HEBREW WORD STUDY – UNSALTED FISH – TIPHELAH תפלה   Taw Pei Lamed Hei

Jeremiah 23:13: “And I have seen the unseemliness in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.”

I grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist church which taught that prophets no longer existed. I went through Calvary Bible College an independent fundamentalist school which mocked those who believed prophets exist and Moody Bible Institute which simply believed prophets and prophecy ceased to exist.  But during this time there was the rise of the Jesus Movement, the Charismatic movement, CBN and PTL Television which all believed prophets and prophecy still exist today. 

I still approached the idea of the gift and office of a prophet as for today with much caution but I could not remain sheltered in the fundamentalist movement for long before I started running into real genuine prophets. Most were prophet wannabees. I had so many prophecies said over me I would have live three lifetimes to fulfill them. But there were those rare occasions when I could not deny that the prophet had some sort track record.  I recall one student I had that I really believed had a gift of prophecy. That was scary because he knocked on my door and woke me up at 2:00 in the morning and said he was driving around pleading with God not make him deliver a prophecy to me.  When he told me what it was  I wanted in the worst way to return to my fundamentalist skepticism. What he had to say was not good news. Within 24 hours the chain of events that I had not expected nor could have foreseen began to happen just as he prophesied.  There was a good part to the prophecy but it would take 35 years before I would begin to see it and it came just as he prophesied. But still, even today, if someone comes up to me with a prophecy, my old fundamentalist doubts still kick in.

I’ve seen prophets who built huge platforms as a prophet, who made tons of money appearing on television, writing books, selling CDs, DVDs, etc. I am not saying they are all false prophets. I listened to one on YouTube that still has me shaking my head.  He predicted back in 2012 that there would arise a man after God’s own heart who would become President of the United States in 2016. This man would send panic to the enemies of God whose sins would be exposed to the world. The media would try to destroy him. They would cry “Impeach, Impeach!” but it would not be. This new President would cause a great uproar by those who oppose God.  But he would bring prosperity back to the United States and create new jobs. He would be a friend to Israel and bring the embassy to Jerusalem etc. etc. etc.  Five years later you tell me if this prophet wasn’t on the money. My first impression of the guy was that he was just a real show boater, going for the dramatics and once it came time to tell if he was right or not he would have already made his millions and would be driving his new Porsche through the gates of his mansion saying: “Oh what do you know, I was wrong.”  I think, maybe, I was wrong.

All that to say, I believe God does have His prophets today and I also believe, like in Jeremiah’s day there were many false prophets. So with that thought in mind, I take you to Jeremiah 23:13.  God had seen the prophets of Samaria, this is the Northern Kingdom of Israel, God’s country where there were many prophets. It was a real profession in those days and the lucky ones could make a fortune and build quite a platform.  There was also the belief that just by saying something good would happen, it would happen. Yet, Jeremiah was prophesying that God knew the phonies.  He sees the unseemliness.  What is that God saw?  Unseemliness in Hebrew is the word tiphelah, which means folly or foolishness. Then what is that a prophet does that makes him foolish?  Tiphelah comes from the root word taphel which in its Semitic root means tasteless, unseasoned.  It was used by the Phoenicians for unsalted fish.  My guess and it is only my guess that God sees what many Christians see but will not admit.  The prophets they hear speak a good line but it is “Ho hum, I’ve heard it a million times.”  You know stuff like: “You will overcome,” “There is a breakthrough coming in your life.”  “God is going to bless you”  Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, tell me something that has some seasoning to it, something that excites my taste.” A prophet may say: “God is really going to bless our nation.”   Ok, good, fine, I am sure we will get something that looks like a blessing. That is a taphelah prophecy.   But if, like the prophet mentioned above, says: “God is going to send a president who will weed out the corruption in the White House” (which he did predict), that does not qualify as a taphelah, that is salted fish, well seasoned.

Then he calls these false prophets, prophets of Baal. I don’t think that means they declared themselves prophets of Baal or that they spoke in the name of Baal. It says they cause His people to err. These were false prophets who prophesied in God’s name, who infiltrated the community of God just as false prophets infiltrate the Christian community today.  You see baal as a verb means to take possession, to rule over and control.  In other words, these false prophets are easy to spot, because they give prophecies not to express the heart of God but to establish control over you. They may have some accurate hits, maybe even through demonic power, but these hits are meant to lure you, trust in them and then depend upon them. The word con, for a con man, does not come from the idea he was a convict, but it stands for confidence.  A false prophet will seek to build confidence in you that he is genuine.  A false prophet will be your friend with his first prophecy, then he will be your guide with the next prophecy and then he will be your master with the next. He will become your baal, he will control you. The Talmud teaches that a prophet should always be on the move, lest people come to depend upon him. A prophet cannot be a pastor.