word. The problem is not inability to understand nor that the message is too complicated, the problem rather is a defiance to remain in sin at all cost. These people were not merely seeing Scripture differently, they were stubborn! 23:18 “But who has stood in the council of the Lord”: Jeremiah challenges the authority of these false prophets. Only two methods of discovering the will of God exist: direct inspiration, and paying attention to what God has already revealed. The will of God cannot be known by guessing (1 Corinthians 2:11). Notice that God’s “council” is only found in His word. To do anything other than obey Scripture is to rebel against the authority of heaven (Luke 6:46; Matthew 7:21-23). 23:19 “Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath”: “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” (Smith p. 414). Our culture is so accustomed to negotiating and second chances that our world needs to hear that one cannot negotiate with God when one is in rebellion. The only choices are repent or perish (Luke 13:1-3).
23:21 “I did not send these prophets, but they ran”: The eagerness of the false prophet should put us to shame, yet his or her eagerness and zeal does not save them or make up for the error they are teaching. Consider the same eagerness, effort, and zeal that we see practiced in the religious world. 23:23 “Am I a God who is near”: “God is not like the gods of the heathen, a local god, confined to his shrine, his temple” (Laetsch p. 199). God is not restricted to one place at a time (Psalm 139:7ff). The verse also seems to suggest that God can be both near and far off at the same time. Near to some, like Jeremiah, and eternally distant from others, like the false prophets. 23:24 “Can a man hide himself in hiding places, so I do not see Him?”: No man can hide from God, He is omnipresent and all knowing (Amos 9:2-3).
23:25 “I have heard what the false prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’”: “Being so close to everyone as to fill his very heart and mind, He also knows man's inmost secrets. He knows the origin of their prophecy” (Laetsch p. 200). In like manner some religious speakers will say something like, “Last night the Lord laid this upon my heart”, or, “I just feel that God is telling me”. 23:28 “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth”: If the dreamer wanted to tell his dream, then such a person must make it clear that such is ONLY a dream and has nothing to do with God's will. Let's be honest! But the person speaking God’s truth must do so faithfully and without any hedging (2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 2:15; Acts 20:27 “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God”). “What does straw have in common with grain?”: In this illustration human dreams are likened to straw (chaff), and God's Word to grain. One is valuable (life depends upon it) the other is worthless. “The preacher today who deals in dreams, visions, and human opinions instead of preaching the gospel, is no better than the false prophets who were condemned by Jeremiah” (Cline p. 11). Dreams are mere subjective experiences and had nothing to do with God's word. There is a huge difference between the Word of God and our dreams and let us always remember this clear distinction. What we “feel” or our “opinion” is like “chaff” compared to the word of God.
23:29 “Is not My word like fire?”: “Burns the conscience, purifies the life, illuminates the mind, energizes the will, warms the heart, and consumes the ungodly” (Smith p. 418). “And like a hammer which shatters a rock?”: Denoting the powerful character of the Word of God (Romans 1:16; Hebrews 4:12-13). This should remind us that Scripture is the final authority and what is recorded in the Bible will, at the last day, consume and shatter all human opinions and standards (John 12:48). 23:30 “I am against the prophets…who steal My words from each other”: ‘What elements of truth may have been in the message of the false prophet were stolen. They used the official prophetic formulas (‘Thus saith the Lord’ and so on)to give their utterances the aura of truth” (Smith p. 418). These false prophets were so devoid of inspiration that they were actually stealing some of Jeremiah's terminology and subject matter. The same is true today, the false teacher often uses some Biblical terminology to lure the unsuspecting. 23:32 “False dreams”: Too often, even the religious world seeks to excuse the false teacher by saying, “At least they are sincere”; “We give them an ‘A’ for effort”; “They are trying to do something”; “They do speak some truth”; “They really get people excited”. In contrast, God calls such people liars, for they are attaching His name to false messages.
23:32 “Nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit”: Thus we can never excuse or downplay the damage done by a false teacher or false doctrine. Here is God’s view of the situation. Nothing good or redeeming can be said about the false teacher. God does not give them any credit for their efforts, enthusiasm, speaking ability, organization skills, and so on. Neither does God have the attitude, “Well at least they are teaching something about the afterlife”. To be seen in its true light everything must be judged in light of eternity. If a person teaches people about God but leads them astray at the same time, when how can it be said that they did “some good”? 23:33 “What is the oracle of the Lord?”: The word oracle is also translated burden. “The Hebrew word for ‘burden/oracle’ means a load of bearing. This word, when used in the technical sense in prophecy, has an ominous meaning and usually suggests the idea of a catastrophe, destruction, or judgment of God”(Harkrider p. 66). Apparently, the people were mocking Jeremiah and his "heavy" messages of judgment and doom, and were asking him in a sneering tone, “What is the burden today? Have you thought up a new burden for us?” Or, “have you heard of Jeremiah's latest burden?” God tells Jeremiah to respond, “You are the burden! And God is going to rid Himself of you”. Through our unfaithfulness we can become "burdens" to God and other faithful Christians. Those who think that serving God is such a chore need to realize that it is a chore for God and other Christians to put up with that attitude.
23:36 “Because every man’s own word will become the oracle”: “Every man’s own word shall be his burden” (ASV). Those who persist in perverting and ridiculing the word of God will find that their own words will condemn them like a heavy weight dragging them to judgment. 23:38 “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of the Lord’”: “Because of the abuse of the term "burden", the people are told to simply ask “What has God said?”
23:40 “I will put an everlasting reproach on you”: “It is not hard to imagine the contempt with which these professing prophets were treated after their predictions of peace and prosperity failed to materialize” (Smith p. 421). In addition, remember that the teacher and followers will end up in the same condemnation (2 John 9). Imagine the eternal contempt there will be in hell for those who lead so many people astray from the faith! It is one thing to end up lost, it is quite another to be responsible for leading people in the wrong direction (Matthew 18:6-8).
The good news is that with the word of God we can tell the difference between truth and error, good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). Those who love God and His truth will find it (John 7:17; 8:31-32). In addition, whatever promises or momentary advantages are offered for leaving the truth they are simply false or short-lived.
