Preaching is Serious Business

To be a preacher of the Word is to be wounded in spirit by those who misuse it. That is the heart of Jeremiah 23.

Jeremiah 23:9 (ESV) Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and because of his holy words.

Jeremiah ministered at a time when many false prophets led most of the nation astray.

Jeremiah 23:10–11 (ESV) For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right. 11 “Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their evil, declares the LORD.

Jeremiah throws down the gauntlet later in the discourse:

Jeremiah 23:13–14 (ESV) In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. 14 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.”

Imagine a prophet who claims to speak for God and only strengthens the hands of evildoers. We see that in our age, but it is nothing new. But the question should be posed: What does a false prophet do?

Jeremiah 23:16–17 (ESV) 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. 17 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.’"

The first thing Jeremiah lists is filling people with empty hopes, selling them on the idea that things will go well no matter what. All the while, they avoid talking about sin and the deep cost it incurs. Jeremiah says they speak out of their own minds. They make it up as they go. They do not read scripture or honor it. On top of these first two evils, the false prophet encourages people to "follow their heart," and they never warn them. 

To this, God has more to say:

Jeremiah 23:25–27 (ESV) I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal?

The reason false prophets speak so much about following your heart is because they follow their own. And then the Lord calls them out on their tendency toward plagiarism. 

Jeremiah 23:30 (ESV) Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another.

False prophets just swap ideas and claim them as their own. They haven't taken time to hear God, so they just take other's material as the heart of man is universally corrupt. 

God tells Jeremiah it's his job to call them out. 

Jeremiah 23:33 (ESV) “When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the LORD.’

Consider the Living Bible translation of this text:

"Well, Jeremiah, what is the sad news from the Lord today?” you shall reply, “What sad news? You are the sad news, for the Lord has cast you away!”

The false prophets are God's sadness. He weeps when His words are misused and hurt His people. The warning is clear. Those who speak for God must shutter at His Word, let His Word shape their words, and preach only what He proclaims. The calling is heavy, and it is no wonder that James writes the following:

James 3:1 (ESV) Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.