FALSE PROPHETS.
Jeremiah 23:16-24.
Some prophets in Jerusalem were speaking a vision of their own imagination, and not from the mouth of the LORD. They were telling those who despise the LORD, “The LORD has said, Ye shall have peace… No evil shall befall you” (JEREMIAH 23:16-17; cf. Jeremiah 8:11).
JEREMIAH 23:18 may sound like a rhetorical question, but we know the answer. Supremely, the One who has “stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard His word” is Jesus (cf. John 1:18; John 8:38). Not these false prophets!
The LORD’s testimony is, “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied” (JEREMIAH 23:21-22). They have no mission, no message, and no access to God! If they had a message from God, then they would have been calling the people back from “their evil way, and from the evil of their doing” (JEREMIAH 23:22b).
JEREMIAH 23:23-24. We are alerted to the fact that the presence of the LORD is inescapable. Whereas this is a comfort to believers (cf. Psalm 139), it is ominous for those who are about to fall under the judgment of God (cf. Amos 9:2-4). There is no hiding place from the LORD who fills heaven and earth!
