Jeremiah 23:9 - Meaning and Application

Here is a strong warning for the false prophets. No one had been more bitter and hostile toward God’s true prophets than they were, so it is right that the true prophets speak sharply against them. Jeremiah had already complained to God about these men (Jeremiah 14:13), and he had often said that they would share in the coming judgment. Here, though, they receive a separate set of woes of their own.

Jeremiah shows how deeply this trouble weighs on him. He says, “My heart within me is broken; I am like a drunken man” (Jeremiah 23:9). His mind is shaken by amazement, and his heart feels crushed by grief and distress. Jeremiah took these matters to heart, and anything that threatened his nation made a deep mark on him.

He is troubled because of the prophets and their sin, their false teaching, and their wicked lives. What grieved him most was hearing them use God’s name and claim that their words came from him. Never had the Lord and the words of his holiness been abused so badly by these men. A faithful soul feels the greatest sorrow when God’s name is dishonored and his holy word is treated carelessly.

Jeremiah is also troubled because of the Lord and his judgments, which are now coming upon the people like a flood. He trembles at the ruin and destruction that come “from the presence of the Lord” and from “the presence of the word of his holiness” (Jeremiah 23:9). That means these judgments come by the power of God’s wrath, just as his holy word had warned. Even those who know God is for them cannot help trembling when they think about those who have God against them.

He also laments the land’s growing wickedness and the signs of God’s displeasure already among them. “The land is full of adulterers” (Jeremiah 23:10), meaning it is full of both spiritual unfaithfulness and bodily immorality. People have turned away from God, and when the fear of him is gone, it is no surprise that they sink into all kinds of shameful sin. They have also dishonored God and themselves by careless and false swearing, and because of that the land mourns.

Both false oath-taking and common swearing are sins that should bring a land to repentance, or else God will make the land mourn under his judgments. Their land is already mourning under famine. The pleasant pastures and dry regions are withering for lack of rain, yet there is still no sign of repentance. Their conduct keeps moving in the same sinful direction, and they refuse to turn from it.

Jeremiah then lays much of the blame on the prophets and priests, especially the prophets. They are both profane, meaning they treat holy things in an unholy way (Jeremiah 23:11). The priests profane the worship they are supposed to lead, and the prophets profane the word they are supposed to deliver. Their whole manner of life is polluted, so it is no wonder the people have become corrupt too.

They also act like hypocrites, though they hide it under sacred language. They carry out their evil plans not only in their own homes and the bad places they visit, but even in God’s house. There, in the temple, the very place where the priests served and the prophets spoke, they were guilty of both idolatry and immorality. Hophni and Phinehas, Eli’s corrupt sons, are a sad example of this (1 Samuel 2:22). God searches his own house, and the more near a sin is to him, the more offensive it is.

Two charges are made against them. First, they taught people to sin by their example. Jeremiah compares them with the prophets of Samaria, the chief city of the ten tribes, which had long ago been destroyed. The prophets of Samaria had the folly of prophesying in Baal’s name, as Ahab’s prophets did, and so they led Israel away from the true God to worship Baal (Jeremiah 23:13). The prophets of Jerusalem did not do that, and they were proud that they did not. They claimed to speak in the name of the true God, unlike Samaria’s prophets who spoke in Baal’s name.

But what good was that, if they corrupted the nation as badly by their immorality as the others had by idolatry? It is a terrible thing that the prophets of Jerusalem used the name of the holy God while living in impurity. They made little of adultery. They used the name of the God of truth, yet they walked in lies. They not only preached falsehood, but in ordinary life no one could trust a word they said. Everything about them was either a joke, a trick, or a scheme.

By living that way, they encouraged sinners to keep going in evil. People would say, “We may do as the prophets do. Why should we be better than our teachers?” In this way, no one turned back from wickedness. Instead, they kept saying they would have peace even while they continued in sin, because their prophets promised it. So Judah and Jerusalem became like Sodom and Gomorrah, cities that were extremely wicked before the Lord, and God regarded them as fit only for destruction, as those cities were destroyed with fire and sulfur.

Second, these prophets encouraged sin through their false messages. They made themselves believe there was no harm and no danger in sin, and they acted accordingly. So it is no surprise that they led others to believe the same thing (Jeremiah 23:16). They spoke a vision from their own heart, something they invented themselves and something that suited their own desires. But it was not from the mouth of the Lord. God never gave it to them, and it did not agree with the law of Moses or with what God had spoken through other prophets.

They told sinners that things would go well with them, even if they kept living in sin (Jeremiah 23:17). Notice who they encouraged: those who despise God, those who treat his authority lightly, and those who think little of his worship and his ways. They also encouraged those who follow their own imagination, idol worshipers, and slaves to their own lusts. People devoted to pleasure will always show contempt for their God.

See how these prophets flattered the people. They should have kept saying, “There is no peace for those who keep living in evil,” and, “Those who despise God will be treated lightly,” and even, “Woe, and many woes, to them.” Instead, they kept saying, “You will have peace; no disaster will come to you.” Worse still, they said that God had said this, so they made him seem to support sin and contradict himself.

This warns us that people who are set on continuing in evil are often left to believe lies from those who promise peace while they refuse to repent. God allows that kind of strong deception as a judgment.

God rejects everything these false prophets said to comfort people in their sins (Jeremiah 23:21). “I did not send these prophets.” They had no mission from God. They were not only not sent for this message, they were never sent for any task from him at all. God says he never gave them the message they claimed to have.

Yet they rushed ahead eagerly. They were bold and careless, speaking without the struggle that often comes with true prophecy. They said to sinners, “You will have peace.” But God asks, “Who has stood in the counsel of the Lord?” In other words, who among them has really consulted God and received his true mind? They spoke with confidence, but they had not checked their message against God’s character, his holiness, and his justice. They had not listened closely to his word or compared their claims with Scripture. If they had, they would never have said such things.

Everyone who speaks for God must test their message by the law and the testimony. Those who hear them must do that too. But which of these prophets, who promised peace, actually did it? Their failure shows they had not stood in God’s counsel or heard his word, as is shown later in Jeremiah 23:22.

If they had truly stood in God’s counsel, they would have used Scripture as their standard. They would have caused God’s people to hear God’s words and would have held closely to them. Since they did not speak by that rule, it is clear there was no light in them.

They would also have made the turning of souls their goal. Their preaching would have aimed to turn people from evil in general and from every specific sinful practice. They would have worked for reform in people’s lives. Their purpose would have been to separate people from their sins. But they never aimed at that. Instead, they encouraged sinners to stay in their sins.

They would also have seen some blessing on their ministry. Our translation gives this sense: if they had stood in God’s counsel, and if the words they preached had truly been God’s words, then they would have turned people from their evil ways. God’s power would have gone with the word to convict sinners. God does bless his own work. Still, this is not a sure rule in every case, because Jeremiah himself, though sent by God, persuaded only a few to turn from evil.

God then threatens to punish these prophets for their wickedness. They promised the people peace, but God shows the folly of that by saying they will have no peace themselves. They were very unfit to guarantee safety to others when evil was already coming on them and they did not see it (Jeremiah 23:12). Because the prophets and priests were profane, their paths would be like slippery ways in the dark.

Those who lead others astray, especially when they know they are doing it, will lose all comfort in their own path. They pretend to show others the way, but they themselves will be in darkness, or at least in a fog. Their sight will fail, and they will have no clear outlook for themselves. They pretend to give others firm assurance, but they will not have firm footing. Their paths will be slippery, so they will not walk with steadiness, safety, or peace.

They try to calm the people with flattering words, but they themselves will be troubled. They will be driven along, either like captives or like people fleeing from pursuit. They will fall on the very road they hoped would save them, and so they will fall into the enemies’ hands. They promise to keep evil away from others, but God will bring evil on them, even the year of their punishment, the time set for calling them to account. That fixed time comes for all who refuse to judge themselves, and it is an evil time. The year of punishment is the year of payback.

God says more: “I will feed them with wormwood,” or poison, something bitter and harmful, “and make them drink waters of gall,” or, as some read it, hemlock juice. See Jeremiah 9:15. It is right that the cup of trembling should be given to them first, because from the prophets of Jerusalem, who should have been examples of godliness and everything honorable, godlessness spread through the land. Nothing destroys a nation more completely than corrupt ministers.

The people are also warned not to trust these false prophets. Though the prophets promised them safety, God’s judgments would certainly break out against them unless they repented (Jeremiah 23:16). “Pay attention to what God says,” the warning is, “and do not listen to these prophets. In the end, you will find that God’s word stands, not theirs. God’s word makes you serious, but they make you empty and foolish. They feed you empty hopes that will fail you in the end.”

They say, “No evil will come upon you.” But hear what God says (Jeremiah 23:19): “A whirlwind from the Lord has gone out in fury.” They say all will be calm and peaceful, but God says a storm is coming, a whirlwind sent by him, and no one can stand before it. It is a whirlwind raised by divine anger. It has gone out from the storehouses of divine judgment, so it will be a severe storm. It will strike heavily, with rain and hail, on the heads of the wicked, and they will not be able to escape or find shelter from it.

This storm will fall on the wicked prophets who deceived the people, and on the wicked people who let themselves be deceived. A horrible storm will be their cup (Psalm 11:6). This sentence is fixed and cannot be reversed (Jeremiah 23:20): “The anger of the Lord will not turn back, because the decree has gone out.”

God will not change his mind, and he will not let his anger be turned aside, until he has carried out his sentence and done what he has planned. When God’s whirlwind comes down from heaven, it does not return without accomplishing what he sent it to do (Isaiah 55:11). People may not think about this now, but in the later days they will understand it fully, with real insight. Those who will not fear God’s warnings will feel his judgment, and then they will fully understand what they now refuse to believe. They will learn, too late, how fearful it is to fall into the hands of a holy and jealous God. Those who will not think ahead will be forced to think when it is too late.

Several things are here set before these false prophets to bring them to conviction, and, if possible, to make them admit their error and confess the harm they have done to God’s people. First, they should remember that although they may fool people, they cannot fool God. Men cannot see through their lies, but God can. In this, God declares his own presence everywhere and his perfect knowledge of all things (Jeremiah 23:23-24). When these prophets told the people that no harm would come, even if they kept living in sin, they were acting on unbelieving ideas. They were acting as if the Lord did not see their sin, could not judge through the dark cloud, and would never call them to account. So they had to be taught the most basic truths of religion and confronted with truths no one can reasonably deny.

God says that even though his throne is set in the heavens and this earth may seem far from him, he is present here in this lower world as well as in the upper world that seems near to him (Jeremiah 23:23). God’s eye is the same on earth as it is in heaven. He searches here just as he searches there (2 Chronicles 16:9). What is in the minds of human beings, whose spirits are covered in flesh, is as plain to him as what is in the minds of angels, those uncovered spirits around his throne. His power is the same on earth among its people as it is in heaven among his armies. For us, nearness and distance make a big difference in what we see and do, but it is not so with God. Darkness and light, near and far, are all alike to him.

God also says that no one can hide from his all-seeing eye, no matter how clever or careful he may be (Jeremiah 23:24). Can anyone hide in secret places on earth so that God will not see him? Can anyone hide his plans and intentions in the secret places of the heart so that God will not see them? No kind of hiding can keep people out of God’s sight or fool his judgment. He is everywhere present. He does not only rule heaven and earth and uphold both by his care, he fills heaven and earth by his own presence (Psalm 139:7-8). No place can hold him in or shut him out.

God applies this truth directly to these prophets, who had become skilled at hiding what they were doing (Jeremiah 23:25-26). He says, “I have heard what the prophets said who prophesy lies in my name.” They thought God was so occupied with the other world that he had no time to notice what was happening here. But God will show them that he knows all their lies and all the false claims they have spread under the cover of divine revelation. What they wanted to flatter people with, they pretended had come to them in a dream, though nothing of the kind had happened. People could not easily disprove that, since a man can claim, “I dreamed this,” and no one can directly challenge him. But God exposed the fraud. Perhaps these false prophets whispered their claims only to their close friends, saying, “I dreamed this and that.” God overheard them. His searching eye tracked every method they used to deceive the people, and he asks, “How long?” Shall I keep bearing with them forever? Or, as some read it, is it really in these prophets’ hearts to keep prophesying lies and the deceit of their own hearts? Will they never see the insult they offer to God, the harm they do to the people, and the judgments they are storing up for themselves?

Second, they should consider that passing off false revelations and claiming that their own thoughts came by divine inspiration was the surest way to bring religion into contempt and make people turn into atheists and unbelievers. That was really their aim, even though they often used God’s name and began everything with, “Thus says the Lord.” Yet God says, “They think to make my people forget my name by their dreams.” They wanted to turn people away from worshiping God, away from his laws and ordinances, and away from the true prophets, just as their fathers had forgotten God’s name for Baal. The great goal of Satan is to make people forget God and everything by which God has made himself known, and he uses many subtle ways to do it. Sometimes he does it by setting up false gods, since people who grow fond of Baal soon forget God’s name. Sometimes he does it by misrepresenting the true God, as if he were just like us. Claims of new revelation can be as dangerous to religion as denying all revelation. False prophets speaking in God’s name may do more damage to true godliness than false prophets speaking in Baal’s name, because people are less on guard against them.

Third, they should think about how great the difference was between their messages and the messages of the true prophets of the Lord (Jeremiah 23:28). The prophet who has a dream, which was the form of inspiration the false prophets most liked to claim, should tell it only as a dream. He should not give it more weight than people give to ordinary dreams, and he should not expect it to be treated as something important. He should not say it came from God, or call foolish dreams divine messages. But the true prophet, the one who has God’s word, must speak that word faithfully and speak it as truth. He must stay close to what God has given him, and then the difference between the false prophets’ dreams and God’s true message will soon be clear. Anyone who claims to have a message from God, whether by dream or by voice, should declare it plainly, and it will soon be seen which message is truly from God and which is not. Those whose spiritual senses are trained can tell the difference. What is the chaff compared with the wheat? The promises of peace these prophets offered were no more like God’s promises than chaff is like wheat. Human ideas are light, empty, and worthless, like chaff blown away by the wind. But God’s word has substance. It is valuable, and it feeds the soul like bread.

Wheat was the main food crop in Canaan, that land often called a valley of vision (Deuteronomy 8:8; Ezekiel 27:17). In the same way, there is as much difference between the empty ideas of people and the pure word of God as there is between chaff and wheat. Jeremiah says later, “Is not my word like fire?” says the Lord (Jeremiah 23:29). Their word is nothing like that. There is no more comparison than there is between painted fire and real fire.

Their teaching is like a false light, a trick light that leads people off the path and toward danger. God’s word is like fire. The law was a fiery law (Deuteronomy 33:2), and Christ says of the gospel, “I have come to bring fire on the earth” (Luke 12:49). Fire acts differently depending on what it touches. It hardens clay, but softens wax. It burns away dross, but cleans gold. In the same way, God’s word gives life to some and brings judgment to others.

God asks the consciences of those who heard this word: “Is not my word like fire? Has it not been so to you?” (Zechariah 1:6). In other words, speak honestly about what you have found. The word of God is also like a hammer that breaks rock into pieces. The proud human heart is like stone. If it will not melt under the fire of God’s word, then it will be shattered by it as by a hammer. Any resistance to the word will one day be broken down.

They also need to remember that God was against them while they kept going on in this way. Three times he says it, in Jeremiah 23:30, Jeremiah 23:31, and Jeremiah 23:32. “I am against the prophets.” They claimed to speak for God and used his name, but in truth they were against him. God sees them as they really are, and he stands against them. How can people be safe, or even at peace, when Almighty God is against them?

While these prophets were promising peace to the people, God was declaring war against them. They are charged here with robbery. “They steal my words from one another.” Some understand this to mean they stole the messages of the true prophets. They copied their sermons and phrases, mixed them with their own words, and sold them like merchants mixing bad goods with good ones. Others think it means they took God’s word from the hearts of the people. Like the wicked one in Jesus’ parable, they stole the good seed of the word (Matthew 13:19). By their tricks, they weakened the authority and power of God’s word in people who were starting to feel convicted by it.

They are also charged with counterfeiting God’s seal. God is against them because they use their tongues as they please and then put God’s name on their own ideas. They say, “This is what the Lord says,” when the message really came from themselves. Some read this as saying they “smooth” their tongues. They speak in a pleasing, flattering way, never rebuking or warning people. Their words are smoother than butter. They use this to win favor and make money, and then they have the boldness and wickedness to make God seem responsible for their lies. What greater insult could there be to the God of truth than to lay the lies of the father of lies at his door?

They are also exposed as common frauds. God says, “I am against them, for they prophesy false dreams.” They claim divine messages, but the things they speak are only their own inventions. That is a terrible kind of deceit. It is no excuse to say, “Let the buyer beware,” or, “If people want to be deceived, let them be deceived.” Yes, the people are wrong to trust blindly and not test what they hear. But it is far worse that the prophets themselves lead God’s people into error by their lies and by their careless behavior. They flatter people in their preaching, making them comfortable in their sins, and they encourage the same sins by the looseness and wickedness of their own lives.

God makes clear that he never sent them, and never commanded them. They are not his messengers, and what they say is not his message. So he rightly withholds his blessing from them. “Therefore they shall not profit this people at all.” The only benefit they aim for is to make people feel at ease, but even that will fail, because God’s judgments will be making people uneasy at the same time. They do not profit the people at all, and more is meant than is said. They do not merely fail to help, they do great harm. Those who corrupt God’s word while claiming to preach it do not build up the church. They do the worst damage possible.