Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make My people err
False prophets
Here the prophet attacks the false prophets, as before he had attacked the “princes.
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I. They are DECEIVING. God says, they “make My people err” Preachers often make their hearers err.
(1) In theology. They propound ideas, crude and ill digested, concerning God, Christ, moral conditions and relations, utterly inconsistent with truth.
(2) In worship.
(3) In morality. Their standard of duty is often wrong.
II. They are avaricious. They “bite with their teeth, and cry peace.” Greed governs them in all their ministries.
III. They are confounded.
1. Confounded in darkness. “Night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.”
2. Confounded in shame. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners be confounded. Jehovah ignores them. “There is no answer of God.” “Those,” says Matthew Henry, “who deceive others are but preparing confusion for their own faces.” (Homilist.)