The omnipresence of God. I. A PERSONAL ATTRIBUTE . 1. Infinitely near to all his creatures . 2. All-seeing . 3. Filling all in all . II. A MORAL INFLUENCE . The question is asked. Every conscience confesses it. The dispensation of the Spirit which convinces the world "of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment" is the latest expression of this. 1. Deterrent . 2. Intensifying . 3. Encouraging .—M. read more
The omnipresent God. It is an essentially heathen conception of the Deity against which these grand words bear witness. There were two false tendencies of the heathen mind to which the Hebrew faith was a perpetual rebuke—one was that of thinking of the Deity as dwelling remote from the ways of men, "throned in sequestered sanctity," too lofty to take any interest in the affairs of earth; the other that of localizing and limiting the Deity, conceiving of him as exercising a partial... read more
Jehovah has observed and will punish the false pretensions of the prophets. read more
The giving forth of the word of man as the word of God. I. GOD 'S UNFAILING OBSERVATION . All the reasonings within the minds of these false prophets are open to God. They themselves, audacious, and to some extent self-deluded, reckon on not being detected. They speak what the people wish to believe, and are thus pretty certain of finding acceptance from them. But they forget, or rather they have never properly understood, the omnipresence of God. If this attribute of God had been... read more
I have dreamed . Jeremiah mentions it as one of the marks of a false prophet that he appealed to his dreams (comp. Jeremiah 29:8 ); true prophecy contented itself with less ambiguous media of communication with the unseen world. It may be objected that Abraham ( Genesis 15:12 ), at any rate, and Abimelech ( Genesis 20:3 ) received Divine revelations in dreams; but these were not officially prophets. Nathan and the contemporaries of the author of Job had messages from God by night, but... read more
What is the chaff to, etc. One seems to see the flash of the prophet's eye, the tremulous emotion, the indignant scorn, with which he bursts out with this scathing question; one can almost hear his loud, vehement tones as he taunts with it the false prophets, against whose wickedness he had been protesting throughout the greater part of this chapter. What sternness, what biting severity, characterize it! As one has said, "It cuts like the edge of a razor. As a saber flashing over one's... read more
Dreams that make the Name of God to be forgotten. This is a very difficult passage, but its general sense is plain. It seems to be this: The false prophets whom Jehovah can not sent imitated the form of inspired utterance—the dream as distinct from the vision—which could most easily and with least chance of detection be fabricated. This vehicle of communicating their false doctrines they strongly affected. "I have dreamed, I have dreamed." Although delivering these utterances in the Name... read more
How long shall this be in the heart , etc.? i.e. how long shall this be their purpose, viz. to prophesy lies? But this rendering leaves out of account a second interrogative which in the Hebrew follows "how long." It is better to translate this difficult passage, with De Dieu and many moderns, thus: "How long ( quousque durabit haec ipsorum impudentia ) ? Is it in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, and the prophets of the deceit of their own heart; are they thinking (I say)... read more
Every man to his neighbor . Not merely one prophet to another prophet, for it is "my people" whom they cause to forget my Name (comp. Jeremiah 23:32 ), but the prophet to his fellow man. Have forgotten my name for Baal ; or , forgot my name through Baal . read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 23:23-24
The omnipresence of God. I. THE FACT . God must he thought of as fully present everywhere; not as a great Being who fills a great space with, however, only distinct parts in each section of space. The whole of God is present everywhere. He is as much present in every separate locality as if he existed nowhere else. All his infinite attributes of knowledge, power, and goodness are present, to be brought to bear on each individual of the infinite variety of things in the universe. God... read more