Commentary - Jeremiah 23:16-32

Bird's-eye view

In this portion of Jeremiah, the prophet is functioning as a prophet should, which is to say he is bringing a sharp and necessary word of rebuke from Yahweh against the court prophets of his day. These were the men who were telling the king and the people exactly what they wanted to hear, which is the first and surest sign of a false prophet. The true prophet is not a flatterer. The true prophet does not trim his sails to catch the prevailing winds of public opinion. He stands in the council of God, receives a word from God, and delivers that word, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear.

The central contrast here is between two kinds of words: the word that originates in the vain heart of man, and the Word that proceeds from the mouth of Yahweh. One is chaff, the other is wheat. One is a soothing lie, the other is a saving, shattering truth. Yahweh Himself enters the fray, declaring in no uncertain terms that He is against these prophets of pablum. He did not send them, He did not speak to them, and consequently, they do the people no good whatever. The passage culminates in a magnificent description of the nature of God's true Word: it is like a fire that consumes and a hammer that shatters the rock. This is the kind of preaching that brings true reformation, not the kind that papers over our sins with cheap grace and easy assurances.

Outline

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 16 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into vanity; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of Yahweh."

The command from Yahweh is direct and unequivocal: stop listening. When the pulpit becomes a source of poison, the first act of spiritual self-preservation is to turn it off. God does not require His people to sit meekly under teaching that contradicts His revealed will. These prophets are peddling vanity, which means emptiness, a puff of smoke. Their words are not just wrong; they are worthless. And the source of this worthless message is not some demonic oracle, but rather something much more common and insidious: "their own heart." They have mistaken their own aspirations, their own wishful thinking, their own political calculations for the very Word of God. This is the perennial temptation of preachers, to preach a message that originates with us instead of one that is delivered to us. A true sermon is an errand. A false sermon is an invention.

v. 17 They keep saying to those who spurn Me, ‘Yahweh has said, “You will have peace” ’; And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say, ‘Evil will not come upon you.’

Here is the content of their vain message: unconditional peace and security. Notice to whom they are preaching this message. It is to "those who spurn Me" and to "everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart." They are confirming the ungodly in their ungodliness. This is the ministry of affirmation, and it is a damnable ministry. They are taking the name of Yahweh in vain, attaching His authority to a lie. The true gospel offers peace, but it is a peace that comes through repentance and faith. The false gospel preached by these prophets offers peace as a covering for sin, not a cleansing from it. They tell the man driving toward the cliff that all is well, and that there are no cliffs anyway. This is not pastoral care; it is pastoral malpractice of the highest order.

v. 18 But who has stood in the council of Yahweh, That he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and heard?

This is a rhetorical question, and the implied answer is "none of these charlatans." The "council of Yahweh" is a picture of the heavenly court, where God deliberates and decrees. A true prophet is one who has been granted access, as it were, to this council. He has been privy to the decisions of the King. He doesn't invent his message; he receives it. He is an ambassador, not a freelance philosopher. The false prophets have not been in that council. They have been in the back rooms of the palace, or in the echo chamber of their own imaginations. The question exposes their central failure: they have not truly listened to God. And because they have not heard from God, they have nothing of substance to say to the people.

v. 19-20 Behold, the storm of Yahweh has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling storm; It will whirl down on the head of the wicked. The anger of Yahweh will not turn back Until He has done and established the purposes of His heart; In the last days you will clearly understand it.

In stark contrast to the false prophets' message of "peace, peace," the true word from Yahweh's council is a storm of wrath. This is not a summer shower; it is a "whirling storm," a tornado of divine judgment. And it has a specific target: "the head of the wicked." God's judgment is not arbitrary. It is the just and settled response to sin. The false prophets were saying "evil will not come," but God says His anger "will not turn back" until His purposes are accomplished. God is not fickle. His decrees are established, and His justice will be done. The final line is a chilling promise: "In the last days you will clearly understand it." There is a day of reckoning coming when all the fuzzy thinking and sentimental theology will be blown away. On that day, the reality of God's wrath will be undeniable. The fog of our self-deception will be burned off by the rising sun of His judgment.

v. 21 I did not send these prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied.

Here God states the problem with the utmost clarity. The issue is one of authorization. These men are self-appointed. They have a zeal for the ministry, you might say, "they ran", but it is a zeal without a commission. God says, "I did not send them." A man may have a divinity degree, a pulpit, and a congregation, but if God has not sent him, he is not a minister of Christ. He is a trespasser. And because God did not send them, He "did not speak to them." They are speaking, to be sure. They are prophesying. But they are speaking their own words, not His. The true preacher is gripped by a divine necessity. He preaches because he has been sent, because a word has been entrusted to him. The false prophet runs because he is ambitious, or because he likes the sound of his own voice.

v. 22 But if they had stood in My council, Then they would have caused My words to be heard by My people And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds.

This verse is crucial. It shows us the purpose and effect of true preaching. Had these men actually been in God's council, two things would have followed. First, they would have preached God's words, not their own. The message would have been derivative, not original. Second, the effect of that preaching would have been repentance. True preaching, the proclamation of God's actual words, has the power to turn people from their evil ways. This is the acid test. Does the preaching in a church lead to holiness? Does it result in people forsaking their sins? Or does it simply make them feel comfortable in their sins? The false prophets were profiting no one; their ministry was a net loss. A true ministry, because it deals in the true words of God, produces true fruit: repentance and righteousness.

v. 23-24 “Am I a God who is near,” declares Yahweh, “And not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares Yahweh. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares Yahweh.

The false prophets operate with a truncated view of God. They have a domesticated deity, a god who is conveniently near when they want to claim his authority, but conveniently far off when it comes to accountability. But Yahweh is not such a god. He is both transcendent ("far off") and immanent ("near"). He fills the heavens and the earth. There is no corner of the universe, and no corner of the human heart, that is outside His jurisdiction and His gaze. The sinner thinks he can hide his deeds in secret, and the false prophet thinks he can hide his motives in the recesses of his own heart. But God sees all. His omnipresence and His omniscience mean that there is no escape. This is a terrifying truth for the wicked, but a profound comfort for the righteous. The God who sees all is the God who can save to the uttermost.

v. 25-27 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy a lie in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy a lie, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they recount to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?

God now turns to a specific method of the false prophets: the appeal to dreams. They claim to have a direct, private revelation from God. But God says He has "heard" them, and what He has heard is a "lie." Their dreams are not divine revelations; they are the "deception of their own heart." The heart is a factory of idols, and it is also a factory of deceitful dreams. The ultimate effect of this dream-based ministry is catastrophic: it makes the people "forget My name." By substituting their subjective experiences for God's objective Word, they were leading the people into the same kind of apostasy as their fathers, who forgot Yahweh for Baal. A low view of Scripture always leads to a low view of God. When the Word is neglected, the name of God is forgotten, and idolatry is the inevitable result.

v. 28 The prophet who has a dream may recount his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares Yahweh.

God here draws a sharp, non-negotiable distinction. Let the dreamers tell their dreams. But the man who has God's Word has a different, higher calling: to speak that Word faithfully, in truth. Then comes the memorable analogy. The dreams of the false prophets are straw, chaff. God's Word is grain, wheat. One is empty, light, worthless, fit only to be blown away or burned. The other is solid, weighty, life-giving. The contrast is absolute. There is no common ground between them. You cannot mix them. A church can be fed on the wheat of God's Word, or it can be starved on the chaff of human invention. There is no third way.

v. 29 “Is not My word like fire?” declares Yahweh, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

This is one of the most powerful descriptions of the Word of God in all of Scripture. God's Word is not a collection of gentle suggestions or pious platitudes. It is a dynamic, powerful, and active agent. It is like fire. Fire consumes, purifies, illuminates, and warms. It burns away the dross and refines the gold. It exposes the darkness. It is also like a hammer that shatters rock. The human heart can be as hard as granite, stubborn and resistant to God. But the Word of God is the instrument He uses to break that hardness. It is the jackhammer of God. The preaching of the law crushes our self-righteousness, and the preaching of the gospel breaks our hearts with the kindness of God. This is what was missing from the ministry of the false prophets. Their words were soft pillows for hard hearts. God's Word is a hard hammer for hard hearts, meant to make them soft.

v. 30-32 Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares Yahweh, “who steal My words from each other. Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares Yahweh, “who take their tongues and declare, ‘Yahweh declares.’ Behold, I am against those who have prophesied lying dreams,” declares Yahweh, “and who recounted them and led My people astray by their lying and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them, and I did not command them, and they do not furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares Yahweh.

The passage concludes with a threefold declaration of God's opposition to these men. He says "I am against" them three times. First, He is against them because they "steal My words from each other." This likely means they were simply repeating the popular, ear-tickling clichés of the day. Their sermons were a pastiche of plagiarized platitudes. Second, He is against them because they "take their tongues and declare, 'Yahweh declares.'" They were using the prophetic formula to give their own opinions a divine authority they did not possess. This is a high-handed sin. Third, He is against them because their ministry of "lying dreams" and "reckless boasting" leads the people astray. And the final verdict is damning. Because God did not send or command them, "they do not furnish this people the slightest benefit." Their ministry is utterly useless. It is worse than useless; it is actively harmful. It is a spiritual Ponzi scheme that leaves the people bankrupt. This is God's settled judgment on all ministries that are not grounded in His authoritative, powerful, and all-sufficient Word.