An Appalling and horrible thing has happened - Jeremiah 1-5

The last two verses of this section sum it all up quite well: "An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: The Prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and my people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?" Jeremiah was sent to prophecy to the southern tribe of Judah (Isaiah was sent earlier to prophecy to the northern tribes of Israel ... the nation split in 931 B.C. at the time of Solomon's death). Jeremiah was to be the lone voice for God in a time when most prophets (the most we read about and the people listened to) were spreading false prophecies. Jeremiah will eventual tell the nation to give in to the Assyrians and Babylonians and allow them to capture the people. This will not sit well with the nation. The false prophets, who the people loved, will speak about God delivering them from their captors, as He did many times (see the book of Judges). God's verdict on the nation, however, was that it was a horrible thing for someone to say something false in the place of God. It was a terrible thing for the land. The worst portion of these words is that the people "love" that the prophets were false. They did not test the prophets because they like the teaching of the prophets. Jeremiah will show us what happens in a land where false prophets are not incremented but rather loved and enjoyed and embraced. Jeremiah will be ill treated because he dared to speak the truth about God and God truth about the nation. But, if we don't speak truth, it is a terrible and horrible thing for the land ... because truth wins!