Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Hear now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the Lord.’ ” (Jeremiah 28:15-16)

The Lord Has Not Sent You

Judah was the final remnant of the nation of Israel that remained, and the Babylonians were expanding their rule over the world, which would include the final destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Jeremiah is the prophet of the Lord sent to declare the final message of God’s wrath upon His rebellious people. He was not the only prophet. There were many false prophets who challenged the word of Jeremiah. Prophets like Isaiah and Micah had faded into history. Habakkuk and Zephaniah brought the word of the Lord to the people. Jeremiah would live in the final forty years of the nation as false prophets preached a message of false hope.

Jeconiah (Jehoiachin), the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had been taken to Babylon along with the treasures of the temple and the royal palace. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, served the will of the Lord to punish God’s people for rejecting Him. The people of God would be in captivity for seventy years according to the word of the Lord. Faithful prophets would declare the message of doom to Jerusalem, but many false prophets gave the people hope as they trusted in alliances with Egypt and other nations to save them. One such prophet was Hananiah, a prophet of Gibeon. He told the people the vessels of the Lord’s house would return within two years, including Jeconiah and all the captives that had been taken. There was a false hope that Egypt, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Tyre, and Sidon would rise against the Babylonians and crush them. In dramatic fashion, Hananiah broke off the yoke on Jeremiah’s neck to show how God would break off the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. All of this was a message of false hope.

Jeremiah told Hananiah that iron yokes would replace the wooden yokes. Hananiah gave the people false hope, leading them to believe a lie. Hananiah died that same year. Egypt convinced Judah to revolt against Babylon, but the revolt was short-lived before the Babylonians crushed it and destroyed Jerusalem. Hananiah promised the people peace and safety, a message that was not the message of Jeremiah, the true prophet of God. Israel had been destroyed because the nation turned its back on the Lord God. Moses foretold the history of God’s people if they rebelled against the Lord. The word of God was clear that rebellion would not be tolerated. Israel was first divided and then destroyed, ending with the complete destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple. Jeremiah would be proven true because his word came from the Lord.

Satan always attacks the word of God. From the day Satan deceived the woman with the words, “Has God indeed said?” until the final moments of earth’s existence, false teachers will claim to teach the word of God. Like the prophets of old, people are given false hope in a lie that will not save them. Millions believe the “sinners’ prayer” will save them. People mindlessly follow the powerful, the popular, and the exciting religious leaders. False religions espouse the teachings of men like Buddha, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, and the Pope. People flock to the doctrines of men that appeal to the intellectual, the fleshly, and the popular. Jesus taught there was only one way to the Father, and He was the only way, the only truth, and the only life.

False teachers abound in the world today. Like Hananiah, the Lord has not sent these religious leaders who make the people trust in a lie. Anyone who trusts in the words of this writer should be cautioned against accepting truth without the word of God. Everyone is responsible for being responsible in examining the teachings of all men. It demands careful understanding of what the Bible reveals. The spirit of examination should always be to speak where the Bible speaks, and to be silent when God does not speak. It’s that simple and yet that complex.