9 As for the prophets:
My heart is broken within me,
All my bones tremble;
I have become like a drunken man,
Even like a man overcome with wine,
Because of the Lord
And because of His holy words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers;
For the land mourns because of the curse.
The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
Their course also is evil
And their might is not right.
11 “For both prophet and priest are polluted;
Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the Lord.
12 “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them,
They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it;
For I will bring calamity upon them,
The year of their punishment,” declares the Lord.13 “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing:
They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.
14 “Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing:
The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood;
And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.
All of them have become to Me like Sodom,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
As for the prophets indeed… This passage continues on from the prior section regarding prophets who scatter and destroy. Though we have a land full of adulterers (then and now), their land mourned because of the curse and the wilderness had dried up. I know I often picture wilderness as being barren and desolate anyway, but I believe theirs was more natural grasslands, good for grazing if nothing else.
But not so anymore, it was desolate now, and the worst part was not that the people had turned to sin. Rather, it was that the prophets and priests encouraged it, and even participated in that same rebellion. Those who should have been the voice of reason and truth were instead leading lambs to the slaughter (literally and figuratively).
It makes me ask the question to all of us, “Who are we listening to?” The people of Israel did have prophets telling the truth, though they were in the minority, but they refused to listen. They chose to listen to the ones who made them comfortable and confirmed what they wanted to hear. Are our ears open to the truth, or do we just want to listen to someone who will appease our itching ears? (2 Timothy 4:3)
Paul’s following words sound very familiar to both Jeremiah’s day and our own, “…they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” There are no shortage of myths in our day, but there is only one truth, God’s truth.
Whether we can see it, or prove it, or whether we want to believe it or not, God’s truth doesn’t change to suit our fancies. It wouldn’t be a very firm foundation, but indeed God has set His very law into the fiber of our being. Paul told the Romans, “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them…”
There are few who do not know a thing is evil when they do it, but we try to salve our conscience with mental gymnastics and these teachers who will confirm our delusions. Look to God and His Word instead, He has not changed and yet is still calling us to repentance.
I was reminded last night that God is so good that He will not turn away a truly repentant heart, even at the last minute like the thief on the cross. There is no room for charlatans and hypocrites, but plenty for those who will trust and believe in Him. God isn’t comfortable and doesn’t fit in our nice tidy boxes, but He is true and faithful and righteous “to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”