Bad Pastors Beware

August 8th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Jeremiah 23:1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep…”

The word “pastor” comes from the Greek word in the NT for “shepherd.” As a noun, the word literally denotes someone who leads sheep. Figuratively, it is a reference to someone who teaches and leads God’s people in the Bible. In the OT, the spiritual shepherds were prophets, priests, scribes, and kings. In the NT, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes were such. Note how God spoke out against the shepherds of the day in through Jeremiah in chapter 23:

You have scattered My flock…driven them away…have not attended to them (23:2).
Prophet and priest are polluted; even in My house I have found their wickedness (11).
They…led My people Israel astray… committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers (13).
They speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the Lord…saying to those who despise Me, “The Lord has said, “You will have peace,…calamity will not come upon you (16-17).
They prophesy falsely in My name, saying, “I had a dream, I had a dream!”…who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams… (25-27).
The result of their unfaithful prophesying was that The land is full of adulterers; for the land mourns because of the curse (10).
I did not send these prophets…I did not speak to them…If they had stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people, And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds (21-22).
The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth…Is not My word like fire? declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters a rock? Therefore behold, I am against the prophets… (28-30).

Note the fate of these unfaithful shepherds for leading God’s people astray…

Behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the Lord (2).
Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them, they will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it; for I will bring calamity upon them, the year of their punishment, declares the Lord (12).
Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood and make them drink poisonous water, for from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth into all the land (15).

Food For Thought
God allowed Israel to be led astray by false shepherds because Israel chose such shepherds to lead them astray. As a result, Jeremiah prophesied, “The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; in the last days you will clearly understand it” (23:20). Six hundred years later, God sent Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to Israel (John 10). They rejected Him too, but He will come back to fulfill the word God gave to Jeremiah: I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. I will also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,… I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, “The Lord our righteousness.” Then they will live on their own soil (Jer. 23:3-8).