What is the meaning of Jeremiah 23:27? They suppose • God exposes a deadly assumption at the heart of the false prophets: “They suppose.” • These men and women are not merely mistaken—they are presumptuous, acting on self-generated ideas rather than divine revelation (Jeremiah 23:21-22). • Scripture elsewhere warns of the same mindset: “They follow their own spirit and have seen nothing” (Ezekiel 13:3). Peter says such teachers will “secretly introduce destructive heresies” (2 Peter 2:1-3). • The takeaway: whenever God is relegated to an afterthought and human imagination takes center stage, deception is inevitable. the dreams that they tell one another • The engine of this deception is a chain of second-hand “dreams.” Verse 25 has already noted, “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in My name: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ ” • The dreams circulate horizontally—prophet to prophet—rather than vertically from the Lord (Jeremiah 23:26). • Deuteronomy 13:1-3 warns that even a sign or wonder must be tested by whether it leads to faithful love of the LORD. Zechariah 10:2 adds, “The idols speak deceit; diviners see delusions; they relate empty dreams.” • Dreams can still be legitimate means of revelation (Genesis 37; Matthew 2), but they must align with God’s already revealed word. will make My people forget My name • The goal and effect of the false dreams is spiritual amnesia: to erase God’s covenant name from the hearts of His people. • Forgetting here is not a memory lapse but a willful neglect, as in Deuteronomy 8:11, “Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God.” • When God’s name is forgotten, His character, authority, and promises fade from daily life. Psalm 106:13,21 shows the spiral: “They soon forgot His works… They forgot God their Savior.” • Jesus’ warning to Ephesus echoes the danger: “You have forsaken your first love” (Revelation 2:4-5). just as their fathers forgot My name • History testifies that this is not a new problem. Earlier generations “followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves” (Jeremiah 2:5,32). • Hosea 4:6 laments, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge… you have forgotten the law of your God.” • The pattern repeats: neglect of God’s word, embrace of idols, national downfall (2 Kings 17:15-17). • Remembering God is therefore both a personal and communal discipline; each generation must guard the truth for the next (Psalm 78:5-7). through the worship of Baal • Baal worship epitomized the seductive counterfeit. It promised rain, fertility, and prosperity—immediate, tangible benefits that appealed to the senses (1 Kings 16:30-33; 18:18-21). • Jeremiah links Baal directly to forgetting God’s name: once the heart bows to a rival, the covenant LORD is crowd-ed out (Jeremiah 2:8). • Idolatry today may not involve carved images, but anything—career, pleasure, politics—that dethrones God functions as a modern Baal (Colossians 3:5). • Elijah’s challenge remains: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him” (1 Kings 18:21). summary Jeremiah 23:27 exposes a chain reaction: presumptuous leaders trade God-given truth for self-generated dreams, circulate those dreams among themselves, and lure God’s people into forgetting His covenant name—exactly what happened when earlier generations chased Baal. The verse stands as a sober call to test every message by Scripture, cling to the Lord’s revealed character, and refuse any rival that would make us forget the One who redeemed us. |
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