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A false prophet named Hananiah
28
📚And it happened the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that the prophet Hananiah the son of Azur, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying,
28:1 Hananiah is the second false prophet to be named in Jeremiah (Pashhur was the first – Jer 20:1-6; see also 29:21, 31, 32). In the Bible people are exposed for what they are, and prophets and apostles informed God’s people about false prophets and teachers, or those who opposed God’s work, sometimes naming them (Acts 8:18-23; 13:6-11; 2 Tim 2:17; 4:14; 3 John 9).⚜
2 📚“Thus the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, has spoken, saying, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
28:2 Hananiah claimed to be in touch with God and to speak with the same authority as the great prophets of the Bible. He may have been consciously trying to deceive, or may have been totally deceived himself and was persuaded he was really speaking for God.⚜
3 📚Within two full years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the LORD’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 📚And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon, says the LORD, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’ ”
28:4 Hananiah flatly contradicted the word of God that came through Jeremiah in Jer 22:24-27. This is one way that false prophets can be known – they will inevitably deny some part or other of the Word of God (2 Pet 2:1).⚜
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 stood in the house of the LORD, 6 📚and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the LORD do so. May the LORD perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring back the articles of the LORD’s house, and all who were carried away captive, from Babylon to this place. 7 📚But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing, and in the hearing of all the people: 8 📚The prophets who were before me and you long ago prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms, about war and disaster, and plague. 9 📚The prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of the prophet comes true, 📖 then it will be known that the LORD has really sent that prophet”.
28:5-9 Such an event as Hananiah foretold was something Jeremiah wished could happen. But he knew very well it would not.⚜
28:9 False prophets spoke of peace because they thought that was what people wanted to hear. Many so-called Bible teachers suit their message to what people like rather than to what God has revealed (Rom 16:18; Col 2:4; 2 Tim 4:3).⚜
10 📚Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke from the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and broke it. 11 📚And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Just so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years.’ ” And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
12 📚Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 13 📚“Go and tell Hananiah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: You have broken the wooden yokes, but you shall make iron yokes for them. 14 📚For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him. And I have given him the beasts of the field also.’ ”
15 📚Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen now, Hananiah. The LORD has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie. 16 📚Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘See, I will hurl you from the surface of the earth. This year you will die, because you have taught rebellion against the LORD.’ ”
17 📚So the prophet Hananiah died the same year in the seventh month.
28:10-17 Here is clearly given the contrast between a false prophet and a true one. Outwardly they may not seem greatly different, but in the heart of the true prophet there is truth, in the heart of the false prophet there is deceit. The one saves men by turning them to God and His truth; the other destroys men by getting them to trust in lies (v 15). The end of the true prophet is to have honor with God (John 12:26); the end of the false prophet is dishonor and destruction (2 Cor 11:15; 2 Pet 2:1). See also Jer 14:14-15.⚜