Verse 3
3. Foolish prophets The “fool,” in Scripture language, is the impious man. Many of these false prophets were grossly immoral (Jeremiah 23:14; Jeremiah 29:23), and none of them had the appreciation of the heinousness of sin and the certainty of God’s wrath falling upon an unrepentant people, which is so characteristic of the writings of the true prophets. Lacking the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, the policy which they advocated was almost invariably wrong. They posed as patriots, and friends of Jerusalem and the temple, advocating war and such political alliances as they believed to be for the temporal interests of the nation; not having the foresight to perceive that the laxity of morals and impurity of worship were being increased by such affiliations and that the real danger to the nation lay not in its lack of military power, but in its lack of spirituality and faith in God.
Follow their own spirit The true prophet is the “man of the spirit” (Hosea 9:7), who receives his message from God (Jeremiah 23:16); but the spirit which controls the false prophet is from within, and not from above.
And have seen nothing Literally, that which they have not seen. They saw no vision of God, though they pretended to see and may even have imagined that they saw.
Be the first to react on this!
