◄ Jeremiah 5:31 ►
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?
Study Bible
The prophets prophesy falsely
In this phrase, the Hebrew word for "prophets" is "נְבִיאִים" (nevi'im), which refers to those who are supposed to be God's messengers. However, these prophets are described as prophesying "falsely" (שֶׁקֶר, sheker), indicating deceit and falsehood. Historically, false prophets were a significant issue in ancient Israel, leading people away from God's truth. This highlights the importance of discernment and the need for leaders who are truly aligned with God's word.

and the priests rule by their own authority
The Hebrew term for "priests" is "כֹּהֲנִים" (kohanim), who were meant to be spiritual leaders and mediators between God and the people. However, they are described as ruling "by their own authority" (עַל־יְדֵיהֶם, al-yedehem), suggesting a usurpation of divine authority for personal gain. This reflects a corruption of spiritual leadership, where human authority is placed above God's commands, a recurring theme in the history of Israel.

and My people love it so!
The phrase "My people" (עַמִּי, ammi) refers to the Israelites, God's chosen people. The fact that they "love it so" (אָהֲבוּ כֵן, ahavu ken) indicates a troubling acceptance and even desire for this false leadership. This suggests a deep spiritual malaise where the people prefer comforting lies over challenging truths, a condition that can lead to moral and spiritual decay.

But what will you do in the end?
This rhetorical question serves as a sobering warning. The Hebrew word for "end" (אַחֲרִית, acharit) often refers to the ultimate outcome or destiny. It challenges the people to consider the consequences of their actions and the inevitable judgment that follows. This is a call to repentance and a return to God's truth, emphasizing the urgency of aligning with divine will before it is too late.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jeremiah
A major prophet in the Old Testament, called by God to deliver messages of warning and hope to the people of Judah.

2. Prophets
Religious leaders in Judah who were supposed to speak God's truth but were instead delivering false messages.

3. Priests
Religious officials responsible for leading worship and maintaining the spiritual life of the community, yet they were ruling by their own authority rather than God's.

4. The People of Judah
The audience of Jeremiah's message, who were complicit in accepting false teachings and corrupt leadership.

5. Judah
The southern kingdom of Israel, facing impending judgment due to widespread sin and rebellion against God.
Teaching Points
Discernment in Leadership
Believers must be vigilant in discerning the truthfulness of spiritual leaders, ensuring they align with God's Word.

Authority of Scripture
True spiritual authority comes from adherence to Scripture, not personal or cultural preferences.

The Danger of Complacency
The people of Judah loved the false messages because they were comfortable, highlighting the danger of complacency in our spiritual lives.

Consequences of Falsehood
The passage warns of the inevitable consequences of following false teachings, urging believers to consider the end result of their spiritual choices.

Personal Responsibility
Each believer is responsible for their response to spiritual leadership and must seek God's truth actively.
Bible Study Questions
1. How can we identify false prophets and teachers in today's context, and what steps can we take to protect ourselves from their influence?

2. In what ways might we be tempted to prefer messages that align with our desires rather than God's truth, and how can we guard against this?

3. How does the authority of Scripture guide us in evaluating the teachings and practices of our spiritual leaders?

4. What are the potential consequences of complacency in our spiritual lives, and how can we remain vigilant in our faith?

5. How can we apply the lessons from Jeremiah 5:31 to ensure that we are living in accordance with God's will and not merely following cultural or personal preferences?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Deuteronomy 18:20-22
Discusses the criteria for true and false prophets, emphasizing the importance of speaking God's words accurately.

Ezekiel 22:26-28
Highlights the corruption of priests and prophets, similar to the situation in Jeremiah's time.

2 Timothy 4:3-4
Warns of a time when people will not endure sound doctrine and will turn to teachers who say what they want to hear, paralleling the people's love for false prophecy in Jeremiah's day.

Matthew 7:15-20
Jesus warns about false prophets, teaching that they can be recognized by their fruits, which connects to the false prophets in Jeremiah's time.
Sermons
A Wonderful and Horrible Thing IndeedS. Conway Jeremiah 5:31
A Question for the BeginningA. Maclaren, D. D.Jeremiah 5:26-31
God's People Love to have it SoArthur Ritchie.Jeremiah 5:26-31
Think About the EndJ. J. Ellis.Jeremiah 5:26-31
What Will Ye Do in the End ThereofJ Ogle.Jeremiah 5:26-31
What Will Ye Do in the End?T. Binney, D. D.Jeremiah 5:26-31
Wicked Professors the Bane of the ChurchHelps for the PulpitJeremiah 5:26-31
Wickedness Rampant in the CityJeremiah 5:26-31
Mutual Helpers in Wrong-DoingD. Young Jeremiah 5:30, 31
People
Jacob, Jeremiah
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Authority, Bear, Beck, Decisions, Direction, Falsehood, Falsely, Glad, Latter, Lies, Love, Loved, Priests, Prophesied, Prophesy, Prophets, Rule, Service, Thereof
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 5:31

     5943   self-deception
     8710   atheism

Jeremiah 5:30-31

     7774   prophets, false

Library
A Question for the Beginning
'What will ye do in the end?'--JER. v. 31. I find that I preached to the young from this text just thirty years since--nearly a generation ago. How few of my then congregation are here to-night! how changed they and I are! and how much nearer the close we have drifted! How many of the young men and women of that evening have gone to meet the end, and how many of them have wrecked their lives because they would not face and answer this question! Ah, dear young friends, if I could bring some of the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Storming the Battlements
Jerusalem had sinned against God; she had rebelled against the most High, had set up for herself false gods, and bowed before them; and when God threatened her with chastisement, she built around herself strong battlements and bastions. She said "I am safe and secure. What though Jehovah hath gone away, I will trust in the gods of nations. Though the Temple is cast down, yet we will rely upon these bulwarks and strong fortifications that we have erected." "Ah!" says God, "Jerusalem, I will punish …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

God's Barriers against Man's Sin
I am slowly rallying. My great struggle now is with weakness. I feel as if my frail bark had weathered a heavy storm which has made every timber creak. Do not attribute this illness to my having laboured too hard for my Master. For his dear sake, I would that I may yet be able to labour more. Such toils as might be hardly noticed in the ramp for the service of one's country, would excite astonishment in the church for the service of our God. And now, I entreat you for love's sake to continue in prayer …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

Tithing
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal. 3:10). Down deep in the heart of every Christian there is undoubtedly the conviction that he ought to tithe. There is an uneasy feeling that this is a duty which has been neglected, or, if you prefer it, a privilege that has not been …
Arthur W. Pink—Tithing

How those who Fear Scourges and those who Contemn them are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 14.) Differently to be admonished are those who fear scourges, and on that account live innocently, and those who have grown so hard in wickedness as not to be corrected even by scourges. For those who fear scourges are to be told by no means to desire temporal goods as being of great account, seeing that bad men also have them, and by no means to shun present evils as intolerable, seeing they are not ignorant how for the most part good men also are touched by them. They are to be admonished …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Purpose in the Coming of Jesus.
God Spelling Himself out in Jesus: change in the original language--bother in spelling Jesus out--sticklers for the old forms--Jesus' new spelling of old words. Jesus is God following us up: God heart-broken--man's native air--bad choice affected man's will--the wrong lane--God following us up. The Early Eden Picture, Genesis 1:26-31. 2:7-25: unfallen man--like God--the breath of God in man--a spirit, infinite, eternal--love--holy--wise--sovereign over creation, Psalm 8:5-8--in his own will--summary--God's …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

Purposes of God.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What I understand by the purposes of God. Purposes, in this discussion, I shall use as synonymous with design, intention. The purposes of God must be ultimate and proximate. That is, God has and must have an ultimate end. He must purpose to accomplish something by his works and providence, which he regards as a good in itself, or as valuable to himself, and to being in general. This I call his ultimate end. That God has such an end or purpose, …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

"And Hereby we do Know that we Know Him, if we Keep his Commandments. "
1 John ii. 3.--"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." This age pretends to much knowledge beyond former ages, knowledge, I say, not only in other natural arts and sciences, but especially in religion. Whether there be any great advancement in other knowledge, and improvement of that which was, to a further extent and clearness, I cannot judge, but I believe there is not much of it in this nation, nor do we so much pretend to it. But, we talk of the enlargements of …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire
THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR. The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the library of Kouyunjik--Phraortes …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

"If So be that the Spirit of God Dwell in You. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is None of His. "
Rom. viii. 9.--"If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" 2 Chron. vi. 18. It was the wonder of one of the wisest of men, and indeed, considering his infinite highness above the height of heavens, his immense and incomprehensible greatness, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and then the baseness, emptiness, and worthlessness of man, it may be a wonder to the …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals.
To declare emphatically that the people of God are a covenant people, various signs were in sovereignty vouchsafed. The lights in the firmament of heaven were appointed to be for signs, affording direction to the mariner, the husbandman, and others. Miracles wrought on memorable occasions, were constituted signs or tokens of God's universal government. The gracious grant of covenant signs was made in order to proclaim the truth of the existence of God's covenant with his people, to urge the performance …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Acceptable Sacrifice;
OR, THE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART: SHOWING THE NATURE, SIGNS, AND PROPER EFFECTS OF A CONTRITE SPIRIT. BEING THE LAST WORKS OF THAT EMINENT PREACHER AND FAITHFUL MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST, MR. JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD. WITH A PREFACE PREFIXED THEREUNTO BY AN EMINENT MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN LONDON. London: Sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgates, 1692. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. The very excellent preface to this treatise, written by George Cokayn, will inform the reader of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Of the Nature of Regeneration, and Particularly of the Change it Produces in Men's Apprehensions.
2 COR. v. 17. 2 COR. v. 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. THE knowledge of our true state in religion, is at once a matter of so great importance, and so great difficulty that, in order to obtain it, it is necessary we should have line upon line and precept upon precept. The plain discourse, which you before heard, was intended to lead you into it; and I question not but I then said enough to convince many, that they were …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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