False Prophets

Lamentations 2:14

“Your prophets have seen for you False and foolish visions; and they have not exposed your iniquity so as to restore you from captivity, but they have seen for you false and misleading oracles.”  (NASB)

” Your prophets have seen (imagined) for you
False and foolish visions;
And they have not exposed your wickedness
To restore you from captivity [by teaching you to repent],
But they have seen (imagined) and declared to you false and misleading oracles.” (AMP)

We were watching Laverne and Shirley last night, a sitcom from back in the day and a spin-off of Happy Days. My parents bought the entire collection for my daughter because she was constantly watching these old sitcoms like The Brady Bunch. Fonzie, the cool guy, comes in and does the Fonzie thing in the opening episode. He is so cool, everything he does and says seems to be above rebuke. No one can call him on the carpet for anything he does. Even when he is telling a lie, it comes out so smooth it might as well be the truth, only telling us what we want to hear.

I have never seen a better definition of a false prophet than this in chapter 2, verse 14 of Lamentations. I copied the Amplified version of the verse for a good reference. The Amplified version says “imagined,” referring to what the false prophets have said to the Israelites. Those false and misleading oracles are meant to tickle our ears, some might say, but never to reprimand you or to guide you on a different path in life. These misleading oracles only agree with the status quo and seem to never ruffle any feathers, only telling you what you want to hear.

We surround ourselves with friends that bless our behavior and turn a blind eye to things we should not do (false prophets). Those same “yes” friends fill your head with imaginary outcomes that have nothing to do with reality, but only serve to tickle your ears. One thing they lack is telling you the truth about what you are doing and where it will take you. In other words, they could care less about you repenting and turning from your crazy, ungodly behavior (false prophets). Beware of surrounding yourself with people who only say “yes and amen” to your every whim.

The Bible is full of stories of false prophets telling the Israelites things that were made up because the real prophet’s word from the Lord was going to sting a bit. A wise Christian has an inner counsel of others who are not afraid to speak into your life the real word of God and to call out sin as sin. The job of a prophet was to speak the words of God to the people. Today, we have the Bible, which is the living word of God. You could call it a prophetic book from the Lord. In it, we have examples of how to live, grow, and stay away from sin. In it, we also have revelation of the power and victory we have in Jesus. If you read it, it might sting a bit. You might cry or be encouraged. It is the weapon God gave us to fight the enemy with.

In Exodus 19:6, the Lord tells Moses that they shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. We are supposed to be as knowledgeable as a priest who spends most of his time studying the word of God, the Bible. Because we have the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are the voice of God through the Holy Spirit, as it is written in the Bible. False prophets only get out of control when you refuse to read and understand the Bible. Even Jesus used the written word to defeat the devil in the desert: “It is written…” (Matthew 4:4). Open the word of God every day and pray that the Lord would open your eyes and your heart to the living word of God. If you do this regularly, the false prophets will be exposed, and you will be able to remove them from your life.

Prayer: Father, we repent of listening to false prophets in our lives. We repent of not opening up Your Word and checking what men say against what Your word says. We repent of turning a deaf ear to the Holy Spirit when we are being led in the paths of righteousness, only to turn from it and follow the path of sinners. I pray that we be like the Christian in Psalm 1:1-3, who does not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with the mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord. I pray that we meditate on it day and night. Only then will we be like a tree planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit, with leaves that don’t wither, and we will prosper in all we do. In Jesus’ name, amen.