Jeremiah 23:16-17,29

‘Thus says the LORD of hosts:

“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophecy to you.
They make you worthless;
They speak a vision of their own heart,
Not from the mouth of the LORD.”’ (Jeremiah 23:16)

This struck me because of the second line: ‘They make you worthless’. It is obvious from other parts of the chapter, and other parts of the Bible, that the false prophets and false teachers tried to ‘build up’ their ‘flock’. For example,

‘They continually say to those who despise Me,
‘The LORD has said, “You shall have peace”’;
And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say,
‘No evil shall come upon you.’’ (Jeremiah 23:17)

They always come with a message of ‘hope’ or ‘peace’ or ‘love’. Something that would make people feel good about themselves. However, since they prophesied lies, that ‘good thing’ that they taught was the very thing that eluded those they taught it to. Hence Jeremiah says ‘They make you worthless’. For the words were not from God, they were just made up by man. And man on his own is completely worthless. What good scheme or plan can we devise? What knowledge can we know without God almighty?

And so the very prophets who gave their listeners a sense of worth and hope in fact made them worthless and hopeless. Those who taught peace brought war and captivity upon the nation.

Let us all be careful of those who come and say things that make us feel good about ourselves. For in the end, we should not feel good about ourselves, but only we should feel grateful for the righteousness that God has bestowed upon us. Be careful of anyone whose words give you worth, for it is likely that their words in fact make you worthless.

Conversely, let us preach and teach the Word faithfully so as not to deceive anyone into self-worth or water down the Gospel to make it more ‘appealing’.

‘ “Is not my Word like a fire?” says the LORD,
“And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”’ (Jeremiah 23:29)

The Gospel, and all of God’s Word, was never intended to appeal to the inherent worth of the individual and therefore draw them into the teachings that it has. No, it was meant to crush and burn any scrap of self-worth that the individual has and in that breaking, make him new.