Jeremiah, Josiah, Barker, and Me (6)

6. Jeremiah and the False Prophets

Deuteronomy has two passages that discuss the problem of false prophets, 13:1-6 and 18:15-22.  The first passage (Deut. 13:1-6) describes the problem of prophets who speak in the name of “other gods” and encourage Israel to worship those “other gods.”  These prophets are to be “put to death.”

1   If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. (ESV)

This passage says that if a prophet gives a prophecy that actually “comes to pass,” but does so in the name of the “other gods,” that prophet is to be put to death as a false prophet.  That is, you must not listen to the prophets of “other gods” even if they give true prophecies.

The second passage (Deut. 18:15-22) is similar, but with an additional command.

18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you [Moses] from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

In this passage Deuteronomy promises that future prophets will be sent from God who are “like Moses” (18)–that is, authentic prophets from YHWH.  But there are two caveats.  1- prophets who falsely claim to speak in the name of YHWH (20a), and 2- prophets who “speak in the name of other gods” (20b), just as in Deuteronomy 13:1-6.  The way a prophet falsely claiming to speak in the name of YHWH can be discerned is if his prophecies “do not come to pass” (22a).  (This latter suggestion is, of course, somewhat problematic, since by the time you find out if a prophet is true or false, it is generally too late to heed his words, as the case of Jeremiah himself demonstrates.)

In summary then, according to Deuteronomy, there are two types of false prophets.  First, prophets who prophesy in the name of “other gods,” and second, prophets who falsely claim to prophesy in the name of YHWH, who can be discovered because their prophecies do not come true.  When we turn to Jeremiah, we find he consistently and repeatedly condemns both of these types of false prophets.

Throughout his ministry Jeremiah was faced by a number of prophets who rejected his claims and opposed his prophecies.  The people and kings were thus faced with a serious dilemma: was Jeremiah the authentic prophet of YHWH, or were the other prophets who rejected Jeremiah’s prophecies authentic?  The destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC demonstrated that Jeremiah was a true prophet, and hence his book is preserved in the Bible.  But by then it was too late.  If, on the other hand, Egypt and defeated Babylon and Jerusalem had been spared, the Bible would have rejected Jeremiah, and would have included, instead the book of Hananiah (Jer. 28).

Jeremiah discusses these rival prophets extensively in his prophecies.  Jeremiah’s own divine authority as an authentic prophet is emphasized on a number of occasions (Jer. 1:5, 5:14, 23:18-22).  The first category of rival prophets are those who “prophesy by Baal” (Jer. 2:8, 23:13, 23:27), and worship idols (Jer. 2:26-27).  These are summarily dismissed by Jeremiah.

The second category–those who prophesy falsely in the name of YHWH (Jer. 5:31)–is much more complicated.  The “word of YHWH” is not in these false prophets (Jer. 5:13, 23:15).  They are sinners (Jer. 6:13, 8:10, 23:11, 14-15), who have no knowledge (Jer. 14:18), who will be shocked when their prophecies fail (Jer. 4:9), and are threatened with destruction (Jer. 2:30, 8:1, 27:14-16).

A detailed description of these false prophets comes from Jeremiah 14:13-16.

13   Then I [Jeremiah] said: “Ah, Lord GOD, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’” 14 And the LORD said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. 15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. 16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their evil upon them.

Here we find that the prophets falsely prophesying the security of Jerusalem are condemned to death by YHWH, precisely as ordained in Deuteronomy 13:5.  Indeed, Jeremiah paraphrases Deuteronomy 18:22 in a positive form in his contest with the false prophet Hananiah (Jer. 28).

Jeremiah clearly accepts both the test for a false prophet of YHWH in Deuteronomy 18:22, and the condemnation of those who prophesy in the name of other gods in Deuteronomy 13:1-6.

Elsewhere Jeremiah emphasizes that the fate of false prophets is death.  On a number of occasions the false prophets also threatened Jeremiah with death for what they believed were Jeremiah’s false prophecies (Jer. 11:21, 26:8-12, 38:9). Pashhur will die in captivity in Babylon because he “prophesied falsely” (Jer. 20:6; cf. 23:34, 26:10).   The false prophets are criticized in similar language in Jeremiah 23:15-22

15 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with bitter food, and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem, ungodliness has gone out into all the land.” 16   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.’”

A similar detailed condemnation of the false prophets is found in Jeremiah 23:25-40, where the false prophets are promised they will be “cast off” from YHWH (Jer. 23:33, 39), and their entire family punished (Jer. 23:34).  “I did not send those prophets” concludes YHWH, “but they rushed in; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied” (Jer. 23:21, 29:8-9, 37:19).

Hananiah the false prophet is likewise condemned to death by YHWH (Jer. 28:15-17):

15 And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the LORD.’” 17   In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.

The punishment for false prophecy is death, precisely as described in Deuteronomy 13:5 (cf. Jer. 29:20-23).

The fundamental problem facing the Judeans was that there were two different groups of prophets, prophesying exactly the opposite in the name of YHWH.  The question thus became, “Which prophets should the we follow?”  Nowhere in scripture do we find such an extensive and detailed condemnation of false prophets as in Jeremiah, and in this condemnation he precisely parallels the categories and language of Deuteronomy, condemning prophets who prophesy in the name of other gods, and prophets who falsely prophesy in the name of YHWH.