For I have not sent them, saith Jehovah, yet they prophesy falsely in my name; in order that I should drive you out, and that ye should perish, ye, and the prophets who prophesy unto you.
God tells Judah why they must not trust the reassuring voices around them. He never sent the men who promised that Babylon's yoke would soon lift. The verse ties two fates together. The people are driven out, and the prophets who comforted them perish with them.
The false prophets were not just over-optimistic. They were arguing against a decree from the Maker of the world. God sent it to their kings through foreign messengers.
God sends a fresh message to the nations on this occasion. It commands them to take the yoke of submission to the king of Babylon. The foreign messengers or ambassadors are to carry the word to their respective lords: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel. Say this to your masters: I have made the earth, and the people and animals on it, by My great power and My outstretched arm. I give it to whomever it seems right to Me. And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant."
"I have not sent them" is the whole charge in four words. A prophet's authority comes from God sending him. These men supplied their own.
Instead of standing in the council of God and causing His people to hear His Word (Jer. 23:22), they go out according to their own thoughts. That unfaithfulness is dangerous. It twists, or even falsifies, the message of God's Word by bringing in one's own opinions. "I did not send these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied" (Jer. 23:21).
The false message was the popular one. Its appeal says as much about the hearers as about the speakers.
It was more popular to prophesy smooth things and deceits. Nothing is so dear to the human heart as having God's approval for its own desires. That is why prophets who said, "Thus says the Lord," when the Lord had not spoken, were so popular. We should not suppose that these prophets were always inventing lies. But they corrupted the word of God and made it suit man's taste (2 Cor. 2:17). They had to copy the real prophets in many of their expressions. Yet in the end they only produced their own empty speculations.
The lie carried God's own name. The next chapter gives a case of it, in the prophet Hananiah.
In Jeremiah 28 Hananiah speaks against this, and he does so with "thus says the Lord" (v. 11) on his lips. To do such a solemn thing, however pious and optimistic it might sound, was to speak "revolt against the Lord" (v. 16). God had made Nebuchadnezzar His servant and given him power and rule. So Hananiah's doom was sealed and carried out that same year (Jer. 28:17)! Hananiah falsely fixed two years for the breaking of Babylon's yoke; God fixed seventy.
The verse does not stop at the prophets. Those who believed them share the same end.
When the people of God go wrong, there is always the spirit of false prophecy which would make them believe that all goes well. Men in authority love not being discouraged: see the opposition to Jeremiah in Jerusalem. The false prophet helps them in this. He works to stop the conscience from turning back to God. God would use chastening to bring the conscience into direct contact with Him. The spirit of falsehood would persuade them that they are very happy. Those who call them blessed are the misleaders. Those who are so called, and who believe them, are swallowed up.
Jeremiah took the same demand to the king and the priests. One writer applies the scene to our own day.
He speaks to the king and to the priests and calls them to submit to the new government established with Nebuchadnezzar. He urges them not to believe the lying prophets, who promised smooth things with their false, optimistic message. Every message they uttered contradicted the Word of God. It is the same in the Christian world today.
- Sent. A prophet needs one credential: God sent him. These men ran when God had not sent them, and spoke when He had not spoken.
- Smooth. So they supplied what people wanted. The message that costs nothing is always the popular one.
- Stolen. They stamped God's name on their own thoughts. That is why opposing His decree counted as revolt against Him.
- Swallowed. The lie shelters no one who believes it. Those the misleaders call blessed are swallowed up with them.
- Still. The pattern holds now. Any message that contradicts God's Word, however hopeful it sounds, meets the same verdict.
And I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith Jehovah Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of Jehovah's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon; for they prophesy falsehood unto you.
Jeremiah has been carrying a wooden yoke on his neck as a sign that Judah must submit to Babylon. Now he warns the priests about the temple vessels already taken to Babylon, because other prophets were promising their quick return in God's name.
Jeremiah aims this warning at the men who ran the temple worship.
Jeremiah also speaks to the priests — the men responsible for the religious life of the people. He warns them above all about "the vessels of the Lord's house" (27:16). Contrary to the words of the false prophets, these vessels would not yet be brought back from Babylon. Instead, in time the vessels still left in the temple would be carried away too. Such a sad outlook should have brought the men in charge of God's worship to repentance. But they did not care.
The popular message ran against God's own word. And God's answer went further than a denial.
He urges them not to believe the lying prophets, who promised smooth things with their false, hopeful message. Every message they spoke contradicted the Word of God. It is the same in the Christian world today. Critics who trust human reason offer a bright view of our own age that Scripture never supports. It contradicts everything God has made known in the prophetic Word. Part of the vessels from the temple had been carried away. The false prophets said that these vessels would shortly be returned. The Lord sweeps this lying message away. Through His prophet He reveals that the remaining vessels will go to Babylon too.
The loss of the vessels mattered more to God than the size of the deportation that carried them off.
This matter of the vessels is extremely important. There had been three deportations... The last of these three was the most significant one in terms of the damage done. The temple was burnt, and very large numbers led captive. But the 70 years of captivity start from the first deportation — the one we would call minor. Why was this first one the important one in God's eyes? Well, it's because of the vessels. Nebuchadnezzar took the vessels of the Temple to Babylon, and even put them in the house of his idols. Such a thing had never happened before.
The claim in this verse follows a pattern that repeats whenever God's people have gone wrong.
False prophecy always has one mark: in a day of evil it promises prosperity. When the people of God have departed from Him, false prophets prophesy smooth things. They have glowing dreams of progress, and of the Lord's work and blessing spreading further. They always testify that great and pleasant things are coming. The true prophet does the opposite. In a day of evil he warns that the Lord is coming to judge the ungodly.
Such a message does more than tell a lie. It works on the conscience, and keeps the cure out of reach.
When the people of God go wrong, a spirit of false prophecy always rises to make them believe that all is well. Men in authority love to hear nothing that discourages them. Look at the opposition Jeremiah met in Jerusalem. The false prophet helps them in this. He keeps the conscience from turning back to God, who would use chastening to bring that conscience into direct contact with Him.
The warning left one real choice: obey, or hurry on the ruin. The men who promised otherwise had their own interests to serve.
To be stubborn and refuse God's word of warning is the sure road to ruin. That word then comes true in our own misery and destruction. To obey is better than sacrifice in the worst of times as much as in the best. But the prophets that men choose say what suits their masters' wishes and their own immediate interests. They only hurry on the evil they claim to guard against, and their promised safety is as hollow as it is loud.
- Vessels. Nebuchadnezzar put God's holy vessels in the house of his idols — something never done before. God counted the seventy years of captivity from that day.
- Lie. The promised quick return contradicted the Word of God. The vessels still in the temple would follow the rest to Babylon.
- Pattern. In a day of evil, false prophecy always promises prosperity. The true prophet warns instead.
- Effect. A smooth message works on the conscience. It keeps people from turning back to God, who was using the chastening to draw them to Himself.
- Choice. The warning called for repentance. Refusing it only hurried on the ruin the false prophets said would never come.