by Professor Se Hoon Chang (Theological Orthodoxy, Vol. 42, No. 2 (2025), pp. 5–8)
According to the introduction of Jeremiah, most of the prophets, even while Israel was committing sin and practicing lawlessness, proclaimed only prosperity and success and failed to emphasize a return to God. Though the people were deeply immersed in sin, these prophets showed no concern for a message of repentance; instead, they spoke only of peace and success. Such messages did not originate from the will of God but from their own desires—they were false messages. In other words, they abandoned God’s “etsah” (counsel) and trusted in human “etsah.”
When such false messages became widespread, another phenomenon emerged: dependence on divination and occult practices. In the midst of the crisis of Babylonian invasion, how did the people of Israel attempt to deal with their anxiety about the future? Rather than examining their sins and seeking to return to the Lord, the people of Jeremiah’s time relied on the magical powers of foreign gods as a solution to their present problems. Jeremiah laments this situation:
“The Lord said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds’” (Jeremiah 14:14).
Even more strikingly, Jeremiah criticizes both prophets and diviners together, warning that they were misleading the people through false messages (Jer. 29:8). What, then, was the common message they proclaimed? They declared, “You will not serve the king of Babylon” (Jer. 27:9), insisting that destruction by Babylon would not occur and that God would guarantee Israel’s peace and security. This reveals that the prophets had failed in their calling and had spiritually degenerated to the level of soothsayers, catering to the desires of the people.
Their fundamental problem was this: instead of confronting Israel’s idolatry and injustice and calling the people to return to the Lord, they became instruments for satisfying worldly desires. Tragically, this issue is not limited to the time of Jeremiah. In today’s culture, practices such as fortune-telling—especially tarot reading—have gained widespread popularity, particularly among younger generations. Even within the church, some believers are influenced by such practices, seeking worldly blessings through horoscopes, physiognomy, or other forms of divination. These occult messages are especially powerful because they appeal directly to human desires for material blessing and success.
In such a context, if preachers also succumb to these trends—stimulating secular desires and exploiting them to encourage superficial zeal and commitment—they are no different from the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day. Rather, those who stand in the pulpit must lead people to recognize their fundamental problems before God and guide them toward genuine repentance.
May today’s preachers resist the temptation of manipulative, desire-driven messages and instead faithfully proclaim the importance of true repentance, leading God’s people to seek first the kingdom of God.
