Come to Understanding

Come to Understanding

They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding,

and they that murmured shall learn doctrine. — Isaiah 29:24

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense,

and caused them to understand the reading. — Nehemiah 8:8

September 14, 2012
Volume 11 Number 18

Many False Prophets Shall Rise

True prophets of Yahweh are not very popular. After Elijah had demonstrated the miraculous power of Yahweh over Baal, he found himself hiding in a cave:

9 And he came there to a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, and he said to him, What do you here, Elijah?

10 And he said, I have been very jealous for Yahweh God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. -1 Kings 19

After Yahweh sent Amos to prophesy to Israel, the high priest told him to get out of there and go back home:

12 Also Amaziah said to Amos, O you seer, go, flee you away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:

13 But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court. -Amos 7

The hatred Jeremiah had to endure for speaking the truth of Yahweh to Judah was so strong that he lamented that he had even been born:

10 Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them does curse me. -Jeremiah 15

False prophets, on the other hand, tend to be popular. They appeal to the hearts of those that are in rebellion against Yahweh and are looking for someone to help them justify their rebellion. Yahweh warns:

1 Woe to the rebellious children, says Yahweh, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: -Isaiah 30

Their appeal is to those that are searching for ways to hide their sins from Yahweh:

10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. -Isaiah 30

Among these "smooth things" was the assurance that there would be no judgment for unrepentant rebellion against the word of Yahweh. Even though Yahweh had pronounced judgment upon the rebellious people of Judah in the form of "the sword," "the famine," and "the pestilence," the false prophets disagreed with Him. They told the people that these calamities would not come upon them!

11 Then said Yahweh to me, Pray not for this people for their good.

12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

13 Then said I, Ah, Lord Yahweh! behold, the prophets say to them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place. -Jeremiah 14

False prophets convinced them of Yahweh’s blessings without their repentance. They said the consequences of their rebellion against Yahweh would not be nearly as bad as Yahweh’s word had said.

This is illustrated by the competing prophecies of Jeremiah and the false prophet Hananiah. Jeremiah told Judah that they would be destroyed, that some of the people would be taken captive by the King of Babylon, and that they would remain captives for seventy years!

9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says Yahweh, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.

11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. -Jeremiah 25

Rather than humbling themselves in repentance, the people of Judah, including the priests and the prophets, threatened to take Jeremiah’s life for bringing such a prophecy:

8 Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, You shall surely die. -Jeremiah 26

Jeremiah responded by telling them that, if they would repent, then Yahweh would also spare them from the judgment that had been pronounced upon them:

13 Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of Yahweh your God; and Yahweh will repent him of the evil that he has pronounced against you. -Jeremiah 26

Hananiah soon rose up with an opposing prophecy. Claiming to speak the words of Yahweh, he told them that things just were not going to be nearly as bad as Jeremiah had said. Instead of going into captivity for seventy years, they would be freed within two years!

2 Thus speaks Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

3 Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of Yahweh’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: -Jeremiah 28

However, Jeremiah withstood Hananiah, telling him that he was causing the people to "trust in a lie!"

15 Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; Yahweh has not sent you; but you make this people to trust in a lie. -Jeremiah 28

The problem was that the prophets and the priests were falsely proclaiming Yahweh’s word. Even worse, however, the people loved to hear their lies:

31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end thereof? -Jeremiah 5

The words of the prophets were used as the basis for the priests to bear rule over the people. This was part of a great religious conspiracy against the word of Yahweh. The consequence was that the people found themselves in oppressive bondage, by which the prophets, the priests, and the princes were able get great dishonest gain from them:

25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.

26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shown difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, when Yahweh has not spoken.

29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have oppressed the poor and needy: yes, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. -Ezekiel 22

Even Zion and Jerusalem, Yahweh says, will be built upon blood and iniquity, as the priests and the prophets tell the people whatever they will pay to hear, while thinking they are doing God’s work:

10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon Yahweh, and say, Is not Yahweh among us? no evil can come upon us. -Micah 3

When people love lies more than the truth, then God will send them "strong delusion" that will cause them to actually believe the lies of a powerful end-time False Prophet:

9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. -2 Thessalonians 2

Yahshua (Jesus) left us with this warning:

11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold.

13 But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.

14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come. -Matthew 24

Yahshua also said:

1 These things have I spoken to you, that you should not be offended. -John 16

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Scriptures are taken from the Proper Name Version of the King James Bible.