Jeremiah 23 Footnotes

23:5-6 Jeremiah prophesied that Judah and Israel would be saved during the days of the “Branch,” but most of the Jews rejected Christ (Mt 21:42-45; Ac 13:46). Paul pointed out that, in fact, the true Israel had been saved (Rm 2:28-29; 11:1,7; Gl 3:7; 6:16) in the faithful Christian community. In the NT, several major OT themes—the promised land, the temple, Zion or Jerusalem, the Messiah—receive a new interpretation, and Israel is another of these themes. It was not given to the OT prophets to see the fulfillment of their words in Christ and his church (Heb 11:39-40). Paul also held out hope that in the future the “fullness” of Israel would come to Christ (Rm 11:11-15,26; see Ezk 37).

23:16-18 The test for a true prophet is whether his prophecy comes to pass (Dt 13:1-3). The history of Israel reveals that the true prophets were those who proclaimed the Lord’s judgment, not those who ignored the people’s sin and prophesied well-being. Those prophets had not “stood in the council of the LORD” (Jr 23:18; see v. 22), and their message was not from him. If the people listened to them anyway, they would be “deluding [themselves]” and come under judgment.

23:28 Jeremiah said, in what may have been a piece of sarcasm—that the prophet who had a dream should tell it. He was not conceding that the false prophets’ dreams were from God. On the contrary, they would be exposed as worthless straw compared to wholesome grain. In some cases, a dream is a valid way to hear from God (Nm 12:6; Jl 2:28; Mt 2:12,13,19,22; Ac 18:9-10).