I love the fact that the Bible isn’t full of people that we can’t relate to, they are not people that respond in superhuman ways that I am simply never going to be able to imitate. But the Bible is filled with people that inspire and stir us to be more than we currently are.  That is what happens to me when I read Jeremiah; I know that this man was a prophet and not just a ‘prophetic person’ but a prophet called by God to speak to his nation, to speak to Kings.

Maybe this has happened to you. You had your plans laid out, for your career, marriage, family, ministry. And somewhere in the midst of following your dreams, God’s calling leads you in a bizarrely new direction. The prophet Jeremiah can certainly relate.

As I read Jeremiah I am overwhelmed with the questions: have I and do I? Every time I read the charges against Israel: you followed other gods, you prostituted yourself, you didn’t trust in me, you have no awe of me. I can’t help but self-assess – have I done these things in my life, do I do these things today?

It was recently declared over me, “the gift of prophecy rides on the back of the character of courage. You’ve got both and hats off to you. When you are like that you create enemies just because you are like that and I would say get used to it for the rest of your life. That you are here to upset the apple cart, you are here to upset the status quo, and that’s not you interfering, that’s you with gifting. That’s who you are.

There is a famous quote that says: “The only way for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing”. And as I read Jeremiah, I keep hearing this over and over again but in a slightly different version – all I hear is

“The only way for evil to prevail is for good men to say nothing!”

The people that confuse and shock me as I read the book of Jeremiah are the ‘false prophets’; prophets of Israel that are not prophesying what God is saying. Let’s look at two questions: what role does the ‘false prophet’ serve in the book of Jeremiah and are there any warnings that we can take from their lives today?