"And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity," says the LORD; "and I will make it a perpetual desolation" (Jeremiah 25:11–12 NKJV).

Jeremiah prophesied the beginning and the end of Judah's exile to Babylon. The seventy years began with Nebuchadnezzar's first conquest of Jerusalem in 605 BC and ended around 536 BC, after the Persian king Cyrus had issued a decree (538 BC) allowing the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Daniel was an elder statesman in Babylon under the reign of the Median king Darius when he perceived that the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy was at hand (cf. Daniel 9:1–2). Darius was likely a regional ruler of Babylon while the Persian king Cyrus ruled over the empire. It was the joint effort of the Medes and Persians that defeated Babylon.

Just as God used the king of Babylon to punish Judah and the surrounding nations, so God would use the king of Persia to deliver Judah and to judge Babylon and the surrounding nations (cf. Jeremiah 25:12–38).

The seventy-year captivity of Judah was both a judgment and a blessing. While many suffered and died when God brought Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem, many were also taken captive to Babylon, where they would live until the seventy-year period was completed. In Jeremiah 24, God said that those who remained in the land were "bad figs," deserving of judgment, while those who were led captive were "good figs" who would eventually be brought back into the land.

When Shallum was taken captive to Egypt, this was a cause for mourning, because he would never return (cf. Jeremiah 22:10). But when the Jews were taken captive to Babylon, this was a cause for hope, because they would return after seventy years, and God would give them a heart to know Him (Jeremiah 24:4–7; cf. Ezekiel 11:19–20) and establish a New Covenant with them (Jeremiah 31:31–33).

As Christians, we are recipients of the benefits of that New Covenant, which was first intimated by Moses in Deuteronomy 30:6 and declared by Jeremiah (cf. Jeremiah 31:31–33), for in Christ that New Covenant is fulfilled (cf. Hebrews 8:6–13; Luke 22:20). Praise the Lord!

AI-Expanded Reflection

Jeremiah’s seventy years are among the most discussed numbers in Old Testament prophecy, because Scripture itself returns to them several times. Jeremiah 29:10 promises that when seventy years are completed for Babylon, God will bring the exiles home. Daniel reads “in the books” the number of years revealed to Jeremiah and prays for its fulfillment (Daniel 9:2). Zechariah 1:12, dated around 519 BC, speaks of seventy years of God’s indignation against Jerusalem. And 2 Chronicles 36:21 links the seventy years to the land enjoying its Sabbaths, a reference to the sabbatical years commanded in Leviticus 25 and warned about in Leviticus 26:34–35.

Because of these different references, interpreters count the seventy years in more than one way. One common reckoning, like the comment’s, runs from the first deportation in 605 BC, when Daniel was taken (Daniel 1:1), to the return around 537–536 BC. Another runs from the destruction of the Temple in 586 BC to the completion of the rebuilt Temple in 516 BC, which fits Zechariah’s perspective. A third focuses on Babylon’s dominance, from about 609 BC to its fall in 539 BC. Many take the number as a round figure for a full lifetime (cf. Psalm 90:10), with several fulfillments that fit the prophecy’s different emphases. On any count, the prophecy was fulfilled remarkably.

The identity of “Darius the Mede” (Daniel 5:31; 9:1) is also debated. He is not named in surviving Persian records, and suggestions include a governor of Babylon named Gubaru, the Median king Cyaxares II, and Cyrus himself, with Daniel 6:28 read as “Darius, that is, Cyrus the Persian.” The comment’s suggestion that he was a regional ruler under Cyrus is one well-established view. The book of Daniel consistently describes the empire as that of “the Medes and Persians” (Daniel 5:28; 6:8), reflecting the joint nature of the conquest the comment notes.

The image of the good and bad figs in Jeremiah 24 is surprising. The people left in Jerusalem after the 597 BC deportation assumed that they were the favored ones and the exiles were the rejected ones. Ezekiel heard the same claim (Ezekiel 11:15, discussed at #2427). God reverses it. The exiles, who appeared to have lost everything, were the ones to whom He promised, “I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD” (Jeremiah 24:7). What looked like abandonment was actually the place where God would renew His people. Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles (Jeremiah 29) tells them to build houses, plant gardens, and seek the welfare of Babylon, since God had plans for them there.

The comment’s movement from the exile to the New Covenant follows the line of Scripture itself. Deuteronomy 30:6 promises that God will circumcise the heart of His people after exile. Jeremiah 31:31–34 and Ezekiel 36:26–27 develop that promise, and Jesus declares it inaugurated at the Last Supper: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). For Christians who experience seasons that feel like exile, Jeremiah 24 and 29 offer real hope. God is present in Babylon too, and the places of loss can become the places where He gives a new heart.

"Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you," filling you with vain hopes; "They speak visions of their own minds" (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 23:16).

What a predicament for the people of Judah! The very ones they relied on for religious and political guidance were leading them astray. God tells the people to stop listening to them, because these prophets invented their prophecies and filled the people with false hope.

Today, couldn't a case be made that much of our news media functions in a similar way? News coverage often sensationalizes and bends stories toward a particular viewpoint: highlighting an incendiary word here, lifting an explosive phrase out of context there, or framing words and events as larger or smaller than they are.

Yet these are the sources we rely on for news and information, to shape our attitudes toward our country and our leaders, to move us to vote one way or another, and to make decisions about our future. We can be like sheep before the media, because we do not have the time or the means to search out the truth for ourselves. Or do we?

Must I be condemned because I am misinformed?

Friends, God told the Israelites to stop listening to the lies of the prophets. Perhaps there is an application for us. What if we chose to tune out the endless stream of sensational and slanted headlines?

Would we be worse off for our ignorance of current affairs? Is it not better not to know than to know what is false?

Of course, I would not really be ignorant if I turned off the news. Quite the contrary. Instead of drinking from a firehose of headlines, I would spend more time engaged with the timeless truths of Scripture. When I sought to understand the world around me, I would seek depth over breadth, quality over variety, and truth over entertainment. Rather than listening to a report or a commentary, I would try to read or listen to the original speech or document. That certainly takes greater effort — but when has discerning truth ever been easy? On the contrary, Solomon wrote that if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, "then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God" (a paraphrase of Proverbs 2:3–5).

Let us, then, for the sake of truth, as representatives of the God of truth, be far more careful about what we take in, and start learning the truth for ourselves.

AI-Expanded Reflection

Jeremiah 23:9–40 was discussed at #2059, where the moral test of false prophecy was noted: they "strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil" (23:14). Verse 16's phrase "filling you with vain hopes" is literally "making you worthless" or "making you vain" — what we listen to shapes what we become. Jeremiah then contrasts empty dreams with God's word: "What has straw in common with wheat?" God's word is like fire and "like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces" (23:28–29).

The comment's counsel to prefer primary sources and depth over volume is practical wisdom that Christians of many political persuasions can share. Proverbs warns that "the one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes" and examines him (18:17), and that "the simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps" (14:15). Paul's instruction to "test everything; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21) applies to information as much as to teaching. And the comment's positive alternative — more time in Scripture, less in the churn of headlines — addresses not only accuracy but peace of mind (Isaiah 26:3; Philippians 4:8).

The Lord of hosts says not to listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to the people, filling them with vain hopes; "They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord" (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 23:16). God has heard what the prophets who prophesy lies in His name have said: "I have dreamed, I have dreamed!" How long will this be in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 23:25–26).

The majority of the prophets in Jeremiah's day were prophesying peace when the opposite was at hand. They were predicting God's blessing when God's judgment was imminent. They claimed signs, dreams, and visions, but God had not spoken to any of them. He had given them no signs, dreams, or visions. Jeremiah, the true prophet of God, declared that all these were false prophets, speaking from their "own minds" and "the deceit of their own heart."

All these prophets would fail the test of a prophet (cf. Deuteronomy 18:20–22). Their prophecies of peace would prove wrong. What is more, the confirmed prophets throughout history had collectively prophesied judgment, so prophecies of peace went against the grain of their message. These prophets of peace therefore bore a greater burden of proof. As Jeremiah told Hananiah, the prophets who came before had prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many nations, but the prophet who prophesies peace will be known as truly sent by the Lord only when his word comes to pass (cf. Jeremiah 28:8–9).

Friends, I believe contemporary "prophets" usually proclaim blessing, revival, prosperity, and peace. They too bear the greater burden of proof. If they have not shown themselves perfect in their prophecies, I believe they have demonstrated themselves to be no prophets at all, or worse, false prophets. Do not go to them. Do not listen to them.

Friends, those of you who make pilgrimages to prophetic ministries to receive personal words, why put yourselves at such risk? Even if they had true prophecies, why would you need anything more than God's revealed and authenticated Word? (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16–17). Why give the devil a foothold to lure you into error by embracing some message of prosperity? Why let your heart be excited by some special revelation, which may only stoke the flames of pride and lead you further from the boundaries of God's Word? Why slide down that slippery slope, where feelings and experience take priority over Scripture and truth in governing your decisions and actions? Even if you are not moved from the hope of your salvation, I believe such teaching can give you so distorted a view of Scripture that you endanger your witness and the witness of every believer you influence.

AI-Expanded Reflection

Jeremiah 23:9–40 is the Old Testament's most extended treatment of false prophecy, and its diagnosis is striking. The false prophets' problem was not only inaccurate predictions but moral failure: they "strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil" (23:14). They told people who despised God, "It shall be well with you" (23:17). True prophecy, by contrast, turns people from sin: if they had stood in God's council, they would have "turned them from their evil way" (23:22). God also contrasts empty dreams with His word: "What has straw in common with wheat?" God's word is like fire and "like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces" (23:28–29).

That moral test remains a helpful one in every age. Jesus said false prophets would be known "by their fruits" (Matthew 7:15–20), and John urged believers to "test the spirits" (1 John 4:1). Christians differ on whether prophetic gifts continue today (see #2002 and #1843). Across those views, believers agree with Jeremiah's criteria: a message that flatters, promises ease to the unrepentant, or draws people away from Scripture is not from God, while God's true word humbles, convicts, and calls to repentance and faith.

Let the prophet who has a dream tell it, but let him who has God's word speak it faithfully. "What has straw in common with wheat?" declares the Lord (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 23:28).

Jeremiah contrasts the dreams of the false prophets with God's Word. They are as different as straw is from grain. The uniqueness of God's prophetic Word stands out against all the counterfeit prophecies of the false prophets. What is so unique about God's Word?

It always comes true. It is always consistent. It never fails.

But consider the so-called prophecies coming from some prophetic movements today. In my experience they rarely come true — a roll of the dice might give better odds — and there is little consistency or accountability when they fail.

How do their theologians explain away these shortcomings?

They invent an explanation. They say that, unlike before, today's prophets need time to mature, so that as a prophet matures in faith, their prophecies become more accurate. I believe this makes everything they call a prophecy suspect and unremarkable.

They also move accountability from the prophet to the people hearing the prophecy, saying people are responsible to "test the spirits." By this they do not mean that people should conclude a prophet is false if his prophecies don't come true, but rather that people should discern which prophecies to accept and which to ignore. Like the snake-oil salesmen of old, I believe they have shifted the burden of truth from themselves onto the vulnerable people who believe them. Both will answer to God!

On a different but related matter: today we call almost anything a miracle. Anything that cannot be readily explained is called a miracle; it is no longer the unique province of God. And just as many people view prophecies, miracles too are treated as able to be imperfect. For example, an elder once rushed into a church fellowship hall to announce a miracle: half of a certain woman's cancer was gone. Today that woman must go through another round of chemotherapy. Is this really a miracle? Does God work this way? What if Jesus had opened only one of the blind man's eyes? What if the lame man stood up but walked with a limp? What if Lazarus, raised from the dead, fell dead again a day later?

My heart goes out to those suffering calamity. I feel for the parents of a baby born with a collapsed lung. They believed it was a miracle that their baby survived, even though she still had to breathe through a tube. Miracle? The parents may have felt it was a miracle — and I am grateful for her life — but it is not the kind of complete healing and miracle we see from the Lord in Scripture.

I am slow to criticize those who are suffering, for they are under great emotional strain. But I believe the pastors, elders, teachers, and believers who teach, preach, and parade these partial or temporary experiences as miracles from God do a great disservice to the true miracles of God, and detract from the perfect and enduring miracle of our atonement through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Friends, let us not call every "prophecy" a prophecy of God. Let us not call every "miracle" a miracle of God. His prophecies are always true and never fail. His miracles are always perfect, complete, and enduring. When we declare counterfeits to be true, whether on purpose or by accident, we weaken the true and powerful prophecies and miracles of God. Let us not do this ourselves, and let us boldly challenge those who do.

AI-Expanded Reflection

Jeremiah 23:29 follows the straw-and-wheat image with two more: God's word is like fire, and "like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces." The false prophets' dreams were comfortable — they told the people "It shall be well with you" (23:17). God's word burns and breaks. Jeremiah knew this from experience: when he tried to stop speaking, the word was "a burning fire shut up in my bones" (20:9).

The comment's concern about calling partial recoveries "miracles" is a serious one, and it is worth adding a pastoral distinction that the comment's own compassion points toward. Scripture uses a range of language for God's activity. There are "signs and wonders" of the kind the comment describes — complete, unmistakable, public. But Scripture also teaches believers to thank God for His ordinary providence in medicine, recovery, and survival: Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach (1 Timothy 5:23), Luke was a physician (Colossians 4:14), and Hezekiah's healing came through a poultice of figs applied at God's word (Isaiah 38:21). A family giving thanks to God for a child's survival is not wrong to do so, even if it is better called God's mercy than a miracle in the technical sense. The comment's point — that precision in these words protects the meaning of the true signs of Scripture — can stand alongside gratitude for every good gift.

The people of Israel had two problems. First they refused to listen to God's true prophets:

For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. And though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. (Jeremiah 25:3, 4 NIV)

Second, they paid attention to false prophecies:

This is what the Lord Almighty says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. "I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, 'I had a dream! I had a dream!' How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? "Therefore," declares the Lord, "I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. Yes," declares the Lord, "I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, 'The Lord declares.' Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams," declares the Lord. "They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least," declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:16, 21, 25, 26, 30–32 NIV)

Unmi has a great post from last year on this topic. One of the points she brings out is that a prophet rarely prophesied anything good. If they did, they had a greater burden of proof, because most prophesies from the LORD were prescriptive and corrective, suggesting impending judgment rather than any reward for good.

Here's what troubles me. Most so-called prophecies today are positive rather than negative. They speak of some great revival, the Lord's second coming, or some other fortuitous event. What is more, if we applied the test for prophecies, all of these so-called prophecies would fail. Yet, the prophets who mouth these false claims are not held to account. They have not repented. They just change their tack as more and more people become wise to their manipulations. They say, "Let's hold off on making predictions over people," as we are getting bad press from those that are blaming us when these predictions don't come true rather than acknowledging their own lack of faith. So Mike Bickle tells his prophets at IHOP, "Make your prophecies more general" so that you don't get into trouble when they don't come true. After all, he notes, only about ten percent come true, although this percentage should get better as our prophets mature in their faith. Is their faith maturing, or is it rather their skill at manipulating people and events? Since when does prophecy ever depend on the spiritual maturity of the prophet? These are all inventions of people. Reader beware!

Friends, there is only one prophecy that you need to pay any attention to, and that is the prophecy of the Word of God. Pay no attention to what anyone else claims over you. If they will listen to you, perhaps you can convince them that they should stop mouthing their own thoughts as if they were the words of God. Don't be afraid if they are a pastor or a teacher or an evangelist or even a self-proclaimed "apostle," for you have nothing to fear from those that are caught up in such prophetic self-delusions and lies. Choose instead to stand fast and solely on the Word of God:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16, 17 NIV)

AI-Expanded Reflection

Jeremiah 23–25 identifies a double failure: the people will not listen to the message God sends, but they readily receive messages he has not sent. The problem is therefore not a shortage of religious speech. It is a disorder in how authority is recognized. A message becomes attractive because it protects the hearers' preferences, while the difficult word that calls for change is repeatedly ignored.

Jeremiah's reference to twenty-three years of speaking underscores patient persistence rather than a single misunderstood warning. The false prophets, meanwhile, speak from their own minds, borrow one another's words, and attach the Lord's name to their claims. Their speech does not benefit the people because it conceals the need for repentance. The critique reaches both invention and imitation: repeating a compelling message does not make it revelation simply because another confident speaker first delivered it.

The original observes that prophets announcing peace face a burden of verification. Jeremiah 28:8–9 does make fulfillment decisive in the confrontation with Hananiah. But negative tone is not itself a mark of divine truth. The prophetic books also contain extensive promises of restoration, forgiveness, and peace, including Jeremiah's own message of a new covenant. The right test is fidelity to God's actual word, not whether a prediction sounds encouraging or alarming.

The specific statements attributed to a contemporary ministry leader in the original are retained as dated allegations. Without identifiable recordings or documents establishing their wording and setting, they should not be repeated in the expansion as verified quotations or statistics. The ethical issue can be addressed without that uncertainty: failed claims must not be hidden by changing their meaning after the event or blaming hearers for insufficient faith. Accountability requires stating clearly what was claimed and acknowledging what the evidence shows.

Second Timothy 3:16–17 supplies a constructive center for the reader's response. Scripture teaches, rebukes, corrects, and trains; it does more than confirm what we already think. A believer who uses the Bible only to criticize rival teachers can still refuse its corrective work in personal conduct. Reverence for its authority should make us especially cautious about presenting our own inference as though it carried the same certainty as an explicit biblical statement.

Practical discernment includes checking context, distinguishing prediction from impression, and refusing pressure to make major decisions on the basis of another person's unsupported spiritual claim. It also includes willingness to hear a biblical warning that disrupts our preferences. The people in Jeremiah's day needed both capacities: resistance to invented authority and receptiveness to God's unwelcome truth. A healthy church cultivates them together through careful teaching, open examination, and leaders who can admit error without shifting responsibility to those they have influenced.

With so many prophets active in Jeremiah's day, how were the Israelites supposed to know whom to believe, especially when these prophets gave conflicting messages? Jeremiah wasn't the only one claiming to speak for the LORD — in these final years before Jerusalem's fall, more and more voices were proclaiming all kinds of prophecies. Moses had already warned Israel about this problem, giving two clear tests for recognizing a true prophet: first, their predictions had to actually come true — if a prophecy in the LORD's name didn't happen, that prophet hadn't really spoken for God (a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 18:21–22); second, even a prophet whose sign came true had to be rejected if their message led people toward other gods (a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 13:1–3). Among the many false prophets, Hananiah is specifically named. He publicly declared, in the LORD's name, that within two years God would break Babylon's hold on Judah, returning the temple articles Nebuchadnezzar had taken and bringing back the exiled king Jehoiachin along with all the other exiles (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 28:1–4). Jeremiah's initial response was almost wistful — "Amen! May the LORD do so!" — while still noting that a prophet who predicts peace can only be recognized as truly sent by the LORD once that prediction actually comes true (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 28:6, 9). Jeremiah later confronted Hananiah directly: the LORD hadn't sent him, yet he'd persuaded the nation to trust in lies — and because of that, Hananiah would die within the year for preaching rebellion against the LORD (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 28:15–16). Hananiah died just two months later, exactly as Jeremiah had said (a reference to Jeremiah 28:17). This confirmed Hananiah as a false prophet and Jeremiah as a true one. Since this happened early in Zedekiah's eleven-year reign as Judah's last king, Jeremiah continued prophesying for roughly seven more years after Hananiah's death — yet to the very end, the people mostly kept listening only to what they wanted to hear, not the truth. Jeremiah repeatedly warned about false prophets throughout his ministry: that everyone, prophets and priests included, was greedy for dishonest gain, treating the people's deep wound as though it were minor, saying "peace, peace" when there was no peace, without even the capacity to feel shame anymore (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 8:10–12); that the LORD hadn't sent these prophets, yet they prophesied lies, false visions, and delusions of their own minds (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 14:14; 23:16, 21, 25, 30–32); and that they should be ignored entirely, since their reassurances that Babylon's rule wouldn't last would only lead the people further from their homeland (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 27:9–10). Just as false prophets multiplied in Jerusalem's final days, Scripture warns that false messiahs and false prophets will appear again in the last days, performing great signs and wonders in an attempt to deceive even God's chosen, if that were possible — but we've been told this in advance (a paraphrase of Matthew 24:24–25).

AI-Expanded Reflection

The specific detail that Jeremiah's initial response to Hananiah was "Amen! May the LORD do so!" is worth noting as more sympathetic than it might first appear — Jeremiah isn't being sarcastic or naive; he genuinely wishes Hananiah's message of quick restoration were true, since it would mean less suffering for his own people. That makes his subsequent confrontation of Hananiah all the more costly: Jeremiah had to publicly contradict a message he would have loved to see fulfilled, precisely because he knew it wasn't actually from God. That's a useful distinction for discernment more broadly — the test of a message's truth was never whether Jeremiah (or anyone else) wanted it to be true, but only whether it actually came from God and whether it would come to pass, which kept his own hopes from being allowed to override his obedience to what he knew.