Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

Madness: What Compelled the False Prophet?

Personal characteristics. Before examining the source and nature of the false prophet's falsehood, let's consider a scriptural listing of charac ter flaws in these people. No one person had all these problems (just a few are bad enough!). Obviously people with such deficiencies would not be reliable individuals or messengers, yet, amazingly, people readily fol lowed their lead. Two key texts that furnish information are Jeremiah 23 and 29. False prophets, it seemed, were the greatest hindrance to the acceptance of Jeremiah's preaching. In the name of God these prophets would declare openly and forcefully that Jeremiah was lying. No wonder

he had much to say on the subject! Variously the false prophets were:

• Adulterous (Jeremiah 23:14; 29:23) • Corrupted or polluted (Jeremiah 23:11} • Deceitful (from their own hearts, Jeremiah 14:13-16)

• Drunken ("befuddled with wine," Isaiah 28:7, Phillips; 56:10-12) • False (Jeremiah 6:13-14; 8:10-11; 23:13, 14, 32; 29:23; Ezekiel 13:2, 17) • Foolish (wasting time on nonsense, Jeremiah 2:8; 29:23; Hosea 9:7) • Greedy (Jeremiah 6:13; 8:10; Micah 3:11; 2 Peter 2:3, 15) • Lying (Jeremiah 6:13-14; 27:9, 10, 14, 18; Isaiah 9:14-16; Ezekiel 22:28) • Murderous (shedding blood, Lamentations 4:13-14) • Presumptuous (Jeremiah 23:21; 29:31) • Profane (impure or defiled, Jeremiah 23:14; Zephaniah 3:4} • Reckless and irresponsible (Jeremiah 23:32) • Thieving (stealing words from each other, Jeremiah 23:30) • Treacherous (Zephaniah 3:4; "snare of a bird catcher," Hosea 9:8) Reasons for the "madness" of the false prophet. The above character flaws should be sufficient in themselves to invalidate a ministry and mes sage, but these false prophets were seduced, led astray or helped along by their weaknesses. The ultimate madness of the false prophet was to bring a perverted word of human or demonic origin and claim it to be from almighty God, thus making the people discount a true word and trust in a lie. The heathen prophets were easily identifiable because they spoke in the name of the heathen gods. Apparently some Israelite prophets did this, too, like certain prophets of Baal. Some misguided Israelite prophets spoke in the name of the Lord but had personal agendas. They may or may not have 119 ■