Jer 42:1-22  My Fury [Shall] be Poured Forth Upon You, When Ye Shall Enter into Egypt

[Study Aired June 12, 2022

Jer 42:1  Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near,
Jer 42:2  And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:)
Jer 42:3  That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.
Jer 42:4  Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the LORD your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.
Jer 42:5  Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us.
Jer 42:6  Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.
Jer 42:7  And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah.
Jer 42:8  Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
Jer 42:9  And said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him;
Jer 42:10  If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.
Jer 42:11  Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
Jer 42:12  And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.
Jer 42:13  But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God,
Jer 42:14  Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:
Jer 42:15  And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;
Jer 42:16  Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.
Jer 42:17  So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
Jer 42:18  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.
Jer 42:19  The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day.
Jer 42:20  For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.
Jer 42:21  And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.
Jer 42:22  Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.

This chapter of Jeremiah demonstrates how we can and do fall when we think we are standing in the Lord while being disobedient to His commandments:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

All those who refused to go forth and place themselves under the yoke of the princes of Babylon felt they had overcome the enemy, and that God was on their side even as they refused His counsel. Johanan, the son of Kereah, was just such a person, and when He rescued those who had been carried away as captives to Amon, his self-righteousness and iniquity become even greater, as we will learn for our own admonition:

Jer 42:1  Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near,
Jer 42:2  And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:)
Jer 42:3  That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.
Jer 42:4  Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the LORD your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass,that whatsoever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.
Jer 42:5  Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us.
Jer 42:6  Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.

Being informed later in this chapter that after seeking the Lord’s counsel through the Lord’s certified, proven prophet, “all the people” reject that counsel and declare that Jeremiah is not the Lord’s prophet, brings these verses of Ezekiel to mind:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

These two stories, first in Jeremiah 42 and then here in Ezekiel 14, happened to these two prophets of God, and they are written for our admonition:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

It is the Lord who “makes us to err from His ways and hardens our hearts from His fear”, yet every time He does so, it makes the words “Wherefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” come alive. When the Lord does that, it strengthens “the fear of God” within those who are given to benefit from reading these stories and receiving the admonition they give us.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

It should be clear that a “hardened heart” is the same as being made to err from the Lord’s ways as the story of Pharaoh demonstrates:

Exo 4:21  And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

Paul contrasts a hardened heart with the Lord’s mercy:

Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

The Lord has mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardens. Our own will has nothing to do with what He is doing except that our will is turned by the Lord where He wants it to go. He causes us to either receive His mercy or be given a hardened heart:

Pro 21:1  The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

When God hardens our hearts, He does so before we come to His prophet or His Words to enquire of Him. In other words, we come to Him, His Word, and the leaders, elders and counselors He has placed in His body, with our minds already made up, and with no regard at all for the words of the Lord through His leaders, elders, and counselors.

Having their hearts hardened to all these commandments and admonitions means nothing to these remnant Jews of this chapter:

Pro 11:14  Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Pro 15:22  Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

Pro 24:6  For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.

When the Lord gives us just such a hardened heart, this is how He will answer us:

Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;
Eze 14:5  That I may take the house of Israel [the “harlot” of Isaiah 1:21 and the “whore” of Revelation 17:1] in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Eze 14:6  Therefore say unto the house of Israel [the harlot], Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8  And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

As the Lord would have it, that is exactly what is taking place within the hearts and minds of this Jewish remnant:

Jer 42:7  And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah.
Jer 42:8  Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
weight: 400;”>Jer 42:9  And said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him;
Jer 42:10  If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.

We see the Lord repenting several times in scripture:

Gen 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen 6:6  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Gen 6:7  And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Jdg 2:18  And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.

1Sa 15:10  Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
1Sa 15:11  It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.

2Sa 24:16  And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.

The sum of God’s word reveals that “He is not a man that He should repent” as the holy spirit informs us in the same 15^th chapter of 1 Samuel. We are told, “It repented the Lord that [He] had set up Saul to be king.”

1Sa 15:28  And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.
1Sa 15:29  And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

The vast weight of the Words of God reveal that He knows the beginning from the end…

Isa 46:10  Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

…because He IS the beginning and the end.

Rev 21:6  And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Rev 22:13  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

The Lord tells us that His understanding is infinite:

Psa 147:5  Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

If indeed the Lord is the beginning and the end and His understanding is infinite, then there is nothing He does not know – past, present, or future:

Isa 46:10  Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

Nevertheless, there is one more principle which characterizes the Words of God. That principle is that there are qualifying statements which must always be accepted. If the Lord tells us anything and then makes a qualifying statement, then we must accept that qualifier.

For example, the Lord told Abraham to sacrifice His only son, but then He told Him not to do so:

Gen 22:2  And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Later the Lord qualified that commandment:

Gen 22:9  And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
Gen 22:10  And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
Gen 22:11  And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here  am I.
Gen 22:12  And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

Verse 12 qualifies verse 2, and Abraham did not slay his only son, even though the Lord had told him to do so at first.

Another example of how this principle works is how Pharaoh in Genesis gave all power over all Egypt to Joseph with one qualifying statement:

Gen 41:40  Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.
Gen 41:41  And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.

The words “only in the throne will I be greater than thou” qualify the extent of Joseph’s power over Egypt.

Another example of this principle is the anti-type of this story here in Genesis. Joseph, in this account of how he is made the ruler over all Egypt, typifies how God has given Christ all power in heaven and in earth:

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

However, the scriptures qualify the extent of Christ’s power:

1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he [the Father] is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

This statement speaks to the time of the destruction of “the last enemy… death”, and we are told that at that time “the Son also Himself [shall] be subject unto Him [the Father] who did put all things under [the Son].”

Just as an aside, that statement nullifies the false doctrine of a trinity of three equal parts of the Godhead.

Our point in all of this is that God is not a man that He should repent, and all those statements telling us that He did repent of making man, of chastening His people during the dispensation of the various judges, and of setting up Saul to be king over Israel, etc. are all being used in what is called an ‘anthropopathic’ (human feeling) manner. How else can He convey how His nature is so very opposed to the nature of His very own creatures? How else can He make us this offer?

Jer 42:10  If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.

The Lord really is all knowing, He is all powerful, and He is omnipresent. He is everywhere at the same time because:

Col 1:16   …by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Therefore, when our Lord tells us…

Jer 42:11  Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
Jer 42:12  And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.

…we need to believe that He who has “all power in heaven and in earth” is very much able to make good on His word and to cause even our enemies to be at peace with us:

Pro 16:7  When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

When our ‘ways’, our customs and traditions included, as we will see in this story, do not “please the Lord” the very opposite it true, and our own wickedness reproves us:

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

At this point all we know about these Jews is that they did not put their necks under the yoke of the princes of Babylon. Other than that, we have not yet been explicitly told what ‘ways’ of these remnant Jews so displeased the Lord. We don’t yet know what it is they were still doing which separates them from their own God and drives them to go into the land of Egypt.

Jer 42:13  But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God,
Jer 42:14  Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:
Jer 42:15  And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;
Jer 42:16  Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.
Jer 42:17  So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
Jer 42:18  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.
Jer 42:19  The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day.

The reason we want to go into Egypt is that we feel safe and at home there. The Truth is that Israel never really wanted to leave Egypt, and after they left they wanted to go back there and serve again as slaves to the Egyptians:

Num 14:2  And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
Num 14:3  And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
Num 14:4  And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

Hundreds of years later, the Lord’s people were of the same mind and refused His counsel from His prophet:

Jer 42:20  For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.
Jer 42:21  And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.
Jer 42:22  Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.

In the Old Testament the Lord spoke through His patriarchs, and His prophets, and He certified His prophets by demonstrating for the whole world that those through whom He spoke were indeed speaking for Him in this manner:

Deu 13:1  If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
Deu 13:2  And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
Deu 13:3  Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deu 13:4  Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
Deu 13:5  And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

These verses inform us that there will be false prophets whose prophecies will come to pass and then those same false prophets will encourage us to be disobedient to the Lord’s commandments. In such circumstances we are told that the Lord made the prophecy to come to pass “for the Lord your God proves you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Nevertheless, His true prophets are made known by the accuracy of their prophecies in conjunction with their dedication to obeying His commandments, as we are told in:

Deu 18:20  But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
Deu 18:21  And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?
Deu 18:22  When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Hananiah prophesied falsely in the name of the Lord that Judah’s captivity would only last two years after which King Jehoiachin would return with all the vessels of the house of the Lord. In boldly making this false prophesy, Hananiah was labeling the Lord’s true prophet a liar for saying the captivity would last seventy years and Jehoiachin would never return to Jerusalem.

Jeremiah also prophesied that Hananiah would die that same year, and in just a few months Hananiah was dead. Here are both prophecies:

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month,  that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which  was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:3  Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
Jer 28:4  And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Those are the words of a false prophet with no proof of his standing with the Lord. On the other hand, here are the words of the Lord’s already proven prophet:

Jer 28:15  Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
Jer 28:16  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.
Jer 28:17  So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

From “the fourth month” to “the same year in the seventh month” is at the very most three months, signifying the time needed to complete the judgment of Hananiah the false prophet.

Here’s a link to the study on The Number Three

In the Old Testament the Lord proved to the world who it was who spoke for Him by bringing their prophecies to pass and by the miracles He gave His prophets the power to perform.

In this dispensation of the New Testament church, God shows the world who are His spokespersons by making known their love of God, which means that He makes known those who tremble at His words, are obedient to His word, and follow in His steps:

The power to perform miracles, without being obedient to God and trembling at His words and walking in Christ’s footsteps, will be used by the beast to deceive the multitudes:

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Rev 13:14  And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

This beast which comes up out of the earth with two horns like a lamb but speaking as a lion, appears as an angel of light, but for those who know the voice of the True Shepherd, this beast speaks as a dragon. His doctrine is not the doctrine of Christ.

In contrast, here is how we discern those who are Christ’s True spokesmen:

1Th 5:12  And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
1Th 5:13  And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.
1Th 5:14  Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
1Th 5:15  See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.
1Th 5:16  Rejoice evermore.

The Lord’s true shepherds of His sheep will be found doing all those things. They will be found admonishing you and warning the unruly, and at the same time telling you to “Rejoice evermore”. The Lord’s true shepherds will be comforting the feeble minded, supporting the weak and being patient with everyone, never returning evil for evil.

Those who speak as a dragon do not appear as a dragon, and they do not sound like a dragon. Instead, they speak “smooth things”, and “they appear as an angel of light”:

Isa 30:10  Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Here we have those who “have two horns like a Lamb, but [they] speak as a dragon.” The great red dragon does not prophesy right things; things like the judgments of God. Those who ‘speak as a dragon’ speak with a forked tongue, no doubt condemning sins which are common to all men while at the same time “speaking smooth things and prophesying deceits”. Some go as far as to tell you that Christ wants you to live a life of “coffee and doughnuts” and where the scriptures teach “whose end shall be according to their works” those who ‘speak smooth things… as a dragon’ will twist Paul’s words which inform us that our salvation has nothing to do with our works into saying that salvation has nothing to do with works of any kind.

Here is the Truth about the doctrine of the apostle Paul concerning our salvation and how it is achieved:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [our own] works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God  hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

How can any man, who is speaking for Christ, admonish a brother and warn the unruly if he is teaching a doctrine of ‘no works’ and speaks only “smooth words” about coffee and doughnuts?  The Lord Himself tells us what to look for in those through whom He is speaking:

Isa 66:1  Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD:  but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
Isa 66:3  He that killeth an ox [without verse 2] is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
Isa 66:4  I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
Isa 66:5  Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

In our next study we will be shown what plagued the Lord’s people throughout their entire history, and we will see that it does so to the church of Christ to this very day.