April 2020 – Ran Silberman

False Prophets Today?

In the Bible we read about false prophets that unlike true prophets, do not hear from God, but rather from their own mind.

They pretend to be hearing from God. Many people, even kings, approach them to hear what God put in their mouth. But all in vain. All they have to say is the opposite of God’s word.

Why are they opposing God? Because false prophets tell people what they want to hear!

And how do false prophets know what the people who come to them want to hear?

Let’s check the Bible.

King Ahab needs a good advice

in 1 Kings chapter 22 we read a story of Ahab, king of Israel, that wanted to start a war against Aram.

Before he went to the war, he had asked his prophets: “Shall I go to battle or shall I refrain”?

And the 400 prophets answered in one voice: “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” (1 Kings 22:6)

But his friend, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, urged him to also ask a prophet of the Lord. Unwillingly, Ahab asked for Micaiah son of Imlah, a prophet of the Lord of Israel.

Micaiah did not want to tell Ahab the true vision he had. And told him a lie, just like the rest of the false prophets. But after Ahab commanded him to tell the truth, he said to him:

“I saw all Israel Scattered on the mountains, Like sheep which have no shepherd.
And the Lord said, ‘These have no master. Let each of them return to his house in peace.’”
1 Kings 22:17

And then Micaiah explained.

This is very important, because it tells us what is the source of false prophecies:

I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. ²⁰The Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said this while another said that. ²¹Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ²²The Lord said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so.’ ²³Now therefore, behold, the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the Lord has proclaimed disaster against you.”
1 Kings 22:19-23

Deceiving Spirit. This is what it is.

False prophets make it their profession to prophesize, even though they do not hear from God. They tell the people what the people want to hear. Jeremiah said about them:

“For from the least of them even to the greatest of them,
Everyone is greedy for gain,
And from the prophet even to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.
¹⁴“They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.
Jeremiah 6:13-14

False prophets today

So who are the false prophet of our days?

Who are the people that are against God and tell the people what they want to hear? Moreover, they have some kind of supernatural authority that comes from their wisdom and knowledge. Don’t we all know them?

The undisputed leader of today’s false prophet is a Jew, of course. He was born in Israel. He wrote books that became best-sellers.

Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama, Bill Gates recommended his books.

His name is Yuval Noah Harari.

And here is a prophecy quoted from his book “Homo Deus”, (Harvill Secker, 2015)

Having reduced mortality from starvation, disease and violence, we will now aim to overcome old age and even death itself. Having saved people from abject misery, we will now aim to make them positively happy. And having raised humanity above the beastly level of survival struggles, we will now aim to upgrade humans into gods, and turn Homo sapiens into Homo deus.

Tell people what they want to hear. An extreme enemy of God. Tell them that they are God now!

Anyone said this before???

your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God
Genesis 3:5

Animal Parables in the Bible (III): Jeremiah was not PC

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.
Jeremiah 13:23

Jeremiah wanted to tell us, that even if we believe we cannot change our ways – we can!

We are accustomed to do evil. It does not mean we were born evil.

The people in his time had this saying: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?” which ment: you are born in a certain way and there is nothing you can do about it.

And he told them: No! doing evil is not what you were born to do!

Like he used to do in other places, Jeremiah liked to use parables.

In this case, two parables: one of the Ethiopian, and one of a leopard.

I want to go a little deeper to understand why he used those two examples:

Cheetah in Kruger NP South Africa, Photo by Amir Silberman

Can a leopard change its spots?

Leopards lived in Israel until the beginning of the 21st century in the Negev and Judean desert. In the last decade there were no leopards reported.

But we know that in the time of Jeremiah, there were leopards, lions and cheetahs in Israel. All of them are extinct now.

The word Namer (נָמֵר) can refer probably to both leopard or cheetah, as both have spots.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin?

Today, many educated people who call themselves “progressive” boycott the Bible. They say that the stories are not good for children, and lead to violence and discrimination.

Certainly, Jeremiah was not afraid from being considered “Not politically correct”

The word Ethiopian that is used here in almost all English translation is not accurate.

The right word is Cushite – a man of the land of Cush.

The land of Cush is mentioned in the Bible in several places, and also the word cushite – a person that comes from Cush.

Moses took a wife that was a Cushite and his brother and sister did not like this. (again, translated to Ethiopians in most English translations)

The true meaning of “Cush” is probably “Africa” and a “Cushite” is a man or woman with a dark skin. The point of this parable is that a man cannot change the color of his skin from dark to pale.

Some may say that speaking like this is not PC, but the Bible never claimed to be PC!

Animal Parables in the Bible (II): Partridge and Cuckoo

“As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid,
So is he who makes a fortune, but unjustly;
In the midst of his days it will forsake him,
And in the end he will be a fool.”
Jeremiah 17:11 (NASB)

Great Spotted Cuckoo chick with “mother” Hooded Crow. Photo by Amir Silberman

Few years ago, in the month of April, my son heard strong bird screaming outside our house. Looking up to the top of our pecan tree, he saw those two birds: a large cuckoo chick and a crow that fed the chick with pieces of meat.

The crows couple that were nursing this big chick were very zealous to feed him whenever he called. Their instincts led them to take care of a parasite that someone else laid in their nests, killing their offsprings.

Many types of cuckoos are “brood parasites”. They lay their eggs in other birds nests and fly away to enjoy life without the hassle of raising their kids.

Making fortune unjustly

Jeremiah, uses the parable of birds to explain the fate of anyone who makes fortune while being unjust to other people.

Even if that rich man thinks he has made it and he he can enjoy all that money – “In the midst of his days it will forsake him, And in the end he will be a fool.”

And Jeremiah continues with his preaching:

A glorious throne on high from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
¹³O Lord, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You will be put to shame.
Those who turn away on earth will be written down,
Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord.
Jeremiah 17:12-13 (NASB)

Jeremiah tells us that being unjust to other people means to “turn away from the Lord“. And the consequences, eventually, will be of great shame.

Parable double meaning

When reading the parable about the partridge, there are two different ways to understand it:

The first way, and this is how the NASB translation interpreted (quote above), is of a bird that sat on eggs that she have not laid.

ESV interprets it the same way:

Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch
Jeremiah 17:11 (ESV)

and NIV:

Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay
Jeremiah 17:11 (NIV)

But there is a different way to understand this verse.

The King James version, has a different interpretation:

As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not;
Jeremiah 17:11 (KJV)

The older translation of King James suggests that the bird was sitting on eggs that did not hatch at all.

Reading the Hebrew, we can understand the confusion.

Literally, the sentence says: “A partridge sat on eggs and it did not give birth”

The key word is the last word in the sentence: יָלָ֔ד (Yalad), which means “gave birth”

Reading this literally leads us to conclude that NASB, ESV and NIV were right.

But there is a problem.

The word יָלָד (Yalad – gave birth) and the word נוֹלַד (Nolad – was born) are from the same Hebrew root: י.ל.ד (Y.L.D), and they are just two forms of the same verb: one active (gave birth) and one passive (was born).

Therefore, it makes a lot of sense, that Jeremiah meant:

“A partridge sat on eggs and it was not born”

In that case, it was King James that got it right.

Which interpretation is correct?

From the meaning of the parable, I tend to think that King James was right this time. Jeremiah talks about people that get their money in an unjust way, and therefore their fruit will become their shame.

The parable to explain that is of a bird that lay eggs and sits on them, but there are no chicks in those eggs.

Lapwing nest with chick and two eggs. Photo: Amir Silberman

Which interpretation do you think is right?

Animal Parables in the Bible (I): Bird Migration

April 2020. All people in the world are locked in their homes. But nature does not cease. This is the season of vast bird migration over Israel.

“Even the stork in the heavens
Knows her appointed times;
And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow
Observe the time of their coming.
But My people do not know the judgment of the Lord.”
Jeremiah 8:7

Jeremiah the prophet lived in the time of the last kings of Judah. Like everyone in his time, he was connected to the nature surrounding him.

In his prophecies, animals are used to make a point.

He used bird migration, as a manifestation of the law of nature created by God. And inasmuch as we can trust that every spring we will see the birds coming, we know we cannot trust people.

The mystery of birds migration

Storks migration over Galilee mountains, Israel. Photo: Amir Silberman

One great phenomenon that have always amazed humanity, is the migration of birds. Many types of birds migrate very long distances in very dangerous paths.

Until today, scientist do not really understand, how come those birds know, always, in the exact same time of year, to navigate their way to the the exact same places. And more than that: How do they know that they need to start migrating, and why not just stay where they are?

Certainly, Jeremiah was fascinated by this. He made this comparison between birds that have known the times, and the people of Israel and Judah, who could not see the judgment and its consequences that would befall on them.

Four types of birds

What are the four birds in Jeremiah 8:7?

First one is a Stork, This is a sure identification.

Second bird is the dove. In Song of Solomon, the voice of the turtledove is a sign for the spring:

“The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land.”
Song of Solomon 2:12

Collared Dove, Central Israel. Photo: Amir Silberman

And indeed, even today, when spring comes, you can hear the voice of the turtledove everywhere in Israel.

The identification of the next two birds is disputable.

The third one is translated to “swift” – a bird that does not stop flying for a second. It can be seen during spring in the Western wall where they nest in the gaps between the stones.

Last one is pronounced “Agur”. In modern Hebrew we use this name for “Crane” another migrant bird in Israel