Lesson 8 - Jer. 28:1-9, 15-17 - DUELING PROPHETS
INTRODUCTION: Last week, in Jer. 23:1-8, we studied a lesson in which God compared human rulers, like kings, leaders, and priests to bad shepherds who scatter God's sheep-in this instance the people of Judah. We briefly reviewed the last five kings of Judah who, with the exception of Josiah, were all bad kings who scattered God's flock. We also heard God give Jeremiah a message of hope: that from the scattered people of God, the Lord would preserve a remnant from whom a "righteous branch" would be raised. We learned that this prophecy had both a near-term and long-term (eschatological/end-time) meaning: (1) after the Babylonian captivity a preserved remnant would return (49,607 people) to restore Judah and Jerusalem and God would appoint new shepherds over them; however, history would show this return to only be a flicker, which implied there would be a future and greater return. (2) The "righteous branch" (23:5-6) would be personified in the coming of Jesus of Nazareth as Israel's true Messiah king. Jesus, though rejected and crucified by the Jewish leaders of His time, will ultimately, in the end-times, re-gather all the Jews of the Great Diaspora when He returns to establish His kingdom on earth. From that lesson we learned two great truths: (1) That the people of God need good shepherds to lead and protect us. In the Christian context, our churches are sheepfolds that are led by human pastors who are our good shepherds; and (2) Jeremiah's message offers hope to both Jews and Gentile Christians who will reign with Christ when he returns as the ultimate Good Shepherd to establish His messianic Kingdom on earth.
This week, in Jer. 28:1-17, will study a confrontation between two prophets, one true and one false. In the previous chapters which we are skipping, we learn that priests and prophets were so angered by Jeremiah's prophecies of imminent doom that they were calling for his death (26:11). Against this, Jeremiah defended himself as speaking only the words that the Lord God had given to him. Since events seemed to indicate that Jeremiah's pronouncements had the ring of truth -the Babylonians were still camped outside their walls and were still in the process of laying siege to their city-the Judahite officials refused to punish him. In Chapter 27, as a symbol, God commanded Jeremiah to make and wear a wooden yoke on his neck to picture what was going to happen to not only to Judah, but to any of the surrounding nations that refused to submit to the authority of Babylonian rule. This brings us up to today's lesson.
Read Jer. 28:1-4 - HANANIAH SPOKE TO ME
1 Now in the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, 2 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two years I am going to bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD's house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 I am also going to bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,' declares the LORD, 'for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.'"
v. 1a: "Now in the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month," - This phrase establishes a date of 594 B.C., during the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign as king of Judah, between the time of the initial Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 597 B.C. and the complete defeat and destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. He would be the last king.
v. 1b: "Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying,"- The self-proclaimed Prophet, "Hananiah," was speaking to Jeremiah in the presence of the temple priests and a sizable crowd of people in the Temple courtyard. He was from Gibeon, a territory of the tribe of Benjamin about five miles northwest of Jerusalem, near Jeremiah's hometown in Anathoth (see Map). His name literally translated to "the Lord is Gracious." Scholars say it was a fairly common Hebrew name.
v. 2: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon." - Using the standard prophetic preface that represented he was speaking words given to him by God, Hananiah declared that the Lord had "broken the yoke of the king of Babylon," implying that the Babylonian Empire no longer posed a threat to the safety of Judah and Jerusalem.
v. 3: "Within two years I am going to bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD's house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon." - Added to that, this supposed prophet also predicts that the vessels (sacred objects) taken from the Temple by "Nebuchadnezzar" the Babylonian king, would be returned to them "within two years."
v. 4: "I am also going to bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,' declares the LORD, 'for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.'" -Representing again that he's speaking on behalf of God, Hananiah asserts that the Lord, within the two-year timeframe mentioned in v. 3, would also return "Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim" (son of the third of the last five kings) and the captives that went with him. This was a direct contradiction of Jeremiah's earlier prediction that Jeconiah would die in captivity and the other captives would not return for another 70 years (Jer. 22:24-27; 25:11-12).
Read Jer. 28:5-6 - THEN JEREMIAH SPOKE TO HANANIAH
5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD, 6 and the prophet Jeremiah said, "Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD confirm your words which you have prophesied to bring back the vessels of the LORD's house and all the exiles, from Babylon to this place.
v. 5: "Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD," -Now, standing in the Temple court in the presence of the same priests and the same crowd of people, Jeremiah, prepares to respond to Hananiah's message with the true words of the Lord God of Israel.
v. 6: "Jeremiah said, "Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD confirm your words which you have prophesied to bring back the vessels of the LORD's house and all the exiles, from Babylon to this place." -Because he'd been contradicted, in effect accused of lying, Jeremiah could have justifiably responded in anger, accusing Hananiah of being a false prophet (that he in fact was), but instead, he chooses a different tack: He peaceably says "Amen!" (lit. I agree) with the added hope "may the LORD confirm your words." While it's possible that Jeremiah intended this response as sarcasm, most scholars consider it to be an honest expression-that on behalf of Judah and its people, he honestly wished that Hananiah was right and he was wrong. Jeremiah loved his nation and its people and was completely heartbroken by what was truly going to happen to them.
Read Jer. 28:7-9 - NOW HEAR THIS WORD WHICH I AM ABOUT TO SPEAK
7 Yet hear now this word which I am about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people! 8 The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of calamity and of pestilence. 9 The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known as one whom the LORD has truly sent."
v. 7: "Yet hear now this word which I am about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people!" - The conjunction "Yet" typically introduces a negative or contrasting statement. As much as Jeremiah longed that Hananiah's prediction could come true, the Lord has given him the task of delivering an altogether different message-a proclamation of judgment. Before he delivered the Lord's message, Jeremiah calls those in "your hearing" (i.e., the Temple priests) and "in the hearing of all the people" (the crowd present) to pay very close attention to what he's about to say to them.
v. 8: "The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times" - The 12 prophets that preceded Jeremiah were Samuel, Nathan, Obadiah, Elijah, Elisha, Joel, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, and Nahum. These were men whose writings and words should have been familiar to the priests and to many of the people present. Jeremiah intends to use this in two tests by which those listening to him can test Hananiah's prophecy. The first test is to compare what the current prophets-i.e., Jeremiah and Hananiah-are saying with the prophecies of the prophets of old.
v. 8b: "prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of calamity and of pestilence." -The priests and the people would know that the prophets of old delivered messages that foretold events like war, famines, disease, and natural disasters, and they know that over time all those prophecies were confirmed as true. This is the test of time, and time was running out.
v. 9: "The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known as one whom the LORD has truly sent." -Much earlier, Moses had promised that the Lord would raise up a prophet like himself, but warned that false prophets would try to lead the people astray. He said that false prophets should be put to death (Deut. 18:20). Moses also added that people could determine the truth or falsity by determining whether it sis or sis not come true (Deut. 18:22). Now Jeremiah applies the Deuteronomy test to existing prophets-Hananiah and himself. The test of time and will prove with certainty which one is the true prophet.
Synopsis of vv. 10-14: After Jeremiah spoke, Hananiah took the yoke from Jeremiah's neck and broke it, symbolizing that his prophecy would break the yoke that Babylon had imposed on Judah. The Lord then told Jeremiah to warn Hananiah that the wooden yoke would be replaced with an iron yoke, symbolizing that Judah and all the nations would be forced to serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
Read Jer. 28:15-17 - YOU HAVE MADE HIS PEOPLE TRUST A LIE
15 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, "Listen now, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to die, because you have counseled rebellion against the LORD.'" 17 So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year in the seventh month.
vv. 15-16: "Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, "Listen now, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to die, because you have counseled rebellion against the LORD.'" - This is the second test. No longer a 'mister nice guy,' Jeremiah bluntly informed Hananiah that God had not sent him: That he was a liar who had deceived the people. For his lies, he would die: God intended to "remove [him] from the face of the earth"! And he'd better get his affairs in order because God planned to do it "this year"!
v. 17: "So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year in the seventh month." -Sure enough, about two months later, Hananiah dropped dead. This was the penalty God specified for false prophets in Deut. 18:20. God graciously gave him two months to repent, but he did not.
APPLICATION-The Integrity of God's Word
The death of Hananiah forms an object lesson of the critical importance of obeying God's Word. God's word must be obeyed with complete honesty and integrity. It can never be taken out of context and applied carelessly. This is why personal Bible study is so important in our day-to-day walk with God. It's a grave error to use God's name inaccurately to say (or think) that there are easier, more pleasant solutions to the problems of life when according to God's unembellished word there are not. When people do this, they are in reality turning away from God and rebelling against the truth of His word. The Lord Jesus has warned us of false prophets (Matt. 7:15-23), and the apostles issued numerous warnings about false prophets and teachers, describing them as "wolves" in sheep's clothing: (Acts 20:28-35; Gal. 1:6-9; Col. 2:8-15; Titus 1:10-16; 2 Peter 2:1-3; and 1 John 2:18-29, and this is the short list. To know what is wrong, we must be able to positively identify what is right. All of the answers can be found in the Bible, right in front of you. If you're having trouble finding the answer you're looking for in God's word, ask a godly Christian for counsel, either a pastor or a friend.
