The Danger of False Prophets: A Pentecost Meditation on Jeremiah 28

Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet,

Hear now, Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee;

but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.

Therefore thus saith the Lord;

Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth:

this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord.

So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

The prophet Jeremiah had a tough job—to preach repentance to the people of Israel, and the catastrophe of the Babylonian captivity should they refuse.  The people of his country were in a time of rampant wickedness, selfishness, adultery, and idolatry, and his call to turn from their evil and cling to God in faith was largely rejected.  Also at his time, there were many who wore the mantle of prophets claiming to speak for God, as well as those who served as priests whose duty it was to shepherd the people in the Word of the Lord.  The vast majority of these official prophets and priests were apostates, teaching the people to be comfortable in their sins, and presuming to speak words from God which God did not give them.  Like so many of the authentic prophets, Jeremiah’s was a lonely road, full of scorn and derision among his peers for refusing to preach the official party line, but instead clinging fast to the Word of God.

The conflict with Hananiah was climatic.  God had told Jeremiah to fashion a yoke and put it upon his shoulders, as a sign that the people of Israel would serve the King of Babylon as judgment for their sins.  If the people would accept a lesser service to Babylon as penance for their sins, their faith and repentance would receive the grace of most of them continuing to live in their land while a smaller number lived in exile, awaiting a final return.  If they continued to rebel, God would use King Nebuchadnezzar to destroy them with war, famine, and pestilence.  Hananiah preached continued resistance to God and His judgement, took the yoke off Jeremiah’s shoulders, and broke it in pieces, saying that their suffering under Babylon would be complete in less than two years.  God slew Hananiah for his false prophecy, but not before he convinced many to follow him in rebellion, and the suffering of the people of Israel was tremendous.

As at the time of the Babylonian captivity in the 6^th century BC, so too in our time and place; many people are given over to wickedness in a thousand variations, from sexual sins to violence, insurrection, gluttony, covetousness, and idolatry.  Also as in their time, we have many who take to themselves the mantle of prophets, pastors, and priests, who falsely claim to speak for God when God has not spoken to them, leading people to feel comfortable in their evil and their rebellion against God’s Eternal Word.  Trusting in their lies, many individuals, and even whole communities, are rushing headlong into destruction, while authentic preachers of God’s Word are sidelined, ignored, ridiculed, or persecuted out of their livelihoods.  While we may not have a Jeremiah in our day who is receiving the direct call of God to speak verbatim to the people, we do have the Word of God which was given to Jeremiah, as well as all the Prophets and the Apostles whom God has sent to the world to bear His call to faith and repentance.  And while the multitude of apostate false prophets and malignant shepherds may have the public ear, befriended by the organs of media, politics, academy, and celebrity in which the people of our time find their idols, there are still faithful voices out there of those whom God has sent to preach His Law and Gospel, to call every soul, family, community, and nation to repentance and faith.  In our time, as in the times which have come before us, the Lord has preserved His saving Word, desiring that none should be lost, but that all might come to a saving knowledge of the Truth.

And that saving Truth is the same today, as it was in Jeremiah’s day; what Jeremiah prophesied and foreshadowed, the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled and completed in His life, death, and resurrection.  Where the people could not save themselves from their slavery to sin, death, and hell, Jesus took their sin, death, and hell upon Himself at the Cross, breaking the yoke of eternal condemnation by sacrificing Himself in our place.  By the shed blood of Jesus our debt and penance is paid, making satisfaction before the Father for the justice we have earned through our rebellion.  In Jesus the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us, that we might behold His glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, and the only Name given under heaven by which we must be saved.  In Jesus all the words of God through the Prophets find their completion, and the words of the Apostles whom He sent find their power.

The world is still full of lies, half-truths, and deceptions, promoted by countless false prophets and false shepherds wrapped in the finery of this age, and those who follow them find calamitous destruction in this world and the next.  But the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ is still the only Way, Truth, and Life for all who will repent and put their trust in Him.  Kingdoms rise and fall across the ages as did King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, but the Word of the Lord remains forever, with the undiminished power of the Holy Spirit carrying it forth through faithful servants in every generation.  Today this Word calls to you like a clear clarion through the cacophonous fog of our times, that you might lay aside every false teaching and false teacher, and cling once again to the saving Word of Jesus.  Hear Him today, repent, believe, and live.  Amen.