Read Jeremiah 27
Often in our church or committee meetings we listen to and sway towards the people that speak the loudest and the most forcibly. Sometimes people make threats and pressure the listeners to side with themselves with anything but good, rational and solid arguments. Unfortunately
I can picture the prophet Hananiah standing up in the courts of the Lord boldly and confidently rebuking Jeremiah for his words about Jerusalem and the nations being subdued and exiled by Nebuchadnezzar. He boldly proclaimed that the Lord Himself had told him that God alone would break the yoke of the Babylonians and bring back all the temple articles that had already taken to Babylon. Hananiah was bold. Hananiah was confident. He was forceful!
Hananiah’s boldness put Jeremiah in a pickle. Jeremiah had been told bluntly and plainly by the Lord that these prophesies are all lies. Now he was publicly challenged. The gauntlet had been thrown down. How would you react in this situation? What steps would you take if you were publicly challenged?
Jeremiah’s response is telling. He shows that he desperately wants the prophesy to be true. But he reverts back to Deuteronomy 18 and correctly stipulates that the prophet whose words come true is the only true prophet. Other prophets were to be stoned without mercy!
But Hananiah was furious. He broke off the yoke from Jeremiah’s neck and yelled forth his prophesy, declaring that Nebuchadnezzar’s yoke would be broken and undone in just 2 years. I can picture Hananiah tearing off the yoke and throwing it down on the ground, all the while turning redder and redder with rage.
Jeremiah wisely left the scene. But shortly after God called him to bring another word to Hananiah. God revealed to Jeremiah that Nebuchadnezzar would bring a yoke of iron not wood and that Hananiah would himself die within the year for prophesying lies. In a show of nonchalant defiance the passage simply ends with an emotionless comment that Hananiah did in fact die in the 7th month of the year.
While the passage continues the theme of lying from the previous chapter it also warns us that the loudest and most passionate people are not necessarily the ones to listen to. People who lie are often tempted to be overly passionate and overly forceful to sell their lie. Our job is to listen to the content of their words and to assess their character so that as a church we make sound decisions that glorify the Lord God our Saviour. Every church, every committee, every Christian body needs to base its decisions on godly information and prayerfulness not on the desires of a few loud and insistent individuals.
Prayer:
Using today’s passage and the reading notes spend time in prayer.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
· Pray that God’s Word would be powerful and active on Sonday that the Lord would be powerfully present in your church. Pray that God would bring healing, wholeness, correction, rebuke, building up and strengthening as needed. Pray particularly for those in your congregation who are unwell and need God’s healing hand in their lives at present.
· Pray that the youth in your church would be growing in grace and wisdom and knowledge and love for the Lord. Ask the Lord to equip them to turn away from the passions of youth and to pursue love, patience, righteousness peace and purity.
1. Picture yourself in a congregational meeting. A hot issue is raised and someone stands and yells angrily that if the wrong decision is made he will resign from the congregation. How should the leadership react? What would be a godly reaction for another congregational member?
2. How should NT believers deal with false prophesies and false prophets?
3. 1 John 4 tells us to test everything. How do we test prophesies in the NT church?
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