1 In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people: 2 “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the LORD’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed from here and took to Babylon. 4 I will also bring back to this place Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the other exiles from Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”
12 After the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 13 “Go and tell Hananiah, ‘This is what the LORD says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but in its place you will get a yoke of iron. 14 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will put an iron yoke on the necks of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will serve him. I will even give him control over the wild animals.’”
15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. 16 Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.’”
17 In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died.
TODAY IN THE WORD
It’s amazing what a powerful thing wishful thinking can be! Teachers often see this first-hand. For example, some students keep putting off studying for an exam, convincing themselves that they know enough to slide by or that they are good guessers. Despite repeated warnings that hard work is required, these students have great confidence in their short-term memory and spend all night “cramming” before the exam. All too often, however, exam results prove that these students were deceiving themselves, and they end up paying a price for all their wishing and procrastinating!
In some ways that’s how it was for Judah. Probably deep down people had a vague sense that judgment was inevitable. They certainly got this point loud and clear from Jeremiah. But even so, the lure of wishful thinking can be quite strong!
We could call Hananiah a prophet of wishful thinking. He probably uttered the prophecy recorded in today’s passage around 594 BC, when Zedekiah was Judah’s king. By this time, Judah was paying a burdensome tribute to Nebuchadnezzar. Any-one who “prophesied” that this “yoke” might be broken would be gladly welcomed! The only problem was that Hananiah wasn’t prophesying God’s word!
Just prior to Hananiah’s appearance, Jeremiah had acted out another parable (see Jer 27), during which he had placed a wooden animal yoke around his neck to symbolize Judah’s submission to Babylon. Even worse, Jeremiah claimed that Nebuchadnezzar was God’s servant, used by God to subjugate all nations (Jer 27:6,7). Not only that, Jeremiah performed his pantomime in front of emissaries from several nations who were planning to revolt against Babylon. Then along came Hananiah, prophesying exactly what everyone wanted to hear, namely that freedom was just around the corner.
APPLY THE WORD
Hananiah’s “prophecy” was very appealing: continue rebelling without any consequences! But God’s way with the nation’s sin required submission to His discipline, in this case, the “yoke” of Babylon.
