Trinity
8
Jer
23:16-29
7/21/28
God
called Jeremiah to be a prophet at the end of the seventh century B.C. He said to the Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew
you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a
prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah replied that he was only a
youth and did not know how to speak. But God said to him, “Do not say, ‘I am
only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I
command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you
to deliver you, declares the LORD.”
God’s command
not to be afraid signaled that Jeremiah’s job would not be easy. He told the prophet, “Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you
before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an
iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings
of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land.”
Jeremiah’s ministry would be hard because the nation of
Judah had turned away from Yahweh. They
were worshipping false gods. Judah had even brought false gods into
the temple in Jerusalem. Yahweh told Jeremiah, “And I will declare my judgments
against them, for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made
offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.”
It wasn’t just that the people were
worshipping false gods. They were acting
in sinful ways that broke God’s law – the Torah that he had given them at Mt.
Sinai. Jeremiah said, “For from the
least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and
from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.”
The people were going through the
motions of religion. They were coming to the temple. But Yahweh said, “Will you steal,
murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to
Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,
and
then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name,
and say, ‘We are delivered!’--only to go on doing all these abominations?”
This situation would have been hard
enough for any prophet to face. But what
made Jeremiah’s calling so difficult is that there were others who claimed to
be prophets. They were not speaking
God’s word to the people to turn them away from sin. Instead Yahweh said about them, “But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have
seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they
strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all
of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
Worse yet, they were telling the
people that everything was fine. They claimed to speak for God as they assured
the people that all was well. Jeremiah
said to God, “Ah, Lord GOD, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall
not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace
in this place.’”
In our text, God speaks through
Jeremiah and addresses this situation. He
tells Judah: “Thus
says the LORD of hosts: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who
prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of
their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They say continually to those
who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and
to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No
disaster shall come upon you.’”
God announced that the word from the
false prophets was not his word. They had not received revelation from Yahweh.
He says in our text, “For who
among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear his word, or
who has paid attention to his word and listened?”
These false prophets had gone forth,
even though God had not sent them. They
were misleading the people as they encouraged them to continue in their sinful
ways by saying that all was well. In response
God says in our text, “I did
not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they
prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then they would have
proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from
their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.”
False prophets continue to speak to
us today. They don’t claim to be
religious figures, but they promote a view of God and of life that attacks our
existence as God’s people just as in Jeremiah’s day. These false prophets are found in the songs
and podcasts we listen to; in the Youtube videos, the T.V. shows, and movies
that we watch; and in the social media we look at. They are present in our schools,
universities, and government.
They say that a person should be
“spiritual” but not “religious.” To be “spiritual” means that you get to make
up your own god – to create a god in your own image who serves your needs. It is the rejection of a God who would have
the audacity to reveal himself to us – to speak to us. For as soon as God speaks to us, now there is
truth and error. As soon as God speaks
to us we find out that we are creatures who are under him. We find that his will orders how life should
be lived. We learn that he determines
how he comes to us and that we must receive him on his terms.
The false prophets of our culture
say that sexuality can be used in any way we want. They say that sex is part of dating, and that
living together before marriage – or apart from marriage altogether - is
perfectly normal. They say that the pornography in which the internet is awash is
a good thing. They say that
homosexuality is cause for pride – that it is completely acceptable even as two
people of the same sex can get “married.”
And the false prophets declare that
the personal freedom and autonomy of a woman cannot be inconvenienced by the
life of an unborn child. “My body, my
choice” it is said, as the murder of children in abortion is called “women’s
healthcare” and “reproductive rights.”
This is the false prophecy that
presses in on us. It seeks to wear us
down – to cause us gradually to accept it.
In particular it is a threat to you young people in this congregation
because it seeks to shape and form you in the world’s image instead of God’s
will.
In the end, Judah did not listen to
Jeremiah’s call to repentance. Jeremiah
said, “Behold, their ears are
uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the LORD is to
them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it.” The nation went through the motions of
religion, even as they lived in their sinful ways. They believed that
everything was fine.
In our text, Jeremiah warns Judah about the future of those who listen to the false prophets instead of God’s word. He says, “Behold, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly.” Those latter days arrived in 587 B.C. when God used the Babylonians to destroy the temple and take the people of Judah into exile.
God continues to call us to repentance through his word
today. He says in our text, “Is not my word like fire, declares the
LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” His word reveals the false gods in our lives;
the lust and coveting in our heart; the ways we fail to help our neighbor.
Yet he does so in order to give us the forgiveness that
Jesus Christ has won by his death and resurrection. In this same chapter God promises, “Behold, the days are coming, declares
the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he
shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and
righteousness in the land.”
Jeremiah speaks
of the Christ - whom God would send – the One who would bring God’s end time
salvation. Jesus was the Son of David –
the Messiah sent by God. He came to
fulfill all that God’s word said. On the
evening of Easter the risen Lord opened the disciples’ mind to understand the
Scriptures. Then he said, “Thus it
is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise
from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be
proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
In our text we learn that God is a God of anger and wrath
against sin. God punished Judah’s sin when
he sent them into exile. As the Small
Catechism says about the Close of the Commandments, “God threatens to punish
all who break these commandments. Therefore we should fear his wrath and not do
anything against them.”
God will judge in his anger and wrath on the Last Day
with eternal consequences. As Paul told
the Romans, “But because of
your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself
on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.”
Jesus Christ suffered and died on
the cross in order to receive God’s anger and wrath against our sin. He received the judgment that we deserve, so
that we can now we can stand before God as those who are holy and righteous in
his eyes. Through faith in Christ we are
justified – we are declared innocent before God.
Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, since
we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into
this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the
glory of God.” We live in the knowledge
that we have peace with God as his forgiven children. And the resurrection of Jesus gives us
hope. Death cannot separate us from life
with God. And we know that Jesus Christ will
give us a share in his resurrection when he returns in glory.
In our text God dismisses the dreams
of the false prophets. And then he says, “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let
him who has my word speak my word faithfully.”
We listen to God’s word, for in that word we hear the good news of God’s
love and forgiveness in the Lord Jesus. And
in that word we receive guidance and instruction as we live our life in Christ.
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