Jeremiah 28:1-17.  In yesterday’s reading Jeremiah acted out or used a prop to get his message across; he placed a wooden yoke on his neck.    The yoke was a symbol of control and his message was that God had put the region under the control of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzer and that the people should not rebel against it.  Jeremiah warned all the kingdoms or nations under Nebuchadnezzar’s control, he warned Judah specifically, and he warned the priests and people of Judah also.  In the warning to the priests and people he got very specific about not listening to the false prophets and even challenged the prophet about their false messages.  He told them to pray about the stuff left in the Temple after the recent raid by Nebuchadnezzar.  He told them that if they were true prophets of Yahweh (the God of Israel, the one true God) that they should pray to him to preserve the stuff that was left.  He said if they were true prophets maybe it would not be take in another raid.  But then he assured the people there would be another raid and all the stuff would be taken.

In today’s reading one of the false prophets sort of takes Jeremiah up on the challenge.  In verse 1 we learn that the (false) prophet’s name is Hananiah.  He is from the town of Gibeon.  Gibeon was in the region of Benjamin the same region of the kingdom that Jeremiah was from.  Hananiah approached Jeremiah in the Temple (house of the LORD (Yahweh)).  There, in front of the priests and people, Hanaiah claimed to be speaking for “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel”.  That was the exact same language Jeremiah had used.  In his message Hananiah twice tells the audience that he is going to “break the yoke of the king of Babylon” (vv. 2,4).  He also says that all of the stuff that was taken will be returned, as well as the captives tht were recently taken, and the young king (Jehoiachin).  He even gave a time table, “within two years”.  In Jeremiah 22:26-27 Jeremiah predicted that Jehoiachin would die in exile.  In Jeremiah 27:21-22 Jeremiah predicted that the rest of the stuff in the temple would be removed and would be there for some time.  That would seem to indicate that the stuff already take would not come back soon.  Hananiah’s predictions were in complete contrast to those of Jeremiah; it was a full on challenge.

In verses 4-9 Jeremiah answers Hananiah’s challenge.  I would been Hananiah’s face if I had been Jeremiah, but instead Jeremiah answers by saying, “Amen, May Yahweh do so!”  Wow.  If Hananiah’s predictions came true that would make Jeremiah’s predictions false, I’m sure the leaders and the people would lose no time retrying and executing Jeremiah.  I’m not sure I would be hoping for an event that would surely lead to my execution.  But Jeremiah was confident that he had honored God; had spoken “all that Yahweh had commanded him”, and he was also devoted to God, His city, His Temple, and to honoring God.  If he was wrong then all of that would come back and he deserved to die anyway.  Wow, that is dedication.

In verses 7-9 though, Jeremiah is very careful to set the ground rules.  Throughout the history of Israel there had been a lot of trouble, lots of times when they had been invaded.  Often these invasions were used by God to make the people see that they were not being faithful to Him.  True prophets would warn and warn and warn the people that if they did not turn back to God an invasion would happen.  At the same time there would be false prophets talking about peace.  Hananiah is like these false prophets, predicting that the current trouble will just go away.  In the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 18:20-22) we find that the test of a prophet is whether or not what they have predicted actually happens.  Anything less than 100% accuracy means you are a false prophet and you are to be executed for making false claims about Yahweh.  Jeremiah reminds them about the ground rules.  It is interesting that he uses situations a lot like the one he is in to lay out the rules, in the past it was usually the “prophets” who were saying “peace” who were false, just like Hananiah.

In verses 10-11 Hananiah responds to Jeremiah’s answer.  He takes the yoke off of Jeremiah’s neck and breaks it.  He then basically accepts the “rules” by repeating his prediction.

At the end of verse 11 Jeremiah simply walks away.  But that is not the end of his communication with Hananiah.  God spoke to Jeremiah again after this event.  There are two parts to the message that God gave to Jeremiah.  The first part is about the control of Nebuchadnezzar over the region.  The yoke that Hananiah broke was the wooden one that Jeremiah had made for himself, it was a symbol of Babylonian control.  Yahweh (LORD) told Jeremiah to tell Hananiah that he had broken a wooden yoke and that now it would be replaced by an iron one.  The idea here is one of strength, wood is strong, iron is stronger.  It seems that God is saying that the control will now become stronger.

Historically we see that is true.  Nebuchadnezzar passed through the area in 605 BC and took some of the top citizens as captives, to use as advisors, that is how Daniel and his friends wound up in Babylon.  In 598-597 he came back to the area in response to rebellion by Jehoiakim.  At that time he took some stuff from the Temple (probably to show that he had power over “Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel” (of course he was mistaken about that)), and he also took 10,000 of the “leading” citizens as captive.  He also took the new king, Jehoiachin, captive and set us his Jehoiachin’s uncle as king.  In 586 Nebuchadnezzar will be back because of more rebellion, at that time he will destroy the Temple, get rid of kings all together, set us a governor, and take everyone else captive.  So the control will increase or get stronger.

The second part of the message to Hananiah is much more serious (at least for Hananiah) and has a much quicker fulfillment.  Remember that the test of a prophet was accuracy, in the history of Israel many predictions took a long time to be fulfilled, Daniel had one that would take 483 years to be partially fulfilled, some predictions are still waiting.  It would be important for the true prophets of God to have at least some that could be checked out in their own time.  In Jeremiah’s case he needed a “hit” at this at bat.  God told Jeremiah that Hananiah was going to die because he was a lying false prophet who was misleading the people, and it would happen  that year.  Hananiah would not even get to see if his two year prediction came true (which it would not).  God does not need to wait to see the outcome he already know what is going to happen and so he passed sentence on this false prophet.  In the seventh month of that year Hananiah died.

Jeremiah was faithful and was batting 100%.  God knows and he communicates to us so that we can know too; know that he is the one true God, know that we have offended Him, know that there are consequences for our disobedience and rebellion, and know of his love and mercy and grace.  It is interesting that Hananiah’s name means “Yahweh is gracious” (see “What’s in a Name?”).  One pastor has said that “grace” is giving someone what they don’t deserve and that mercy is not giving someone what they do deserve.  A lot of people want God to be gracious, always givng us good things, and he does, but they seem to miss the fact god is not giving us what we do deserve, eternal banishment from his kingdom.  If we forget how badly we have offended God and just focus on the good that he has put in our world and lives we will start to become arrogant; we will get ”big heads” and think we actually deserve the good that God gives.  We need to be careful not to forget the “undeserved” part of the definition.  Hananiah seemed to be like a lot of us thinking we deserve only good and even predicting that that would be the case.  God and his prophets are true to the reality of our relationship with God.  There is goodness and hope for more but there is also offense and separation and the reality of that separation becoming permanent.  We have cheated on God and we need to face that.  God will forgive but not unless we admit our cheating and let him help us stop.  We need to listen to the bad news, we need to respond to the message God has given us, we need to stop all the wishful thinking, pretending that the future is what we want it to be.  The up side is that the future will be more that we could ever hope if we put our eternity into the hands of God.  That can be scary, like this encounter between Jeremiah and Hananiah.  I’m sure Jeremiah walked away thinking, “This better be right or I’m dead (literally).”  And then he had to go back and push a little more.  Very hard, very scary.  But God backed him up and he will back us up too.  He already has at the cross.  Jesus said, “Come to me all who are weary and carrying a heavy burden and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon yourself and learn from me, I am gentle and humble and you will find rest for your souls.  My yoke is easy and the load is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)  He was contrasting the burden of trying to reach God on our own verses putting our relationship with God in his hands.  Jesus is the way back to God there is no other (John 14:6).  It is a burden, the burden of submission, the burden of dependence, but it is light and the reward is great.  Be faithful to God to day and let him give you the true undeserved gift of eternity with Him.

God thank you for your mercy.  Thank you for your grace.  Help me not be prideful.  Help me not want to have life my way.  Let me trust your way.  Thank you for taking the burden for me.  Jesus thank you for letting your relationship with the Father be broke so mine could be healed.  Thank you for the Holy Spirit who helps me honor you from day to day.  Let me be faithful even in the face of danger.  Keep me true.