The American Wisdom Series 

 http://www.americanwisdomseries.com

Presents 

Revelation 2:17  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

John 15:26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:13-14
[13] Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. [14] He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

This Bible Study was originally written by Roger Christopherson,
 published at http://www.theseason.org/ 

Without the leading by the Holy Spirit, there is no understanding of the truths, for all the truth of the Scriptures are revealed to us by God's Spirit.

Jeremiah

Chapter 23

"Collectively, Whirlwind. False Prophets. Rejection."

In the last chapter we read of God's feelings towards those in governmental position that bring abominations into the government and upon the people, and God will hold each leader responsible for their actions. He loved Josiah for his trying to honor and do things God's way.
When Jeconiah came to power he did everything just the opposite as did Josiah, and God removed him from office, and sent him into captivity in Babylon where neither he nor his sons ever came to power again.

God holds governmental officials accountable for what they do, however he holds the pastors and priests to even a higher standard. In Jeremiah 23 we leave the focus of the governmental officials, and see what God thinks of those in the priesthood that defile the position they represent. So lets go into a little bit of detail concerning the preachers that speak out of their own imaginations and call it of God. When they bring in abominations like the instilling of the false spirit into our churches, and say that God told them to say things that go against His Word, when God did not speak to them.

Jeremiah 23:1 "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD."

These shepherds are not of God, and are in contrast to the good Shepherd, Who is Jesus Christ. Pastors who teach abominations scatter the sheep of God's flock when the flock relies on what they say. When those sheep study God's Word and hear the true words of the Good Shepherd that are brought back into the flock of the Good Shepherd, who is Christ.

Jeremiah 23:2 "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: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD."

God is against those pastors that are in charge of His people, and have placed themselves over the teaching of such abominations to His flock. God is promising those false shepherds that He is going to take great pleasure in punishing each of them for the evil that they have brought on My flock. God holds them responsible for every word and thing that they say and do.

Jeremiah 23:3 "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."

This "remnant" that will be drawn out of all countries is the remnant of the elect. If the pastors won't teach the truth, God will draw them out and He will arrange that each of them be brought into the understanding of His Holy Word, and will be fruitful in teaching others from that Word. They will teach God's Word as it ought to be taught, chapter by chapter, from cover to cover. They will teach the entire Word of God, and the plan that He has for this earth age. That elect will teach the true Word, i.e. the pasture that the good Shepherd will provide.

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."

In that day when the false-christ comes among them, each of God's elect will know the truth, and no one will deceive them. When God Word is truly taught there will be no sheep stealing from one church house to another. When sheep are fed from the Word of God, they stay where the good food of truth is fed from. No pastor is in charge of God's elect, because God Himself will lead them and guide them to where they ought to be. It is God that uses His sheep and directs them to where they will be fed, and guides them away from where abominations are being taught.

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."

Of course we know who that Branch is, that Branch is Jesus Christ our Savior who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. This word "Branch" comes from the Hebrew word "zemach" and is a branch that sprouts from the root, and not from the trunk of the tree. In the heavens, it is the brightest star in the Zodiac sign "Virgo". The word "Virgo" means "virgin". In the Bible in the stars we see that branch that came to be our King of kings and Lord of lords. The Branch that is the Savior of the world.

That Branch gives you peace wherever you are, and at any time that you call upon His name. It doesn't matter what tribulation is around you, Christ will be there with you when you are one of His sheep. Even during the tribulation of deception that is coming upon the earth, God's elect will not be deceived because they cared enough to study His Word to know the truth that shall come to pass.

God's elect wear their gospel armor to participate in the battle that comes, and that battle is a spiritual battle in the minds of everyone on earth. Satan is coming as the false-christ, and the battle against him will be fought with words and ideas right out of the Word of God. That is why it is important to know the Word, and have it sealed in your mind. God's elect will be shielded from Satan's fiery darts of lies and half truths, and even against governmental interference.

Jeremiah 23:6 "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."

"In the days" of the Branch, the Savior. This day is the day of His second coming. The word "our" is very special because it is a gift from God to ourselves. This is the only righteousness that you will ever have, because our deeds to him are as filthy rags. In the Hebrew tongue it is; "Yehovah Zidkenu".

Jeremiah 23:7 "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;"

In that day they will not be talking about the delivery from the bondage from Egypt.

Jeremiah 23:8 "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."

Notice that that the two houses are separate here, the House of Israel, which were the ten tribes to the north of the House of Judah. The House of Judah comprised the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Today much of Judah has returned to Jerusalem, and the tiny nation called Israel. However the House of Israel has not returned to Palestine, nor will they until Christ has come and we have changed from our flesh bodies to our spiritual incorruptible bodies.

This delivery is new and to this day it shall not come to pass until the Millennium age. In that time all evil rudiments will be removed from us, and the nations and peoples will dwell in their own lands. Today part of the remnant of the House of Judah has returned and we refer to this time as the generation of the fig tree.

Jeremiah 23:9 "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 is speaking here, and talking like he did a few chapters back, when he stated he was kind of like Job, at times he wished he had never been born. This is because when he teaches God's Word everything goes against him.

However after this promise by God to Jeremiah that the Branch would come, and that both houses, Judah and Israel would have salvation made available to them. After Jeremiah thought of this great gift it made his heart break, because of what the teachers were saying. This is directed to our generation, and the pastors and teachings of today. Remember in verse seven, "behold, the days come," We are living in those days, and Jeremiah is broken over what God has allowed him to see.

When God sent His Son for the salvation of all men and women, then they have that gift being substituted for the traditions and imaginations of these false prophets and teachers.

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."

Today the Word is not taught, and the course that these false prophets and teachers teach is not right. The land is full of spiritual adulterers who swear by things that are not true, and traditions that are false. The people just don't care about learning all of God's Word, because they are taught that they will be gone and not see the great spiritual deception of the tribulation of the false-christ. The false teachers and false prophets are not preparing the flock to defend themselves against Satan, and the hoards of fallen angels who will come with him to deceive the people of the earth. The fly away doctrine, rapture theory, is all part of that false doctrine.

Jeremiah 23:11 "For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD."

God is saying that in His houses, the Christian church houses, there are false teachings. The prophets and teachers have turned these so called Christian houses of God into their own wickedness, and lies. Christian, there is only one way to judge a church, and that is whether the Word of God is taught as it ought to be taught, in it's entirety, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, cover to cover, because then the flock is receiving all of the plan of God. When a pastor or teacher reads one verse and then departs from the Word of God to stroll down the path of his own imaginations and experiences, and drifts from thought to thought without covering what the Word has to say, that is the wickedness that took place in Jeremiah's day, and that is also what most church houses are teaching today. It is called traditions, it is placing man's thoughts and ideas in place and above God's Word, and calling it "of God".

Jeremiah 23:12 "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."

God's Word is the light, and whatever man thinks up apart from God's Word is darkness. As man creates his own ideas and forms of worship, they are the "slippery ways in the darkness" Those ways and teachings are created by man for man and God doesn't like it, and He will use those traditions to bring down, in the year of their visitation. The "year of their visitation" we can tell from verse eight, looks to the future, as well as Jeremiah's day. He said that the delivery I am going to make on that day of visitation will be so great that they are not going to be able to talk about crossing the Red Sea anymore, but what they will be talking about will be that God liveth that brought the Branch, the Savior who is our righteousness. The Lord liveth that delivered us from those battles spoken of in Ezekiel 38, and 39. The year of visitation is the time that the seventh trump sounds, and we see the destruction and downfall of both priest and prophet who are not teaching God's Holy Word.

Jeremiah 23:13 "And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err."

"Samaria" represents the ten northern tribes comprising of the "House of Israel". Today they are the Christian nations of Europe and America. When the kingdom split following the death of king Solomon, king Jeroboam thought it was too far to go down to Jerusalem and worship as God had instructed all of Israel to do, so he had two golden calves made. Those calves became the focus of worship for the House of Israel, and not the ways and laws of the Lord. Old Jeroboam thought because he was the king and had the power of the land, that it was sufficient to start this new form of worship. Because of this, God exiled them, and scattered them into foreign lands.

My fellow Christian, God didn't lose anyone, but it is us the people, who have lost our identity of who we are. When our ancestors were removed by the Assyrians to what is northern Iraq, today, they just kept right on going. They migrated through the Caucasus Mountains in large part, splitting into tribal groups and into other lands in Europe and some, later on into the Americas, where they grew into nations. Though most of these people have lost their identity, they still call themselves after the event of their first migration through the Caucasus Mountains; they call themselves "Caucasians".

Jeremiah 23:14 "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."

This verse redirects our attention back from the "House of Israel" to the "House of Judah". Jeremiah is saying that he has seen that the prophets from the House of Judah are doing the evil things just as the prophets of the House of Israel were doing. God is saying that what they are doing is their form of spiritual wickedness, He looks at as being just as what was done in Sodom and Gomorrah. The very preachers and teachers of the church that say that God sent them when He didn't, and teach traditions that are foreign to His Word, God is calling them Sodomites. I don't have to tell you what happened to those people. Then God goes on to say that He also has that feeling towards those that listen to them and follow them as He did those people in Sodom that practiced Sodomy. This is not saying very much for any religious system that strays from the Word of God. God said it, and directed it toward those that will not teach His Word, and tell His flock that parts of His Word are not for you to know, and that you won't be here because you're going to fly away.

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 is directing His attention now to those false prophets and false teachers. Because of this hypocrisy that has gone forth from their mouths, God is going to feed those false prophets wormwood, and water of gull. To understand what God is saying here in this verse, lets go to Revelation 8:10, 11.

 Revelation 8:10 "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rives and upon the fountains of waters;"

Revelation 8:11 "And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter."

Satan is "wormwood", and the time when Satan falls from heaven is when Michael casts him out on the earth, along with his angels, as recorded in Revelation 12:7-9. We are fast approaching that day. Christ is the "fountain of living waters", but the "fountain of waters" that are given out from wormwood, which is Satan the false-christ, are lies and deceptions. They are "the waters of gall" spoken of in Jeremiah 8:15. God is letting us know through Jeremiah that if those false pastors and prophets desire to give off those false doctrines and teachings, and the people desire to listen to that trot, then God will bring a delusion in their minds that will allow them to be taken in completely by those lies.

The wormwood is the lie that leads men into accepting Satan the spurious messiah as the true Messiah, when in fact he has just come from the bottomless pit. Revelation 9:11; "And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon." God's prophecy tells us that those ministries that teach traditions of men, and not the Word of God, are being used by Satan, and God is allowing it to come to pass. This is why God calls it "profaneness" when ministers and teachers do not teach His Word in its entirety, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, so that the clarity of God's instructions settles into the minds of His sheep and they are kept from being led astray.

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."

God is telling us that when you listen to those words of the false prophets and ministers, they will make you empty. They don't speak of my words, but words that come from their own mind or from their denominational bosses. This doesn't put undue pressure on the lay person sitting under one of these false ministers, because God has allowed us to have His Holy Word, and today in our age, we have the tools to check those rascals out that teach other then what is in God's Word. We also have the unction of the Holy Spirit once we accept Christ and begin to study His Word. And once we see the simplicity which is in God's Word it becomes apparent when someone is putting forth a teaching with something other then what God's Word states.

Much is spoken today of the "mark of the beast" of the time of the great tribulation. Taking this mark is to accept false teaching that will lead you to the Satan the false-christ, and to worship his system. In the plan of God that mark is how the false shall be identified, it is what is in their mind that comes out of their mouth. Those thoughts are what they believe. Once you as a Christian, hear the truth from God's Word and check it out for yourself, then it is in your mind and you can see the fakes as soon as they open their mouths. God is saying, Don't listen to them if they don't teach my Word.

Jeremiah 23:17 "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."

You hear these jokers all the time, they spout off that God spoke to them just like it was their wife, and then they utter some nonsense that is directly against His Word. They make communication with God as common as parking their car, or what tie they should use with their suit. They simply do not understand the difference between plain common sense and the imaginations of their own heart. 

Today these false teachers are telling their flocks that there is no need to prepare yourselves for the king of Babylon of the end times, because we are going to fly out of here before he arrives. Then they spout off the utterances of Margaret McDonald, that mentally ill woman, and the vision that she had in 1830 as if it came from God. Even she realized that it was evil when she became well, yet today it is the main imagination that will direct Christians into receiving the false-christ upon his arrival to earth. The rapture theory is on the same order that Jeremiah faced in his day, when all the false prophets spouted out that the House of Judah was not going into captivity by Babylon.

Just like the people of Jerusalem in that day, the people of today are placing the existence of their spiritual life on the lies of the false prophets. Christian it is coming and we are going into the captivity of the new world order, which is the captivity of the Babylon of Revelation very soon. It is here now, and it is taking hold of all nations of the world. Remember this writing of Jeremiah is only a type given by God so that we could know exactly what we would see in our generation that will see the end come to pass. The false prophets were going around telling the people, "don't listen to God, don't listen to Jeremiah, we are going to have peace, it is not going to happen.

Jeremiah 23:18 "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?"

You have the right to know and understand God's private thoughts, and all you have to do is to read His Word. God has told all in the pages of His Word, and it will happen exactly as He has stated. Have you read and studied His Word? Jeremiah is asking, which of the false prophets has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and then gone out saying such things that go against His Word?

Jeremiah 23:19 "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."

This whirlwind that shall come shortly will consume all the false prophets and people that listen to them, just as they were consumed by the pestilence, famine and the sword in Jeremiah's day. The whirlwind that will come on our generation is a spiritual warfare, and the sword is the river of lies that flows from Satan's mouth. The Pestilence is the false doctrine that is being taught and the famine we are told is not for bread, but for the truth of hearing the Word of God.

Amos 8:11 "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:"

Let me call your attention also that Elijah was taken away in a whirlwind, II Kings 2:11; "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."

Editor's Note: God took Elijah to Himself, in the same flying saucer that visited Ezekiel and he recorded seeing in Ezekiel 1 and 10, and in the close of the Old Testament God also promised that Elijah would also return before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

Live Link to-  Ezekiel chapter 1

Live Link to-  Ezekiel chapter 10

Malachi 4:5, 6; "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:" [5] "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." [6]

Jeremiah 23:20 "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."

It is what God wrote, and what is in His heart that matters, and that is what shall come to pass. Those events and signs of the times and seasons are written in His Word. It is not what any man thinks will happen, nor what any church system declares will come to pass, if those false teachings are against God's Word, they will not happen. God will not execute any judgment of the latter days until all events have come to pass exactly as He stated through the mouths of His prophets. CHRISTIAN, HAVE YOU READ STUDIED THE PROPHETS? If you have, in the latter days, as the things and events come to pass you will understand perfectly all the prophecies that are given. We are in that generation when it is coming to pass. My fellow Christian, these events are future, and we are living in the latter days. Jeremiah, then, is telling us what we can expect to see in our lives, before the end of this earth age of the flesh.

Jeremiah 23:21 "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied."

It is easy to see why so many are non-believers, as we observe what is taught in the Christian church houses today. It is a mockery of God's Word. If you have found a pastor that teaches God's Word and prepares you for the times that you will face, thank God for that pastor. Jesus asked in Luke 18:8; "I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" If most of the prophets and teachers are whoring after the false Christ, and the people simply don't know any different, there is not going to be much faith on the earth. However God is calling out a people that do have eyes to see and ears to hear what is written in His Word.

Jeremiah 23:22 "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."

God is saying that if these false prophets had understood my mind, and they had been teaching My Word instead of their traditions, then the people would have turned from their evil ways. It is written in His Word that this is what would have happened.

Jeremiah 23:23 "Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?"

God is asking them and you, don't you know that I am not far off, but am right here. God is close to you, and He knows your every thought and understands the intent of your actions before you even do what you do. After all God created everything, and He can be wherever He wants to be. He is the "I Am that I Am." He is whatever He wants to be. Do you think you can play games and fool Him? It is only you that is fooled when you try to hide from God.

Jeremiah 23:24 "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."

God is everywhere, He is in heaven and on the earth, and there are no hiding places from Him.

Jeremiah 23:25 "I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. "

Have you listened to any of those dreamers and been taken in by them?

Jeremiah 23:26 "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;"

What these false prophets are telling you is their own illusions and dreams of their own heart that they pass on as the Word of God. When one of these old boys had a spicy meal and an ice cream sandwich before he went to bed, the message came from his wild dream. Dreams are a common thing, but you have to be intelligent enough to know that the five senses in the human body can cause you to think of certain things, and control your mind. Though God does speak through dreams, He will not violate what is written in His Word, and when those dreams go against His Word, then it is not of God.

This is why we must always check out these dreamers and false prophets. Any time they give you a message that is supposed to be from the Father, you will be able to document it in the Word of God, or it is not from God. When you have a dream that you think is from God, then you will be able to document it also from the Word of God, or it is not from God, and that way you will not be able to be deceived by your own imaginations.

Jeremiah 23:27 "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."

The only righteousness that you will ever have is that which we have in Jesus Christ the true Branch. When these false prophets dream their dreams, and let their imaginations run wild, they tell others and by repeating the lies of their imaginations it becomes their traditions. In the course of time every one will accept those lies as being of Christ, when in fact it is of Satan. That is exactly what is happening today as the church world is devising new methods of worship, bringing in the oriental thought and making it part of Christianity to where they don't know what is true and what is not.

This is what happened in Jeremiah's day as their religious leaders and fathers had forgotten the name of the true Father, only to substitute Him for the name of Baal. The Christian world today has taken the twelve concepts of Buddha, and word for word call it Christian psychology. They have taken in the "Holistic healing" of Korean Shamanism, and call it the healing of the Holy Spirit. They have learned many other tricks, such as the method of "TM" [transcendental meditation] as a substitution for focusing on the Word of God, and allowing the Holy Spirit of God to direct your thought.

The people of Jeremiah's day had taken in all the heathen religious forms, including Baalism, the burning and sacrificing of their children, and they called it of God. Look around you, my Christian friend, and try to understand what is going on in these last days. We are seeing a type of what Jeremiah had warning both the people of his day, and our generation of the last days. God is telling you that if this is what you want to do, then He will allow you to be deceived, and taken by Satan the false messiah. Satan is smart enough that he will play what ever games you like to play, and he will give you whatever price you command for your soul.

After Margaret McDonald dreamed the dream in Scotland, and the church world fell for the dream of her imagination, and so, if you desire to continue with that dream God will let you. Satan will accommodate whatever your mind desires to accept, and if you want to fly away, I'm sure he has some flight plan for you imaginations, whether it be by drugs to your mind, or the actual lifting of you from this earth. We are not to seek after substitutes for the Word of God.

Jeremiah 23:28 "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."

God is saying that if a prophet desires to speak of his dreams, let him tell of those dreams. Then if there is a prophet that desires to speak from the Word of God, let him speak from the Word, exactly as it is written. The two simply cannot be mixed, and what is chaff will simply blow in the wind.

Jeremiah 23:29 "Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"

God's Word will carry its own weight, and be just a sure any time it is read. His Word is a test of all times, and the fire that will burn away all the chaff, because what is written in God's Word will stand and come to pass. The best way to tell the true prophet from the false is by what they say. Did what they said come to pass, or not?

Jeremiah 23:30 "Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour."

Did you get what this verse is saying? These people are stealing God's Word not from God, but from what their neighbor was saying about God. The people were not checking out that which was represented as being of the Word of God from the Scriptures, but they were taking what man's imaginations of God's Word were as being fact. To many people even today, they like the short cuts in studying His Word, and they just take what their neighbor says as being the truth. We know that the people living in Jerusalem had no idea what God had said, because they all died, were killed or went into captivity, except a very few. We see that this is exactly as it is today, only the death that comes in our day is spiritual death, and the death of the soul.

God is your Heavenly Father, and he desires that personal relationship with you. He doesn't want any short-cuts or go betweens, but He wants you to talk to Him directly, to not only repent, but also to tell Him that you love Him. He is the closest relative that you have, because He is the Father of your soul. He brought you into existence, and His Word is His personal letter just to you.

Jeremiah 23:31 "Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith."

Jeremiah 23:32 "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; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.."

Who have you been listening to? If your minister or teacher is Biblically illiterate, and doesn't even know the simple plan of God for the ages, then it is time to do a little work on your own, before it is too late. God set a very simple pattern before us, and there is nothing new under the sun. Just as it happened before, it shall happen again.

The subject here is that they were going into captivity for their own good, because God knew what was best for them. Then here came those false prophets and dreamers that said they talked to God, and He told them something opposite from what God told Jeremiah would happen. Today we see this type of talk from the false prophets as they write their books, and try to out think the other false prophets, and what is interesting is they have to continue to rewrite their books because what they said would happen was a lie. It just did not happen. The penalty for a false prophet and a dreamer is death, and in today's times it is spiritual death.

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."

My fellow Christian, this is an important reason why many Christian's prayers aren't answered. It even affects how close your walk is with God. The answer is in this word "burden", and in the Hebrew tongue it means something religious in a bad form. It means to convert something into something that it is not. It is attributing things that are bad and evil to God, and taking the good away from Him.

After God put it all on the line for you, and sent His only Begotten Son to suffer what He went through to cover your sins with His perfect righteousness, only to have those false prophets paint over those sins with the short cuts of man's devised ways. God doesn't appreciate it.

When you do things God's ways, He enjoys blessing you for your trust. God blesses men and women for following Him, but we aren't supposed to go around asking what type of burden God has brought on us today. For many things that He does, are for our own benefit. Many times when things don't go our way, it is our negative ways which have brought it on ourselves.

Jeremiah 23:34 "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."

When you take the blessings away from the bread winner, then the whole house suffers. When the prophet and the priests tell the people it is the Lord to blame, then God is saying that he will punish the name and his house for listening and believing in those negative ideas. When all wisdom and blessings flow directly from God, and you refuse those blessings, then you are in a bad position.

Jeremiah 23:35 "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? "

God is saying that you can bank on something bad coming your way, when you blame your burdens on the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:36 "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."

God could not be more direct in answering your problems. He is telling you He doesn't want to hear of your problems when you blame them all on Him. If you want to know what went wrong with your prayer life, and why it seems that He is not listening to you, this is aimed at you. Christian, you are bringing it down on your own head. Look at your own self, and what you are doing and saying. The fault starts with you, and God is going to turn the faults that you attribute to Him, right back on your own neck.

In this word "perverted" God is saying that you have taken the Words of the living God, and perverted them into your own words. This is a serious charge that anyone can make against God. Though at the start it was done in ignorance, now it is not in ignorance, and it is time to change how you put the blame for the things that went wrong. What you should say is, "What kind of blessing will God send me if I am obedient?".

Jeremiah 23:37 "Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?"

When you come to a true prophet, one that tries to follow God's Word, it is okay to ask for guidance with respect. This is telling you to ask one who is learned in the Scriptures, what God's Word means. He is telling you to seek out a learned man in the Scriptures, and ask advice as to why certain things come to pass. The true man of God will put the blame where it belongs, or you're listening to the work of Satan.

Jeremiah 23:38 "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;"

God is saying that if you continue to say this, and accuse Him, after you have come to the knowledge that God does not bring the burden:

Jeremiah 23:39 "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:"

God is saying that if you do this, He will utterly forget you. It is up to you whether you have trouble or not. It is from your heart and mouth that your trouble comes upon you. It doesn't hurt for some rain to fall in your life, but a good man or woman will use that rain to improve themselves. God's children like those challenges, and takes them as a positive sign. They are things brought about for correction to make you better.

Jeremiah 23:40 "And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten."

God is saying that you will be ashamed for blaming Him as long as you shall live, and He will cause you to remember it as long as you live. This doubt of our Heavenly Father is sin, however there is repentance for those who are truly sorry at the cross. That is what Christ shed His blood for, and in repentance to the Father, in Jesus name, you can have the freedom and peace of mind again. It is up to you if you want God blessings or his curses, and it comes when you understand that God loves you. It requires you to take the responsibility for your own life, and give God the praise for what He has allowed you to do.

God's promise to you in His Word is that as long as you blame Him for your burdens, He will stack more burden on you. However when you realize that your problems are caused by you, and come to Him for help, He will take those burdens and lift them from your mind. Jesus told us in Matthew 11:28-30:

Matthew 11:28 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Matthew 11:29 "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

Matthew 11:30 "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

When you yoke a strong horse to a weak horse, you take the load from the weak horse and balance the load to where each can manage their share of the load. Jesus is telling you to hook yourself to his yoke, and let Him take some of the load off your shoulders, let Him kick some of those rocks from your path, and watch how He just makes those difficult times fade away. That mountain that was before you will turn into a small hill that you will just cruise right over.

Are you starting to get the picture? God doesn't like it when you put the blame for what you have caused to yourself on Him, However when you are in His Word, you understand that when you go against His Word, you bring it on yourself, and in His love He desires to help you, but only you can cause that to happen in your life. That relief comes when you repent and start doing things God's Way, and trusting in Him.

Published by:

Rhine Publishing Co.
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