Jeremiah 28:1-9 – What would you rather hear?

Remember that Jeremiah had been wearing the yoke that God told him to make over his neck. He was parading around the temple court signaling God’s message that all nations must come under Babylon’s dominion. For several months now and he was still wearing the yoke. In Jeremiah 25:11, we learned that he had proclaimed a 70-year duration of Judah’s captivity in Babylon. But now in Jeremiah 28:1, a prophet from Gibeon named Hananiah appeared to publicly prophesy in the Lord’s name contradicting Jeremiah’s message. He proclaimed to the priests and the people that God was breaking the dominion of Babylon. He insisted that within two years the vessels from the temple that Nebuchadnezzar had taken would be returned. He even said that God was “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. (Jeremiah 28:4).

Notice that Hananiah was explicitly said to be from Gibeon. This already hinted that what he said could not be trusted. We learned how deceptive the Gibeonites were from the book of Joshua. They had deceptively duped Joshua into an alliance with them, by telling a lie that they came from a distant land. Therefore, how could one from the line of deceitful people be bearing the truth? If their history was anything to go by, this man could not be trusted.

Jeremiah’s response could be seen in verses 5-6. He wished that whatever Hananiah had said was true and that God would bring the people and the temple vessels that the Babylonians had taken back within two years.  He then pointed out that just by merely prophesying without authentication would not necessarily come a prophecy true. Jeremiah argued that whether a prophet and his prophecy came from God could only be determined when what had been prophesied happened. For the true test of a prophet and his prophecy would only be authenticated when what that prophet had said come to pass.  

Whose message was more believable? Hananiah’s or Jeremiah’s? One promises a time of pleasantry and the other, a time of hardship, struggles, and suffering.  The former tells what everyone desires to hear. It is assertive, edifying, and even patriotic. The latter, on the other hand, is depressing, gloomy, and doom and not the least bit palatable to the ears. One message is popular but false. The other is hard to stomach but true. If both Hananiah and Jeremiah were pastors in our world today, whose church would you rather attend? True pastors Jesus indicates are more like John the Baptist. This is what the Lord said of him in Matthew 11. He was more than a prophet. He was prophecy fulfilled. He did not just preach the word. He lived the word. His message is worth listening to.