Pastors who steal God’s words
“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," declares the LORD, "who steal My words from each other.” (Jeremiah 23:30)
One day I was walking down a road near the beach in Santa Monica when a man came up to me. He asked me to try one of two paper cups, Coke or Pepsi, and guess whether it was Coke or Pepsi. So I tried. The reason I tried it was because I drank so much Coke a day that I was sure I knew the taste of Coke. But then I picked up a cup of Pepsi, drank it, and answered “Coke”. Haha. Even now, when I think of that moment, I feel that I should not be confident. If that person showed us a glass of water and a cup of Coke and told us to guess which one was Coke, we would be able to guess which one was Coke by looking at it even without drinking it. However, Coke and Pepsi are so similar that it is difficult to tell them apart.
The reason that memory came back to me at that time was because I came to know the meaning of the original Hebrew word for “steal My words from each other” while meditating on Jeremiah 23:30 and reading Dr. Yoon-sun Park’s commentary. Its original meaning is, ‘Each one steals My words from his friend.’ And the meaning of this phrase is that false prophets obtained the words of the true prophet secretly through their friends (also false prophets), and mixed them with their own false ideas. The purpose of doing this is to cunningly make their false ideas look like the truth (Park). They prophesied the deception of their own heart (v. 26).
What a cunning work of Satan. When Satan tries to look like the truth, and mixing false ideas with the word of God, it may not be easy for us to distinguish. It is especially difficult for us to discern what is truth and what appears to be truth unless we stand firm in word of God. This is certainly the work of Satan. Satan steals the word of God and mixes lies to the word of truth. He mixes truth with lies, so that we Christians can't tell them apart. And Satan deceives us with the word of God mixed with lies, and eventually leads us to have mixed faith. In other words, Satan deceives us with truth mixed with lies (v. 32), leading us to a syncretistic faith (religious?) life. So this Satan's delusion is really dangerous and can be fatal to us. If we fall into this delusion, we will serve God and Money with an impure faith, that is, a mixed faith (Mt. 6:24). The really serious problem is that even we pastors who are church leaders are falling for this Satan's delusion. Just imagine what will happen to the members of the church when the pastors of the church fall under the delusion of this Satan and serve both God and Money? If the pastors are shepherding with mixed faith, what will happen to the church's flock? If the words preached by the pastors at the pulpit are the words of God mixed with lies, what would happen to the believers who listen to them? In the time of Jeremiah, the prophets who were called religious leaders were like that. They mixed false ideas with the word of God and prophesied to the people of Judah. They said, “The Lord has said, ‘You will have peace’” (Jere. 23:17). They also say, “as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, They say, ’Calamity will not come upon you’” (v. 17). How could they say that they would be at peace in their hardened heart, and no calamity would come upon them? Obviously, God said to the people of Judah through Jeremiah, the true prophet, “"If you will return, O Israel," declares the LORD, "Then you should return to Me And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, And will not waver” (4:1). How could they be at peace, and how could calamity not come to the people of Judah who didn’t return to God, but continued to worship idols with God? It isn’t the work of the true prophet to bring the sinful people of Judah to repentance and turn to God, but rather to strengthen the hands of those who do evil, so that they would not turn from their evil (v. 14). It was the delusion of the false prophets. The really serious problem was that the wickedness of these false prophets came out of them and spread throughout the earth (v. 15).
How is this era we are living in now? Could it be that even in this day and age, the wickedness of the false pastors has come out of them and spreading all over the world? Is it possible that we the pastors are preaching in the pulpit right now by mixing false ideas with the word of God? Maybe we who should proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ are preaching a mixed gospel or “another gospel” (Gal. 1:7). Is it possible that we are teaching our church members to serve both God and Money with a mixed faith, preaching a mixed message to the church members and teaching them to serve both God and Money? If we are doing this, God is telling us: 'Your course is evil and your might isn’t right’ (Jere. 23:10) and ‘You are polluted. Even in My house and your house, I found your wickedness’ (v. 11). Therefore, God is telling us that He will bring calamity upon us (v. 12). The reason is because we aren’t boldly speaking to the members of the church who are hard-hearted, 'Repent and return to God' (Jere. 3:12, 14, 22, 4:1, 25:5, 31:21), but rather are leading them astray (23:13) and are strengthening their hands (v. 14). This is leading God’s people astray by our falsehoods and reckless boasting (v. 32). This is no benefit to God's people (v. 32). Therefore, we pastors must first repent and return to God. And our mixed faith must be purified even through suffering. Then we must proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in pure faith. We must speak the word of God in truth (v. 28). We must do this because the word of God itself is “like fire” and “like a hammer which shatters a rock” (v. 29). Then, through us, God will bring about a work of true repentance as the hearts of the believers who listen to the word of the Lord are melted and broken through the proclaimed word of God. Therefore, they will turn to God and live in obedience to God's word with pure faith. They will no longer serve both God and Money. They will no longer be Christians who are scorned by the world. Rather, they will faithfully take on the role of light and salt of the world. I hope and pray that this amazing work of God will happen in our church.