Jeremiah 23:15-17 – Be careful with the message we hear

In Jeremiah 23:13-14, we saw how God compared the prophets in Judah with those in Samaria. Both were equally bad. The people of Judah were led not profanity because the prophets of Judah had desecrated their calling. They led compromising lives by committing adultery and walking in falsehood, hence they could not make any positive impact on the people. Emulating the false prophets, the behavior of the people  had become so horrendous that God even liken them to the wicked Sodom and Gomorrah which He had destroyed.

In Jeremiah 23:15, God warned the prophets of Jerusalem of a bleak future. Their profane behavior had encouraged Judah to walk in profanity. Instead of being a nation that would reflect God’s holiness and righteousness, Judah’s profanity was now polluting the land. For being the channel that led the nation into their sacrilegious behavior, the false prophets deserved to eat “wormwood” and drink “poisonous water.” In other words, they would be included in the coming divine judgment.     

So Jeremiah 23:16-17 then warned the people not to listen to those false prophets. Reasons were given why they should not listen to false prophets. Firstly,  their messages would lead the people into futility. Secondly, the source of their message could not be from God. They came from their vain imagination. Thirdly, they falsely proclaimed a message of peace insisting that calamity would not come upon them. so they enticed those recalcitrant Judean into a false hope, encouraging them to walk in their stubbornness instead of repenting.

Just as the false prophets of Judah were harming the people of God then, the false prophets of today are also bringing harm to the believer’s community. They also claim to speak for God but often time they are speaking from their imagination. Instead of drawing the people nearer to God, many of their hedonistic messages encourage the people to focus on themselves. Their subjects will inadvertently center on increasing one’s financial wealth and increasing luxurious and pleasurable living. The best way to ascertain whether a message proclaim is truly from God is to check the message with an accurate interpretation of Scripture. They also learn to look at the character and lifestyle of those purported prophets.  Remember the warning of our Lord Jesus in  Matthew 7:15-16, He said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.”