Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
1 Kings 22:20-23
(also 2 Chron 18:19-22)
And the LORD said, "Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?"
One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, "I will entice him."
"By what means?" the LORD asked.
"I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets," he said.
"You will succeed in enticing him," said the LORD. "Go and do it."
So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.
Then I said, "Ah, Sovereign LORD, how completely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, 'You will have peace,' when the sword is at our throats."
O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me.
When any Israelite or any alien living in Israel separates himself from me and sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet to inquire of me, I the LORD will answer him myself. I will set my face against that man and make him an example and a byword. I will cut him off from my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
And if the prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the LORD have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.
How can you say, "We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD," when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?
The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
"...I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague."Jeremiah apparently assumed that the prophets who had been prophesying peace were speaking the word of God, hence his complaint of deception in 4:10 upon learning that God would bring destruction instead (4:6-9). However, it was not God who was deceiving the people, but the false prophets.But I said, "Ah, Sovereign LORD, the prophets keep telling them, 'You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.'"
Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds."
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