Jeremiah (1-31) 23:25 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 23:25

Comments

The false prophets are spoken to as those who know that they are prophesying lies. They know that God has not spoken through them. They have no sense that they have been given a message from above, a message which they did not produce themselves. They may have tried to convince themselves otherwise, but are only aware of the workings of their own minds, and they may not even believe that it is possible to receive a message from God, never having done so in reality. Perhaps they judge the true prophets by themselves, and assess that all prophecy is a charade. But they know, or they knew originally, in their own case that this is not real. Even if they have dreamed a particularly vivid dream, they know they have unjustifiably elevated them to the status of prophecy. It is too easy for them to deceive themselves since they want to believe that they have said something significant.‘How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies?’ It was sin the first time they did it, and conscience resisted, but they pushed through and kept going and every time they repeat the process they add to their record of sin. The heart of man is deceitful, and it is hard to follow its manoeuvres, but God is not taken in however elaborate is the lie. Not only does he see all that goes on in the secret of our hearts, but he understands it perfectly. There is no deceit that can shut him out or blind his eyes.‘Which 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.’ The mystery of dreams is appealed to by these prophets, because they think they will convince people that God has spoken through their dreams. They claim their own dreams as the source of their prophecies, because they think the nobody will be able to discern that they are lying when the source is so obscure. Who can understand his own dreams fully, let alone the dreams of another? But where does all this lead? It leads to idolatry, and it leads rapidly away from the pure worship of the true God. In the case of Judah it led to Baal worship.

Application

The downgrade of prophecy in our day has come about because the Bible’s teaching on the purpose of the gifts has been ignored. Now that Scripture is complete, God has withdrawn the gift of prophecy. God does not speak to us directly today, but through his word. It contains all that we need to know, and because it is complete we are delivered from the problem of having to handle claims of fresh revelation, which in fact contradicts what has gone before. The possession of God’s complete word, once delivered to the saints, is better than a stream of constant fresh revelations, each of which needs to be tested. The church has agreed upon the contents of the word of God and has turned its attention to studying all that is in it. Nevertheless prophets have arisen, claiming authority for what they say. For this reason we can safely discount all claims to new revelation. But even without this, as with the false prophets that Jeremiah speaks of, these prophets speak out of their own imaginations, and they do not pass the test of consistency with what has gone before. They are surrounded by a following of those whose credibility knows no bounds and who are led from one implausible notion to another.

Questions

Today dreams are at best the efforts of the mind to resolve thoughts and situations that have preoccupied waking hours. They are a God-given mechanism for the mind to warn of situations to be avoided, and to set out are longings and perplexities and to show us some of our worst tendencies and fears. But they are not inspired; they are not a communication from God. Even in days when God’s word was not yet complete and he still spoke to the prophets, not every dream was a message from the Lord. God did speak through dreams, as to Pharoah or to Nebuchadnezzar, but the dreams came with overwhelming force, that carried with them a sense that God had spoken, that left no peace until an interpretation was provided. Today dreams may even have religious content if the matter of religion is much on the mind of the person, but that does not mean they are divine communication. The Scripture is complete and God says to us all he needs to say through the inspired word. There is no private communication.

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Jeremiah (1-31) 23:25 Commentary and Bible Study