One day in late summer of that same year—the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah—Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from Gibeon, addressed me publicly in the Temple while all the priests and people listened. He said, ² “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will remove the yoke of the king of Babylon from your necks. ³ Within two years I will bring back all the Temple treasures that King Nebuchadnezzar carried off to Babylon. ⁴ And I will bring back Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the other captives that were taken to Babylon. I will surely break the yoke that the king of Babylon has put on your necks. I, the Lord, have spoken!’”

⁵ Jeremiah responded to Hananiah as they stood in front of all the priests and people at the Temple. ⁶ He said, “Amen! May your prophecies come true! I hope the Lord does everything you say. I hope he does bring back from Babylon the treasures of this Temple and all the captives. ⁷ But listen now to the solemn words I speak to you in the presence of all these people. ⁸ The ancient prophets who preceded you and me spoke against many nations, always warning of war, disaster, and disease. ⁹ So a prophet who predicts peace must show he is right. Only when his predictions come true can we know that he is really from the Lord.”

¹⁰ Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it in pieces. ¹¹ And Hananiah said again to the crowd that had gathered, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Just as this yoke has been broken, within two years I will break the yoke of oppression from all the nations now subject to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.’” With that, Jeremiah left the Temple area.

¹² Soon after this confrontation with Hananiah, the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: ¹³ “Go and tell Hananiah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but you have replaced it with a yoke of iron. ¹⁴ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations, forcing them into slavery under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I have put everything, even the wild animals, under his control.’”

¹⁵ Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, but the people believe your lies. ¹⁶ Therefore, this is what the Lord says: ‘You must die. Your life will end this very year because you have rebelled against the Lord.’”

¹⁷ Two months later the prophet Hananiah died.

Jeremiah 28

Dear God, what a story. If I’ve read it before, I’ve forgotten it. I have to admit, I was sucked into the narrative and Hananiah’s false prophecy. In the first verse, Jeremiah labels Hananiah a prophet so I just gave him the benefit of the doubt. But Hananiah was either unintentionally or intentionally wrong. Jeremiah told him to wait on his prophecy to see if it was true, but Hananiah decided to double down in an evocative way. That was his mistake. It sounds like you would have had room for him to be humble and be wrong, but you would not tolerate arrogant ignorance.

“Arrogant ignorance.” Those words just came to me, but they resonate. There is a lot of arrogant ignorance going around. I was curious yesterday about a nationally-known pastor who had used his credibility to support some political candidates over the last several years. He had been kind of quiet recently so I wanted to see if he was still as politically-minded. I went to his Twitter page and found that he had returned to just loving people. He was using his ministry to reach out to people in Kentucky with the flooding. He was loving wounded veterans in Alaska. His feed was back to being about bringing you into the world and loving you. I am curious to know whether he regrets his political activism. Did he repent of it? I wonder.

In a Christianity Today interview in 2011, when asked of his regrets, Billy Graham included this: “I also would have steered clear of politics. I’m grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to. But looking back I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn’t do that now.” Power can be intoxicating. But Jesus never cared about power except when he saw those who were supposed to represent you (priests, Pharisees, etc.) being cruel, legalistic, and selfish. He didn’t care about Caesar, but he cared about Caiaphas.

Father, Holy Spirit, help me to turn loose of vestiges of power that I might have or covet and simply bring you into the world today through my life. Love others through me. Let it start with my wife. Then my children and their significant others. My parents. My siblings. My nieces and nephews. The strangers I meet. Let your love flow through me.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen