Jer 28:1-7  When the Word of the Prophet Shall Come to Pass, Then Shall the Prophet be Known

[Study Aired January 9, 2022]

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:3  Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
Jer 28:4  And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:5  Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
Jer 28:6  Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD’S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.
Jer 28:7  Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
Jer 28:8  The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
Jer 28:9  The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.
Jer 28:10  Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and brake it.
Jer 28:11  And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I 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.
Jer 28:12  Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 28:13  Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.
Jer 28:14  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
Jer 28:15  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.
Jer 28:16  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.
Jer 28:17  So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

The events of our last study took place “in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah.” In that study Jeremiah the prophet had made a wooden yoke and placed it upon his own neck and had messengers with yokes go from the court of King Zedekiah to all the pagan nations surrounding Israel and the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The message they were to take to the pagan kings surrounding Judah was the same as the message Jeremiah was giving to King Jehoiakim and the people of Judah, many years earlier in the days of King Jehoiakim. That message was that they would one and all be given by the Lord into the hand of the king of Babylon. No one would escape. “All nations” and “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” will serve the king of Babylon.

Spiritually the book of Revelation takes the historical fulfillment of Jeremiah’s words of warning as a prophecy that “all nations” will be placed under the spiritual harlot, ‘Babylon the great’, and the beast she rides upon:

Rev 13:16  And he [the beast] causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

In scripture women symbolize churches and religions, and Pagan Babylon is referred to in the feminine gender riding on a beast:

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication [false doctrines], and the kings of the earth have committed fornication [false doctrines] with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies [false doctrines].

In chapter 26 Jeremiah almost lost his life for telling King Jehoiakim and the people of Judah and Jerusalem that the Lord would make Jerusalem and Judah “like Shiloh” and ‘take away the glory’ of Judah and Jerusalem if they refused to repent of their trespasses and their self-righteous iniquity against the Lord and all His commandments.

Chapter 27 begins with:

Jer 27:1  In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 27:2  Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,
Jer 27:3  And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;
Jer 27:4  And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;
Jer 27:5  I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
Jer 27:6  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

In verse 12 of this same 27^th chapter, Jeremiah delivers the same message to the king of Judah:

Jer 27:12  I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Jer 27:13  Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
Jer 27:14  Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
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.
Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:17  Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?

Jeremiah’s message did not change from one king to the next. It began in the reign of Josiah, the most righteous king Judah ever had, and it ended in the reign of Zedekiah, Josiah’s brother, who was Judah’s last king before being carried away into Babylonian captivity.

During Jeremiah’s entire prophetic career, the Lord had firmly established him as one of His bona-fide and divinely approved prophets by having him foretell the fate of all King Josiah’s sons, who ascended the throne after him, beginning with Shallum, the immediate successor of his father, King Josiah. Shallum was deposed by Pharaohnecho who replaced him with his brother, Eliakim, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Then the Pharaoh took Shallum, also called ‘Jehoahaz’, to Egypt where he remained until the time of his death.

2Ki 23:34  And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz [Shallum] away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.

Before any of this happened, here is what the Lord had Jeremiah to prophesy concerning the fate of King Shallum, an Old Testament type of our rebellious, self-righteous ’old man’:

Jer 22:11  For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
Jer 22:12  But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.

This prophecy concerning King Shallum is one of many which confirm this verse in the New Testament:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood [our self-righteous, rebellious old man] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Pharaoh replaced Shallum (Jehoahaz) with Shallum’s brother, Eliakim, whose name he changed to Jehoiakim, and to further establish Jeremiah’s credentials as a true prophet of God, this is what the Lord told Jeremiah concerning the fate of Jehoiakim, a type of another stage of our old man:

Jer 22:18  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
Jer 22:19  He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

This is what happened to Jehoiakim:

2Ch 36:5  Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.
2Ch 36:6  Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.
2Ch 36:7  Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.
2Ch 36:8  Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

Babylon is certainly “beyond the gates of Jerusalem”. The fact that we are told he “slept with his fathers” does not mean he was brought back to Jerusalem to be buried as some have contended:

2Ki 24:6  So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

We all “sleep with our fathers” when we die, regardless of where we are located or where we are buried.

2Ch 26:23  So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.

“The field of burial” was not in Jerusalem proper, yet we are told “[Uzziah] slept with his fathers”. The same was true of King Ahaz, the father of King Hezekiah:

2Ch 28:27  And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.

It was King Jehoiakim who had the prophet Urijah slain for saying the same thing Jeremiah said concerning the judgment of Judah and Jerusalem:

Jer 26:20  And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:
Jer 26:21  And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt;
Jer 26:22  And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt.
Jer 26:23  And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.
Jer 26:24  Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

Jehoiakim reaped what he had sown. He died as Jeremiah had prophesied and was given “the burial of an ass”, and Jeremiah was further established as the Lord’s prophet who never once prophesied anything which did not come to pass.

Jeremiah’s unbroken track record continues with his prophecy of the fate of Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin, who briefly succeeded his father to the throne:

Jer 22:24  As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah [another name for Jehoiachin] the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;
Jer 22:25  And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jer 22:26  And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
Jer 22:27  But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.
Jer 22:28  Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Jer 22:30  Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Exactly as the Lord had revealed to Jeremiah, so it happened to Jehoiachin, also called ‘Jeconiah’ and ‘Coniah’:

2Ki 24:15  And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
2Ki 24:16  And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.
2Ki 24:17  And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father’s brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

No son of Jehoiachin ever “sat upon the throne of David”. Instead, King Nebuchadnezzar placed Jehoiachin’s great uncle, the brother of King Josiah, who was Jehoiachin’s grandfather, upon the throne of David, and Zedekiah was the last king of the nation of Judah.

With all these fulfilled prophecies one might think that King Zedekiah would be afraid to cross Jeremiah who had proven to be a true prophet of God. Nevertheless, as we will see in this 28^th chapter, such is not the case. Zedekiah is far more concerned with what the people think than with what God has to say.

Jeremiah had been commissioned by God to warn the people, the priests and the king against listening to any prophet who denied that the Lord was in the process of punishing His people for their trespasses against Him. He prophesied that the Lord’s own nation would serve the king of Babylon and that they should ignore any prophet who said otherwise:

Jer 27:7  And all nations shall serve him [Nebuchadnezzar], and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.
Jer 27:8  And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
Jer 27:9  Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:
Jer 27:10  For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

The spirit which was in the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day is the very same spirit which was in the false prophets of Christ’s day who said:

Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

This is the very same spirit which today shouts out, “I have never blasphemed the name of God, and He will never pour out the seven plagues of His wrath on me.” Our calling is the calling of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s calling typified the calling the Father had given Christ to speak for Him and to warn His own people that if we do not fulfill the seven plagues of His wrath in our lives, then we will never enter the temple of God:

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

The Lord brings this message to ‘King Zedekiah’ within us, and we do not want to hear His words:

Jer 27:12  I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Jer 27:13  Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
Jer 27:14  Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
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.
Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon:
Jer 27:17  Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?
Jer 27:18  But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.
Jer 27:19  For thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city,
Jer 27:20  Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;
Jer 27:21  Yea, thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;
Jer 27:22  They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

“I spake to Zedekiah, king of Judah according to all these words…” (Jer 27:12). This statement is a type of the witness the Lord has given each of us. Zedekiah is a type of our own self-righteous ‘king’ sitting on the throne of God within the ‘temple’ of our bodies. The reluctance of Zedekiah to believe the words of this thrice-proven prophet of God typifies our love of family, friends, and the society in which we live, more than our fear of and our love of an “invisible God” who communicates His “manifold wisdom” to mankind through other men:

Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be  unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11  According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

1Ti 1:17  Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be  honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

We cannot help rebelling against His ways and resenting the leaders He places over us because that is how the Lord has made all men. We are all made of the dust of the ground. We are all made “corruptible… flesh and blood” which just naturally wants to do what we are told not to do, and we all just naturally justify ourselves with “the stumbling block of our iniquity”:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

What exactly is this “stumbling block of [our] iniquity”? Obviously, it is our iniquity which is:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his [“own righteousness”] iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit  incorruption.

Our story today “happened to [the people of Jeremiah’s day] and it is written for our admonition” (1Co 10:11). These events demonstrate just how weak we all are when we are faced with being alienated from our families, our friends and from the society around us:

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,

This is the only mention in scripture of “Azur the prophet”, so we know nothing more about him. “The same year” refers to the time immediately preceding, as laid out in the previous chapter:

Jer 27:12  I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

The events we are discussing in this chapter take place “the same year” in which Jeremiah had four times told the people, the priests and the king not to listen to, or be persuaded by, any false prophet who might attempt to convince them that they need not go into Babylonian captivity, and that those who happen to be there would very shortly be coming back home to Judah and Jerusalem.

Notice how explicitly the Lord admonishes His people against thinking they can avoid Babylonian captivity:

Jer 27:9  Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:

Jer 27:14  Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now  shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:17  Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?

This “Hananiah, the son of Azur the prophet” obviously had no appreciation for the proven credentials of the prophet Jeremiah. Hananiah had no prophecies which he had made concerning the fate of the sons of Josiah. Yes, he was “the son of [a] prophet” but he did not have the divinely appointed, irrefutable credentials of Jeremiah. What Hananiah did have was what we all have by nature. He had a carnal mind which was “enmity against God and was not subject to the law of God, neither indeed [could it] be”:

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

It is our naturally rebellious carnal mind, which hates the law of God and drives us to want to hear only “smooth things [and] deceits”:

Isa 30:8  Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
Isa 30:9  That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
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:
Isa 30:11  Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

Here are the “deceitful… smooth things” Hananiah prophesied in the Lord’s name in direct contradiction to the words of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah:

Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:3  Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
Jer 28:4  And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

This is what the Lord had really said:

Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

Hananiah had listened closely to Jeremiah’s words and had taken it upon himself to prophesy in the Lord’s name the exact opposite of what the Lord had told Jeremiah even concerning the timing of the return of the vessels of the Lord’s house.

Jeremiah had never once said or prophesied that the vessels of the Lord’s house would never be returned. What the Lord had warned against was that it would be any time soon:

Jer 28:5  Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
Jer 28:6  Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD’S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.

Jeremiah looked forward to the day when the Lord would judge Babylon and restore His people to their land… “the Lord perform your words which thou has prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the Lord’s house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon to this place”. Like all false prophets, Hananiah had painted himself into a corner. Two years would come and go, and then there would be no doubt that Hananiah was a false prophet who had prophesied lies. The Lord has hardened the hearts of all false prophets for a time. They all love the things of this world more than the invisible things of the spirit, and if God has so ordained it, they simply cannot find place for repentance, even when proven wrong:

Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Jer 28:7  Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
Jer 28:8  The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
Jer 28:9  The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.

Like any true prophet of the Lord, Jeremiah is willing to wait to see which prophet is speaking for the Lord and which is speaking falsely. The Lord had told Elijah that He would demonstrate who was and who was not the true God, and based on the Lord’s words, Elijah spoke with great confidence:

1Ki 18:22  Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.
1Ki 18:23  Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under:
1Ki 18:24  And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.

This happened many years before these false prophecies of Hananiah. Hananiah was the son of a prophet and fancied himself a prophet of the Lord. He had read about what the Lord had done to the prophets of Baal, and he also knew that Jeremiah had prophesied truthfully concerning all three of Josiah’s sons which had been on the throne after his death. Still, he presumptuously pits himself and his lies against a proven prophet of the Lord, just as we all do when we are at first introduced to the Truth of the Lord’s Words. Next, Hananiah presumptuously takes the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and destroys the symbol the Lord had given Jeremiah to show His people that they must serve the king of Babylon:

Jer 28:10  Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and brake it.
Jer 28:11  And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I 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.

It is abundantly clear that this false prophet, Hananiah, was very bitter toward the prophet Jeremiah, and it is equally clear that same bitter spirit had infected the priests and the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Here is what the Lord tells us about “a root of bitterness” springing up within us:

Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

‘Many enter in through the broad way that leads to destruction’. ‘Many are called but few are chosen’, and “many are defiled [by a] root of bitterness… springing up” when they simply do not like the Lord’s ways, His words and those through whom He sends us His words.

Jeremiah has already confessed that he was more than willing to wait and see which of these two prophets were of the Lord. Jeremiah knew that Hananiah’s presumptuous stunt would not change the Lord’s mind, and Jeremiah was willing to wait on the Lord to demonstrate who was and who was not a true prophet of the Lord. It is for our admonition that the Lord, just as He did through the prophet Elijah, does not wait two years to make known who is righteous and who is wicked… who serves God and who serves Him not:

Mal 3:16  Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

The Lord has “[His] jewels… made up” long before the first resurrection. He is ‘making up His jewels’ as He gives to us the ability to “discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not” in this “present time” (Rom 8:18). “Now are we the sons of God”, and like all the Lord’s true prophets, we know who we are because ‘[we] know His voice’:

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Joh 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Here is the verse which incites “a root of bitterness” in all those who are unwilling to believe these words:

1Jn 4:5  They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Who does John think he is? John knows who he is, and John knows how to discern the spirit of Truth and the spirit of error. John knows how to “try the spirits to see whether they are of God…”:

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
1Jn 4:2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

There is no article preceding the word ‘flesh’ in verse 2. The Greek simply reads ‘sarx’, ‘flesh’, and it includes the flesh Christ was in, but it also includes the fact that we are His flesh and His bones. The Greek word ‘sarx’ here includes our flesh in which He lives while we are yet in this present time.

Jeremiah, as a type of the Lord’s sheep, knew that Hananiah was speaking lies to the Lord’s people. However, until the Lord told him otherwise, he was willing to wait upon the Lord. When the Lord spoke to Jeremiah, he did not hesitate to speak the Truth because he had complete faith in the Lord’s words:

Jer 28:12  Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 28:13  Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.
Jer 28:14  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
Jer 28:15  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.
Jer 28:16  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.
Jer 28:17  So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

The day we deny the word of the Lord and ‘teach rebellion against the Lord’ and His doctrines by spouting out our own dreams and the doctrines of men, we are, at that moment, spiritually “cast… off from the face of the earth” and have spiritually “died the same year”.

May the Lord grant us all to fear to so much as “think above that which is written” but to ‘fear God and keep His commandments’:

Ecc 12:13  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecc 12:14  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

1Co 4:6  Now these things, brothers, I applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us ye might learn not to think above that which is written,,so that ye may not be puffed up, one over the one against the other. (ACV)

May the Lord grant us all the ability to “Try the spirits to see whether they be of God [and to] know the spirit of Truth and the spirit of error” and be able to discern ‘the voice of… the True Shepherd”.

That is our study for today, and these are our verses for our next study which will demonstrate that the Lord begins His works within His people long before they are dragged out of Babylon:

Jer 29:1  Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
Jer 29:2  (After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;)
Jer 29:3  By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,
Jer 29:4  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
Jer 29:5  Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
Jer 29:6  Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
Jer 29:7  And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Jer 29:8  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
Jer 29:9  For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.
Jer 29:10  For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jer 29:14  And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.