Jeremiah Chapter 20 – Pashhur’s Failed Faith

A visual representation of how Jeremiah’s stocks could have looked like

So hardened were the hearts of Israel’s leaders that rather than inspire change in God’s wayward people, Pashhur, a priest and chief governor in the house of the Lord, shut his ears against Jeremiah’s prophecies. 

So hardened was Pashhur that he beat and placed Jeremiah in the stocks for a day (Jeremiah 20:3).

While history has many variations of the stocks, its purpose was to restrain the shamed individual, giving opportunity for the townspeople to humiliate him publicly. 

Who was this spiritual leader who humiliated a prophet speaking God’s truth? 

As an anointed priest of the Lord, Pashhur had been consecrated – set apart as holy – to the Lord (Exodus 29:44). Like the rest of the priests, Pashhur would have been expected to judge and teach God’s law to the people (Deuteronomy 17:8-13; Deuteronomy 33:10). 

Since he had a special role of chief governor of the Lord’s house, we can infer that he was likely expected to lead his fellow workers, while eradicating false prophesies and placing such prophesying “madmen” in the stocks (Jeremiah 29:6). 

Ironically, what Pashhur did was to allow the false prophecies to run rampant while he sought to clamp down on God’s real messages (Jeremiah 14:13-14).  

(A fun fact: When the apostles return to preaching after an angel releases them from prison, a man in the same role as Pashhur likewise fails. Rather than standing by the side of God’s truth, he drags the apostles to the Sanhedrin to accuse them (Acts 5:24-26).)

What can we remember to avoid having such a failed faith?

Firstly, our roles in God’s house do not protect us from leaving God and His truth. 

Just because we are given a role or title in church does not mean that we are immune to falling astray. In fact, Peter warns us that false teachers – individuals with authority and influence – will rise from amongst us, the church (2 Peter 2:1). 

It is not the role that redeems us, but Jesus who is our Redeemer. Serving in church does not save us. Rather, we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). The more we serve, the more we must renew ourselves, perfecting our faith by righteous works and asking Jesus to cleanse us from all sin (James 2:22; 1 John 1:9).

Next, we must be willing to stand alone and stand apart from our sinful environment. 

In Pashhur’s community, many of God’s people had left the righteous path. Indeed they were wicked, such that nobody knew anymore how to do good (Jeremiah 4:22). 

Despite being called to be holy to the Lord and even a teacher of God’s law, we can imagine that Pashhur was heavily influenced by those around him. He was blinded to the fact that Jeremiah preached the truth, validating the false teachings of peace that the masses also loved. Perhaps Pashhur’s desire for comfort, falsely created by the lying prophets, was greater than his love for God’s truth too.

As much as we might not identify with Pashhur, one way we’re similar to him is our calling as royal priests and our consecration to the Lord (1 Peter 2:9). In this evil generation rife with sin, it is easy to love the same godless teachings that our society preaches. But Jesus has said that we are in the world, but not of the world (John 17:11, 14). We must allow ourselves to be led not by the godless, but by God. 

Sadly, Pashhur failed to stand firm in his faith and fulfil his role of converting the hearts of people to God. 

How about you and me?

This 2024, what will you and I choose to do to stand firmer in God’s truth? What will we do to set ourselves apart as holy, to be used by God to bring people to Him? 

“How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!

What more can He say than to you He has said

To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?”

~ Hymn, How Firm a Foundation ~

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