“When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the Lord.’ And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ I will punish that man and his household. Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ But ‘the burden of the Lord’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God.”
Jeremiah 23:33-36
Through the Bible: Jeremiah 23-25
Christians love our catchphrases. We’ve all heard them. Probably most of us have used them from time to time. See if any of these sound familiar:
- “God told me…”
- “God gave me a word this morning…”
- God laid this on my heart…”
There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with any of those phrases. Sometimes God really does lay something on our hearts. The Holy Spirit really does lead us. God really does use His Word to show us things we need to see.
But catchphrases are called “catchphrases” because they attempt to capture a whole lot of meaning and significance into a pithy, memorable phrase.
Apparently, the people in Jeremiah’s day had their own religious catchphrase: “the burden of the Lord.” It was their religious shorthand for “I’ve got a message from God. ”
The Hebrew word translated “burden” literally refers to something that is lifted up or carried. But the word was also used for a prophetic message or oracle. Isaiah repeatedly introduces prophetic messages as “the burden” or “oracle” concerning a particular nation (see Is. 13:1; 15:1). Similarly Nahum begins with “An oracle concerning Nineveh.” Habakkuk 1:1 introduces “the oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.”
So there was nothing inherently wrong with the expression “the burden of the Lord.” A prophet received a word from God and carried that word to the people.
The problem was that by Jeremiah’s time, prophets in Judah were throwing the phrase around without actually hearing from God.
They were claiming God’s authority for words God had never spoken. They were telling people what they wanted to hear and then stamping “Thus says the Lord” on it.
And in Jeremiah 23, God has some blistering words for these false prophets:
“I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.”
(Jeremiah 23:21)
So apparently people had begun asking Jeremiah, perhaps even mockingly, “Well, Jeremiah, what’s the burden of the Lord?”
What’s God saying today?
What’s the latest word?
What’s the burden?
Finally, in verse 33, God seems to have had enough:
“When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden.’
Ouch.
There is a play on words here that is easy to miss in English. They want to know what “burden”—what prophetic message—God has given Jeremiah to carry.
God’s answer is essentially, You want to know what burden I’m carrying? You.
Then God tells them to stop using the expression altogether:
“But ‘the burden of the Lord’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God.”
(Jeremiah 23:36)
That’s the real problem.
They were calling their own words God’s words.
And that’s where Jeremiah 23 gets uncomfortably contemporary.
I’ve heard people say, “God told me” about decisions that seemed suspiciously close to what they already wanted to do. I’ve heard people claim that God “laid something on their heart” when what followed sounded a lot more like their personal opinion. I’ve probably done it myself.
And once we put God’s name in front of something, we’ve made it very difficult for anyone else to question us. After all, who can argue with “I just don’t feel led…”?
“I think I should do this” leaves room for discernment.
“I believe this is the wisest decision” leaves room for counsel.
“I feel strongly about this” leaves room for disagreement.
But “God told me to do this” ends the conversation.
Who are you to argue with God?
That’s why we should be extraordinarily careful with religious catchphrases that claim divine authority. There is a world of difference between saying, “I believe God may be leading me in this direction” and saying, “God told me.”
One acknowledges that I am a fallible human being trying to discern God’s will.
The other puts my words in God’s mouth.
Jeremiah knew the difference.
Jeremiah had a word from God he sometimes wished he didn’t have (see Jer. 20:9).
The false prophets had words they wished had come from God, but didn’t.
Maybe we need to recover some humility in the way we talk about God’s leading. Instead of immediately saying, “God told me,” perhaps we should say, “I think God may be leading me.” Instead of “God showed me,” perhaps, “Here’s what I think I’m seeing in Scripture.”
And we absolutely need to recover a spirit of discernment when other people claim to have a “new revelation,” or a “fresh word from God.”
When someone claims to have a “new revelation” or a “fresh word from God,” here is the litmus test: Either it’s not new, or it’s not true. If it agrees with what God has already revealed in Scripture, then it isn’t new. And if it contradicts what God has already revealed in Scripture, then it isn’t true.
If someone claims to have a new revelation from God, there are only two possibilities: Either it’s not new, or it’s not true.
We already have all of God’s Word he intended for us to have (see Jude 1:3; Rev. 22:18-19). This is the doctrine of a closed canon, and it is arguably the best guardrail we have against heresy.
To borrow from some other popular catchphrases, don’t ask God for a vision when He’s already given you a verse.
And if you want to hear God speak, read your Bible out loud.
That doesn’t weaken our faith. It simply acknowledges the difference between God’s infallible Word and our fallible interpretation of it.
There are times when we can confidently say, “God says.”
When Scripture speaks clearly, we don’t have to hedge. God has told us to love our enemies. God has told us to forgive one another. God has told us to care for the poor, pursue holiness, make disciples, and love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
But when the Bible hasn’t spoken clearly about which job I should take, which house I should buy, which person I should marry, or what somebody else’s motives are, I need to be a lot more careful about putting God’s name on my conclusions.
Because sometimes what we call “the burden of the Lord” is really, as Jeremiah says, “every man’s own word.”
Enough with the religious catchphrases.
Before we say, “God told me,” we’d better be very sure He did.
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