Exposition of Jeremiah 23:1-40

Carry the Word of the Lord faithfully

by David R Cox
(c) 2003

KJV Jeremiah 23:1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. 2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them:...

This passage  of Scripture is given against the erring pastors of Israel. We see the basic outline of what a pastor is supposed to do towards his sheep.

(1) Pastors are to feed spiritually their charge. For not doing this, God faults the pastors. On down in the passage it is made clear what they substituted for the real food.

(2) Pastors are to gather (manage) the flock. This simply is ruling and oversight. The opposite of this is to scatter, or even worse to drive them away. To scatter is a lack of attention, and to drive away is to deliberately do things that cause the sheep not to gather to do what sheep do, eat, rest, reproduce.

(3) Pastors are to visit (pastoral visitation) their sheep. This is simply an individual level inspection whereby each sheep receives individualizes special attention on a regular basis, and whereby they can have whatever problem that exists fixed.

Additional Study: Pastoral Visitation

Jeremiah 23:1 ... behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. 3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 

Again we see the "prime directive" from the owner of the sheep to his shepherds, the sheep are to be fruitful (produce milk and wool) and they are to increase (reproduce more sheep).

Jeremiah 23:4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD. 

God's will is again expressed in that God wills that His people be shepherded. We note here that even though the following verses refer to the Messiah reigning over the church, the plural of shepherds in 23:4 is how that Messiah will shepherd His flock, through undershepherds.

KJV Hebrews 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, See Isa 40:11; Eze 34:23; 37:24.

KJV 1 Peter 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

KJV 1 Peter 5:4 And when the chief Shepherd (archipoimen arch-Shepherd, chief shepherd, head shepherd over the rest of the shepherds) shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

Note that in 1 Peter 5:4, if Jesus is the chief Shepherd, then obviously he must be chief or principle Shepherd over other shepherds. Therefore these other shepherds must exist. We understand that God's plan is that Jesus will shepherd His people through the means of human men of God, capacitated by God Himself with spiritual gifts, called of God to this ministry, and qualified for the job. They (those who are obedient) will be guided by the Word of God. In this way Christ reigns over the affairs of the people of God and the church and has His influence. This concept is the "Headship of Christ over the Body".

Jeremiah 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8 But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land. 9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness. 

Jeremiah 23:10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. 11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD. 12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD. 

"Full of adulterers" - The Bible frequently uses the concept of adultery in referring to people who break their covenant relationship with Jehovah God by entertaining relationships with other non-gods or false gods. With poor pastors in the land, this abounds. People will commonly worship what they think is the true God only to be surprised one day in finding that their religious "pastors" misguided them.

"Swearing" - The idea here is that perhaps better thought of as being that the land is suffering because of the divine curse of God on things because they are not what they should be.

"Pleasant places are dried up" - In a desert land, the oases in the desert were extremely important. These places not only had water, but they had precious grazing ground with tender grass. When the oases dry up for some reason, then things get difficult for the shepherds and the sheep. The reason why this happened was simply because of where the pastors were leading the people of God, into things that should not be.

"Their course is evil" - The track of life that they are on is just not good for them. It is fraught with problems, grievous problems.

"Their force is not right" - These spiritual shepherds used their position and power but not for doing God's will, but rather some other thing (their own will). They took advantage of their position to procure for themselves what they wanted from the sheep and their position instead of using it for the accomplishing of God's will and the purpose that God installed them there for.

"Prophet and priest are profane" - The idea of profane is common, mundane, worldly. They are just like the people in the world as in contrast to the true men of God.

KJV Zephaniah 3:4 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.

KJV 2 Timothy 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

In our day of popular preachers that preach things that are people want to hear, the occasion of God's men teaching and preaching the will and Word of God has degenerated into an entertainment contest. Preaching today have filled their sermons with jokes, stories, even fables, and other things that entertain more than they teach truth, so that we have come to the point where those men who should be the most serious about the Word of God actually make light of it by the way they treat it (unholily, profanely, as a common book). There is no reverence in the things of God any more. The point here is simply that God is sitting in judgment on all who would seem to take this road.

"The year of visitation" - Visitation is a concept of God coming to sort out a person's personal life, and straighten out what is right and what is wrong. 

Additional Study: Pastoral Visitation

Jeremiah 23:13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 

God continues describing what these poor pastors are doing in violence against God's people. They cause God's people to err instead of turning from their wickedness and sin. The bottom line here is that the work of God is to get people off of their sins and to do God's will. This starts with salvation and continues until they enter eternity. It is a mark of the people of God that they reject, hate, and abandon sin (repentance). The spiritual gift or ministry of prophet is that of turning the people from their sin to God and righteousness (the opposite of sin) as Nathan did with King David, "thou are the man!" (2 Samuel 12:7). In the end analysis, the pastor of the local church has to assume as part of his duties the dealing with the sins of his people. He has to do the ministry of a prophet, which is to find out what they are, then find out what God says about that sin (how to correct it) and what should replace it (righteousness), and then make the people leave their sins to do the will of God. Failure to do this will bring about the rebuke and curse of God on the people of God, even if they replace God's will with other "good things" (charity work for example).

"Walk in lies" - Moreover these poor pastors use falsehood as one of their best used and loved methods. If we are in a great battle between truth and falsehood, with God on the side of truth, and Satan on the side of falsehood, how can it be that we who fight in the name of God use the methods of Satan in this battle? 

"They strengthen the hands of evildoers" - To be frank, many preachers have degenerated into a "good ole boys club" where those of their particular group or "stripe" are endorsed no matter how wrong or sinful what they are doing is. It is interesting to me to see popular men like Jerry Falwell or Jack Hyles or Bob Jones be taken to the carpet for stupid wrong things that they do which they just will not humble themselves to the point of publicly saying "we, or rather I, was wrong, and I repent of the wrong I did." The good ole boy system means that they strengthen the hands of those that in their group, and slam and detract those who are not in their group. This has become the status quo of Fundamental Christianity, and it has gotten to the point where people judge your faithfulness to the Lord with your answer to the question, "Are you 100% Jack Hyles?" meaning do you support them even if they may do something wrong. This is ridiculous, and every minister does things wrong. If he gets to the point where he cannot admit his sin (1 John 1:8-10) then he is so arrogant and prideful that he disqualifies himself from the ministry altogether, no matter who he is or pretends to be.

Jeremiah 23:15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. 

God says He will judge them with "wormwood" (a curse or poison) and "water of gall" (poison or a plant that causes ill being). The point is that these poor pastors have latched onto something else besides the will of God and the true work of God, and therefore God will not allow them nor their ministries nor their churches to receive true spiritual blessings, only bitterness and poison. This perhaps explains why today so many "great and wonderful ministries" (as we are constantly told by these same people) end up not doing the job (the work of God) and they produce as many "difficulties", anomalies, and spiritual problems as the supposed blessings they think they produce. If we get right down to the nitty gritty of the matter, God never instructed us to start Christian schools, Christian camps, mission boards, nor so many insane Christian religious organizations. God's plan is clear in the Bible. We are to evangelize, and then of those that are saved, we are to baptize them and disciple them in the context of the local church. Our evangelism is also based out of a local church. When we get off of God's plan, everything goes wrong because we are inventing our own game plan, and God curses us, our wonderful plans, and everything associated with it. We learn from the world how to "sell" our ministry to others by pointing up all the wonderful things which we conveniently prearrange to happen through human skill and cunning. The point is, we can do this, but God and His blessing is not in it, because we do not have the plan of God, and we do not use the methodology of God.

Additional Study: What is the Plan and Methodology of God? (or Why is the local church so important in the work and Will of God?)

Jeremiah 23:16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. 17 They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. 18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it? 19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. 20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. 21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. 23 Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? 24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD. 25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; 27 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. 28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.

The burden of God's message here is that these poor pastors have gone about to invent the "will and work of God" from their own heart (walk after the imagination of their own hearts) instead of extracting these from the Word of God. They refuse to look into the Scriptures for their guidance, and because of this they receive an extremely strong condemnation from God. Moreover they constantly tell the people how good they are, and how good and blessed they as the people of God are. They have peace, and no evil (ill thing) shall come upon them because what they are doing is so right and just and good. They have twisted and turned God's words such that it is not even near what God has said. Do they think that God lives far away and will not observe and watch and hear what they are saying? Are they so cut off from God that they think they can get away with this? The idea of "dreams" probably should be understand in modern day terms as visions or plans. How many "man of God" says that he has received a vision from God to build a great ministry for the Lord? But we go back to the Word of God, and we are hard put to find the structure of that ministry in the New Testament. Why? Because he has told everybody that he can his dream, the deceit of his own heart, and he is an expert at convincing and "selling" his vision to others. We all get behind him only to find that as the thing progresses along, it begins to have serious and deep problems. Either we do not talk about these problems or the minister shields and hides them better and better as time goes along until the entire ministry falls into crisis, and we wonder what went wrong? Why couldn't this guy that had all the advantages the world could give him keep it together? The answer is simply because he broke from the form and structure (methods) that God has given us for doing the ministry, and he is clueless about the end goal of what he should be striving to do (the plan of God).

"He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully" The bottom line is that we as stewards and servants of God are not charged with success but faithfulness. God has devised a plan and a methodology of achieving that plan. It is up to God to achieve what He wants, not our definition of success (big buildings, lots of people and money and influence). We must not presume to change the plan or methodology of God, but to "discover" it in the Scriptures, and faithfully (accurately) fulfill what God wants from us in relation to it.

Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. 32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness (frivolity); yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.

"steal my words every one from his neighbor" - This would be by the subtle replacing of the real Word of God with a fake, counterfeit word of God. By redefining what God's purpose, plan, methods, and commands are, and emphasizing this counterfeit, they have essentially "stolen" God's word from us.

Jeremiah 23:33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the LORD.34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house. 35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken? 36 And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God. 37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken? 38 But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD; 39 Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: 40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

"ye have perverted the words of the living God" - The concept here in "pervert" is to turn around to mean something other than it is supposed to or intended to mean. To change, overturn, tumble, or set out the contrary by supplementing something else in its place. This passage of Scripture places a heavy emphasis on the man of God getting his message and methods from the Scriptures and not "inventing" it out of his own head. This is exactly what we have today in Christianity.

Last modified on: 02/02/08
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