Commentary - Jeremiah 14:13-16

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, Jeremiah finds himself caught between a rebellious people and a righteous God. He has been interceding for Judah, but God has made it clear that judgment is coming. The people, however, are not listening to Jeremiah. They are listening to a different set of prophets, men who are telling them exactly what they want to hear. This sets up a direct confrontation, not just between Jeremiah and the false prophets, but between the Word of God and the word of man. God's response is swift and terrifying. He unmasks the false prophets for what they are, declares their grisly end, and pronounces the same judgment upon the people who so eagerly listened to their lies. This is a stark lesson on the mortal danger of preferring comforting lies to hard truths.

The core of the issue is a rejection of God's authority. The false prophets speak in God's name, but without His commission. They manufacture their own message, a soothing balm of "peace, peace" when there is no peace. The people love to have it so, because it allows them to continue in their sin without the troublesome prick of conscience. But God will not be mocked. The judgment He pronounces is a form of poetic justice, an eye for an eye. The prophets who denied the sword and famine will die by the sword and famine. The people who consumed their lies will be consumed by the very disasters they were told would never come. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God, especially after He has warned you repeatedly.

Outline

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 13 But, “Ah, Lord Yahweh!” I said, “Behold, the prophets are saying to them, ‘You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you true peace in this place.’ ”

Jeremiah begins with an exclamation of distress. "Ah, Lord Yahweh!" This is not the cry of a man who is surprised by the people's unbelief, but rather one who is burdened by it. He is, in effect, telling God the problem. "Here is what I am up against." The people are not listening to his warnings of doom because another, more pleasant message is being preached. Notice the direct contradiction. Jeremiah preaches sword and famine; they preach the opposite. They promise "true peace," or as the Hebrew has it, a "peace of truth" (shalom emeth). This is a devilish counterfeit. They are using the language of covenant blessing to mask a reality of covenant curse. Satan does not always show up with horns and a pitchfork. Often, he comes as an angel of light, speaking words that are almost right, but are lethally wrong. The false prophets are not just optimistic; they are liars, and their promise of peace is a deadly anesthetic for a soul dying of sin.

v. 14 Then Yahweh said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a vision of lies, divination, futility, and the deception of their own hearts.

God's response is immediate and categorical. He does not mince words. First, He identifies the problem: they are "prophesying lies in My name." This is the pinnacle of arrogance and blasphemy. They are attaching God's holy name to their tawdry inventions. God then issues a threefold denial of their authority: "I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them." This covers all the bases. They have no commission, no command, and no content from God. Their ministry is entirely fraudulent. So where does their message come from? God tells us. It is a "vision of lies," meaning it has the appearance of revelation but is empty. It is "divination," which is pagan sorcery, an attempt to manipulate the future. It is "futility," a worthless thing, a nothing. And at the bottom of it all, it is "the deception of their own hearts." This is crucial. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Their lies are not just a professional failing; they are the overflow of a corrupt and deceitful heart. They are preaching the message their own sinful hearts want to hear, and they are projecting it onto God.

v. 15 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them, yet they keep saying, ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’, by that sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end!

Here comes the sentence, introduced with the solemn "Therefore thus says Yahweh." Judgment is always rooted in God's character and His prior warnings. God repeats the charge: they are prophesying in His name without His authority, and their message is a persistent denial of His coming judgment. The punishment fits the crime with a terrible precision. The very instruments of judgment they denied will be the instruments of their own destruction. "By that sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end!" God's justice is not arbitrary. He is a God of order, and His judgments often have a poetic and instructive quality. The men who promised a false peace will be consumed by the reality of a true war. They will eat the fruit of their own words. This is a terrifying warning to anyone who would dare to handle the Word of God deceitfully. God does not take it lightly when His name is used to peddle lies.

v. 16 The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them, neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour out their own evil on them.

The judgment is not limited to the false prophets. The people who listened to them, who paid them, who preferred their lies to Jeremiah's truth, will share their fate. Shared sin leads to shared judgment. They will be "thrown out into the streets," a picture of utter degradation and chaos. The reason is the same: "famine and the sword." And the horror is compounded by the detail that "there will be no one to bury them." In the ancient world, a lack of burial was a sign of the deepest shame and curse. The judgment is comprehensive, touching them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. The covenantal curses are coming home to roost. The final clause explains the principle behind it all: "for I will pour out their own evil on them." This is not an external, arbitrary punishment. God is simply giving them what they have chosen. They sowed wickedness, and they will reap a harvest of destruction. Their evil, which they embraced and loved, will become the very substance of their judgment. God turns their sin back upon their own heads. This is the final answer to those who think they can listen to lies and suffer no consequences. The consumer of lies is just as culpable as the producer.

Application

We live in an age awash with false prophets. They may not stand on street corners in Jerusalem, but they occupy pulpits, write bestselling books, and fill the airwaves with their smooth, ear-tickling messages. They still promise peace and prosperity when the Bible warns of judgment. They still preach a god who is all affirmation and no holiness, a gospel that is all benefits and no repentance.

This passage from Jeremiah is a bucket of ice water for the modern church. It forces us to ask some hard questions. Whose report are we believing? Are we drawn to messages that comfort us in our sin, or to the true Word of God that convicts us of our sin and points us to Christ? It is a fatal error to assume that sincerity is a substitute for truth. These false prophets were likely very sincere, deceived by their own hearts. But their sincerity did not save them from the sword.

The principle of judgment here is also a principle of grace. Just as God poured out their own evil on the unrepentant, so He poured out our evil on His own Son at the cross. The judgment we deserved fell on Him. The sword of God's wrath that should have consumed us, consumed Him instead. This is the great exchange of the gospel. And because of this, for those who are in Christ, there is a true peace, a "peace of truth," that the world cannot give and cannot take away. But this peace is found only on the other side of repentance. We must first agree with God's true prophet, who tells us of the sword and famine our sins deserve, before we can receive the peace that was purchased by the blood of His Son.