CHAPTER 23

(599 B.C.)

WOE TO FAITHLESS PASTORS

¹Woe be unto the Pastors who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture! says the LORD. (This Chapter is actually divided into two parts, with the first eight Verses dealing with the faithless civil leaders, i.e., kings [Pastors], and the remainder of the Chapter dealing with the faithless Prophets.)

²Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the Pastors who feed My People; You have scattered My flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, says the LORD. (The LORD God of Israel against the Pastors, refers to the Lord as the Great Shepherd of Israel, with the kings serving as under-shepherds. Because of their sins, He sets Himself against these Pastors, because they did not feed My People.)

RESTORATION UNDER THE MESSIAH

³And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. (Verses 3 through 8 proclaim the regathering of all Israel. In these Verses, the Holy Spirit forges ahead even unto the coming Kingdom Age, when these great Prophecies will then be fulfilled.)

⁴And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, says the LORD. (Shepherds are the same as the Pastors of Verse 1.)

⁵Behold, the days come, sa ys the LORD, that I will raise unto David a Righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the Earth. (This Righteous Branch is the Messiah. The justice and benevolence of His Rule here stand in contrast to the injustice and selfishness of that of the four kings who succeeded Godly king Josiah.

The beautiful title, The Branch, is given to Him four times in the Old Testament, thus foreshadowing the four Gospels and the necessity that there should be four: the Branch, the King [Matthew]; the Branch, the Servant [Mark]; the Branch, the Man [Luke]; and the Branch, Jehovah [John].)

⁶In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His Name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. (In His days, refers to the days of the Messiah, which will be the Millennial Reign. Judah shall be saved, is in contrast to Judah now being lost!)

⁷Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD lives, which brought up the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt (during the coming Kingdom Age, the Children of Israel will then exclaim the great Deliverance by Christ from the Antichrist);

⁸But, The LORD lives, Who brought up and Who led the seed of the House of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land. (The north country contains most of the countries where Israel wandered as outcasts for nearly 2,000 years. At the beginning of the Kingdom Age, all Jews will come from these countries to the Land of Israel.)

FALSE PROPHETS

⁹My heart within me is broken because of the Prophets; 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 the words of His Holiness. (As Verses 1 and 2 concerned themselves with the kings of Judah, Verses 9 through 40 concern the false prophets.)

¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. (For the land is full of adulterers, refers to idolaters. While no doubt immorality was rampant, still, the idolatry was even worse, which the Lord describes as adultery, i.e., spiritual adultery [Rom. 7:1-4].

For because of swearing the land mourns, refers to idol worship. It actually means because of the curse. Beside the original curse on the Earth, as described in Gen. 3:17, the Holy Spirit describes a further deepening of the curse because of added sin.)

¹¹For both Prophet and Priest are profane; ye s, in My House have I found their wickedness, says the LORD. (The material misery and moral corruption which resulted from the teaching of these false prophets appear in the statement that it did not produce that which was right and that it occasioned a physical drought. The Priests, it seems, set up idols even in the Temple.)

¹²Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, says the LORD. (Their way refers to their fashionable religion. The year of their visitation, pertains to the punishment that is to be brought by Nebuchadnezzar.)

¹³And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused My People Israel to err. (The Holy Spirit through Jeremiah now reverts back well over 100 years to the fall of Samaria. They had their prophets as well!

Incidentally, the Hebrew name for Baal was Baal, which means husband. Therefore, in Israels mind, they were still worshipping Jehovah, Whom they called Husband, but they had substituted some figure [idol] that could be touched, held, and felt. In fact, the Baal cults affected and challenged the worship of Jehovah throughout Israelite history.)

¹⁴I have seen also in the Prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto Me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. (The guilt of the Prophets of Jerusalem is declared to be greater than that of the Prophets of Samaria. Their adultery, as stated, was idol worship; consequently, the Lord placed all of them in the same status as Sodom and Gomorrah. There could be no worse description!)

¹⁵Therefore thus says the LORD of Hosts concerning the Prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the Prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. (The moral condition of a nation results from the character of the spiritual teaching given to it. In this Scripture, Judgment is guaranteed to all who claim to be preaching the Word of God but who, in reality, are not!)

¹⁶Thus says the LORD of Hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the Prophets who prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. (The mouth of the LORD refers to Inspiration. As false prophets wrecked the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, likewise, false prophets are destroying the Church in America, as well!)

¹⁷They say still unto them who despise Me, The LORD has said, You shall have peace; and they say unto everyone who walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. (These individuals, even on the eve of destruction, preached a false feel-good gospel which promoted self-esteem.)

¹⁸For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and heard His Word? who has marked His Word, and heard it? (For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, actually refers back to Verse 16. This Verse gives the reason the false prophets were not to be believed. They did not have the Mind of the Lord and, therefore, were not given anything from the Lord; however, they said what the people wanted to hear and, therefore, they were paid well!)

¹⁹Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. (The false prophets were announcing peace and prosperity, while the Lord through Jeremiah spoke of the soon-to-come whirlwind. Furthermore, it was a whirlwind of the LORD and it had already begun in fury.

The wicked addressed here not only included the false prophets, but all who listened to them.)

²⁰The anger of the LORD shall not return, until He have executed, and till He have performed the thoughts of His heart: in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly. (The latter days mentioned here refer to some years later, with the exiles in Babylon, who would then understand perfectly that Jeremiah had preached the Truth from the Mouth of the Lord, and that his opponents had preached falsehood out of the imagination of their own hearts.

As well, it refers to Israel, which in the last days will accept the false messiah, the Antichrist, and then realize they have been deceived.

This Verse also portrays God as an emotional Being exhibiting anger and having thoughts. Such shows an active involvement in the everyday lives of His People. Sin, and upon the refusal to repent, and even after repeated warnings, brings about the anger of the LORD.

Thoughts of His Heart, refers to the Word of God.)

²¹I have not sent these Prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. (That which angered Him was that they prophesied in His Name when, in reality, He had not sent them or spoken to them.)

²²But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My People to hear My Words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. (The idea of this Verse is that at least some of these Prophets had once known God and had been truly called by Him; however, for whatever reason, they had lost their way!)

²³Am I a God at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off? (The impossibility of false teachers hiding themselves and their doctrines from God is declared in Verses 23 through 27. The implication of this Verse is that God is always at hand, meaning that He notes all that is being done, whether good or bad. As well, He does so whether near or far.)

²⁴Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the LORD. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth? says the LORD. (This Verse proclaims the Omnipresence of God. In other words, He is everywhere and, thereby, sees everything.)

²⁵I have heard what the prophets said, who prophesy lies in My Name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. (The Prophet of Verse 18 is Gods Prophet in contrast with mans prophet of Verse 25; and the dream of Verse 28, as opposed to that of Verse 25.)

²⁶How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? ye s, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart (it is certain that these Prophecies by Jeremiah concerning these false prophets were not met with approbation, but rather with anger! Especially that the Holy Spirit through the Prophet called them liars!);

²⁷Which think to cause My People to forget My Name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten My Name for Baal. (As the people of Israel called the Lord Master or Husband and called Baal by the same name, they no longer could distinguish between the two. Consequently, in modern religion, the Catholic Church equates Mary with the Lord, while too many of their Protestant counterparts equate their religious denominations with the Lord.)

²⁸The 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. (This Verse contrasts the two prophets: false and true. The former one has a false dream, which is likened to chaff, while the latter has Gods Word, which is likened to wheat.)

²⁹Is not My Word like as a fire? sa ys the LORD; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? (In this Passage, the Word of God is likened to a fire and a hammer; a fire to burn, a hammer to break. Thus, the doctrine preached reveals the truth or falseness of the Preacher. Preaching which leaves out or denies the Wrath to come is false; and such a Preacher is false.)

³⁰Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal My Words every one from his neighbour. (The words, Behold, I am against, respecting these false prophets, are repeated three times in as many Verses. The thrice-repeated admonition proclaims the just anger of God, which will ultimately result in their destruction.

Who steal My Words, every one from his neighbor, refers to them stealing Jeremiahs methods. They listened greedily to the discourses of the true Prophet, not with a view to spiritual profit, but to making their own utterances more effective.)

³¹Behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who use their tongues, and say, He says. (In other words, they preface their prophecies with Thus says the LORD, adopting the same forms as the true Prophet, but to them only forms.)

³²Behold, I am against them who prophesy false dreams, says the LORD, and do tell them, and cause My People to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the LORD. (This Passage proclaims to us the fact of a plethora of false prophets attempting to countermand the true Prophecies of Jeremiah.

By their lightness, implies arrogance and boastfulness.)

³³And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? you shall then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, says the LORD.

³⁴And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house. (They were not content to merely reject the Message, they must mock it! However, they would rue the day that they did this!)

³⁵Thus shall you say everyone to his neighbour, and everyone to his brother, What has the LORD answered? and, What has the LORD spoken? (This Verse proclaims the Holy Spirit through Jeremiah patiently explaining to the people that their mocking the Word of the Lord by saying, The burden of the LORD, was placing them in very dangerous circumstances. While it was satisfactory for them to ask the questions, they must never do so in a mocking tone, which they evidently were doing!)

³⁶And the burden of the LORD shall you mention no more: for every mans word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the Words of the Living God, of the LORD of Hosts our God. (By the people using the phrase, The burden of the LORD, and doing so in a mocking tone, they were making light of Jeremiahs Prophecies. He was speaking of coming war and judgment, while they were speaking of peace and prosperity; therefore, they made a joke of what he was saying.)

³⁷Thus shall you say to the prophet, What has the LORD answered you? and, What has the LORD spoken? (The Holy Spirit comes back to the same admonishment of Verse 35, imploring the people to hear what the Lord says, and not what these false prophets say! As well, only Jeremiah had the Word of the Lord.)

³⁸But since you say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus sa ys the LORD; Because you say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of the LORD (But since you say, implies that they ignored the admonishment of the Lord and continued to mock!);

³⁹Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of My Presence. (The pronoun I is emphatic, emphasizing the solemnity of the moment! I will utterly forget you, means He will utterly remove them. The casting out was so complete that not only were they taken away and the city totally destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, but the Lord also departed, as seen by the Prophet Ezekiel [Ezek: 11:23], who incidentally was prophesying in Babylonia.)

⁴⁰And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten. (This everlasting reproach rested upon Israel until the coming of the Messiah and, due to their rejection of Him, deepened even more! They have suffered this everlasting reproach now for some 2,500 years. Sadly, their very name is a perpetual shame.)