"FALSE PROPHETS AND GOD’S JUDGMENT" (Jere 28:1-17)
Jan 12th, 2003
Int. Hananiah, being the son of a prophet, could have been a man of great promise.
1. Hananiah was one of 14 different men in the Bible by this name.
2. He was # 4 on that list and the only one that was a false prophet.
3. This name is employed 29 times in Scripture, all in the O. T.
4. This name "Hananiah" was also the Hebrew name of Shadrach, who was of the house of David in (Dan 1:6,7,11, 19; 2:11).
5. Gray & Adams says: "This chapter tells how Jeremiah opposed Hananiah who falsely encouraged the hopes of the people, promising the return of the sacred vessels within two years, and the restoration of the exiles.
I. CONSIDER THE PRESUMPTION OF THIS FALSE PROPHET.
A. HE CHALLENGES THE TRUE PROPHET -– JEREMIAH. (Vr. 1, 11a)
1. He even calls God to witness with his "Thus speaketh the Lord (Vr. 2) and "Thus saith The Lord." (Vr. 11).
2. B. H. Carroll says: "Here was a strange incident. We have a conflict between two men, able men, influential men, men of high position and rank; one a false prophet, the other a true prophet.
3. He stands in the gate of the Temple and thus addresses the people. (Vr. 1).
B. HANANIAH, LIKE MANY TODAY, CALLED HIMSELF.
1.
2. (Jer 14:15) "Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed."
3. (Jer 27:15) "For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you."
4.
(Jer 29:9) "For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD." C. HANANIAH MADE A FALSE CLAIM IN (Vr. 2) "I have broken the yoke of the King of Babylon."1. (Jer 27:12) "..... Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live."
a. Hananiah’s declaration caused many lives to be lost.
2. J. F. & B. says: "Hananiah had give no warning as to the need of repentance and conversion, but had for-told prosperity unconditionally."
D. HANANIAH PROMISED THEM FREEDOM IN TWO YEARS. (Vr. 3)
1. It was presumptuous to speak so definitely without having any divine revelation.
2. But then, most false prophets don't pay much attention to the Scriptures anyway.
E. HANANIAH PROMISED TO RECOVER THE VESSELS OF THE TEMPLE. (Vr. 3)
F. HANANIAH PROMISED TO BRING THE SON OF KING JEHOIAKIM BACK TOO. (Vr. 4)
G. HANANIAH RESORTED TO VIOLENCE. (Vr. 10)
1. Speaker's Commentary says: "Hananiah resorts to violence, tears the yoke from the Prophet's neck, and breaks it, probably to the great delight of the multitude, who saw in this spirited acts a symbol of deliverance."
2. Alexander McClaren says: "Jeremiah had adopted a strange way of enforcing his counsel, which would be ridiculous to-day, but was natural and impressive then and there. He constantly for months went about with an ox-yoke on his neck, as a symbol of the submission which he advocated."
3. Geneva Bible Footnotes says: "This act declares the impudency of the wicked hirelings who have no zeal to the truth but are led with ambition to get the favour of men and therefore cannot abide any that might discredit them but burst forth into rages and contrary to their own conscience, pass not what lies they report or how wickedly they do so that they may maintain their estimation. "
II. CONSIDER THE PROPHET OF GOD----Jeremiah. (Vr. 5)
A. NOTICE THE PREFIX TO JEREMIAH’S NAME. (Vr. 5)
1. "The Prophet Jeremiah" (Vr. 5)
B. NOTICE THE TRUE PROPHET’S COMPASSION (Vr. 6)
1. Notice Jeremiah’s "Amen."
2. Pulpit Commentary says: "Jeremiah heartily assents to the false prophet’s desire for the happiness of the nation. He had been accused of a traitorous wish to see his country humiliated. No charge could be more false. The preacher who feels it his duty to threaten Divine punishments to wicked men should not be accused of wishing them evil. He may speak with grief and regret, as God also punishes reluctantly. (Ezek. 33:11).
3. J. F. & B. says on this Amen "Jeremiah prays for the people, though constrained to prophesy against them.
4. Pulpit Commentary says: "Jeremiah appeals to the example of the older prophets. He is true to their teaching, while Hananiah contradicts it."
5. B. H. Carroll says: "The prophets that spake in the olden time prophesied against many countries and against many kingdoms." What did he mean by that? That the prophets who were true prophets prophesied destruction; that the punishment was coming. He means to say that the criterion by which one could determine a true prophet was that he prophesied evil. Now this man Hananiah was a false optimist. The true prophet sees the evil as well as the good. So by that process of reasoning he proved that Hananiah was a false prophet. He prophesied only good, hence he could not be a true prophet. I have prophesied evil and therefore I am in line with the tried and true prophets."
6. J. F. & B. says: "Hananiah had given no warning as to the need of conversion, but had foretold prosperity unconditionally.
7. (Deu 13:1-3) "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, {2} And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; {3} Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul."
C. THERE ARE TWO TESTS OF A TRUE PROPHET.
1. (Deu 18:22) "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him."
2. (Isa 8:20) "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
3. False Prophets preach a false peace. (Vr. 9)
4. (Jere 6:14) "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace."
a. (Isa 48:22) "There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked."
5. Someone once asked Gladstone, the great English jurist, what was the mark of a great statesman. He gave this answer: "A great statesman is a man who knows the direction God is going for the next fifty years."
a. My friends, we certainly don’t have leaders like that today.
III. CONSIDER THE PERIL OF THIS FALSE PROPHET AND HIS FOLLOWERS.
A. BY LISTENING TO HANANIAH; THEY HAD SIMPLY EXCHANGED A YOKE OF WOOD FOR A YOKE OF IRON. (Vr. 13)
1. (Deu 28:48) "Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee."
2. It is better to take up a light cross in our way, than to pull a heavier on our own heads.
3. We may escape destroying providences by submitting to humbling providences.
4. So, spiritually, contrast the "easy yoke" of Christ with the "yoke of bondage" of the law.
a. (Acts 15:10) "Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?"
b. (Gal 5:1) "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."
B. NOTICE THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN THIS YOKE OF IRON. (Vr 14-b)
1. "I have put" (Vr. 14-b) J. F. & B. says: "Though Hananiah and those like him were secondary instruments in bringing the iron yoke on Judea, God was the great First Cause"
a.
C. NOTICE JEREMIAH’S REBUKE TO HANANIAH. (Vr. 15)
1. Hananiah uttered a pleasing prophecy. 2. Hananiah had promised a speedy overthrow of the tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar. 3. It is always easiest to prophesy smooth things, to soothe and flatter rather than convince men of sin and persuade them to accept the darker truths.
a. (Isa 30:10) "Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
4. Hananiah spoke with great positiveness. He boldly claimed the authority of God for what he said. (ver. 2).
5. Many of the T. V. Preachers of this hour are preaching "smooth things" to the people.
IV. CONSIDER THE PUNISHMENT OF HANANIAH. (Vr. 16)
A. HIS REBELLION BROUGHT UPON HIMSELF DOOM. (Vr. 16-b)
1. Hananiah had promised Israel’s deliverance in two years; Jeremiah promised his death within two months.
a. Gill says: "in the seventh month:(Vr. 17) it was two months after he had prophesied; for it was in the fifth month that he prophesied, and in the seventh he died;.."
2. There were two well-known men in America in the eighteenth century, father and son, both named Jonathan Edwards. Both were preachers and the grandsons of preachers. Both were pious men, famous scholars and tutors for equal periods in their respective colleges. Both took up the pastoral work carried on before by their maternal grandfathers. And both were dismissed on account of peculiar religious opinions.
Both were again settled over congregations much attached to them. And both published in their leisure time works of considerable literary value. Both left their churches in order to be presidents of colleges. And both died shortly after the changes.
There was but one's difference in the respective ages at which they died, one being 56; the other, 57. Strangely enough, both preached, on the first Sunday of the year in which they died, from the same text of Scripture: "This year thou shalt die." (Jere 28:16).
B. LET US LEARN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE OF HANANIAH.
1. This year may be to us a series of afflictions: 2. This year we may lose our dearest earthly support and comfort.3. This year we may pine away with sickness, or agonize with torturing pain.4. This year, your stubborn spirit, after long resistance, may be sweetly constrained to bow to the despised Gospel of Christ.5. This year you may just be born a child of God, and an heir of heaven. 6. This year may just be the year that you shall meet the God whom you dispise..7. "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die." (Vr. 15-16)8. Though you are young is no guarantee against the messenger of death.
a. Death calls on men and women, boys and girls of all ages.
Conclusion
: THIS YEAR THOU SHALT DIE!1. Let men live ever so many years, some one year will be the year of their death.
2. Every year is a year of death to tens of thousands,
3. This year, very probably, will be a year of death to some of us.
4. No one of us knows but God may be saying to him or her, "This year thou shalt die."
5. It may be in mercy or in wrath that God is saying to this or the other one, "This year thou shalt die."
6. The year of one’s death is a most eventful year to him.
a. This dissolves our connection with the present world; it issues us into the world of spirits.b. If we are the Lord’s people, it associates us with God, Christ, angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect in the state of glory and blessedness.
7. There is no outliving the appointed year of one’s death.
a. No distinction of rank, no worldly pre-eminence, no degree of riches, influence, or power, no plea of necessity, no supposed usefulness in civil or sacred society, can prevent death.
8. The year of one’s death may come very unexpectedly.
9. J. F. & B. says: "Hananiah’s death took place in the seventh month, that is, within two months after the prediction, answering with awful significance to the two years in which Hananiah had foretold that the yoke imposed by Babylon would end."