Prophesying Rightly

“No doubt Hananiah’s message was very popular. It was bold, patriotic, and uplifting. Whose church would you rather go to? With Jeremiah it would be gloom and doom for the next seven decades. Hardly the message for a seeker-sensitive church! Hananiah, on the other hand, would tell you what you wanted to hear. In soothing tones he promised you would be free from all your troubles before you knew it. Even his name sounded nice; it means ‘the Lord is gracious.’”

The Lord is gracious, but not to liars who pose as prophets.

“Jeremiah did what God told him to do. He made the kind of yoke a farmer uses to hitch oxen to a plow. He made it out of straps and crossbars, hung it around his neck, and paraded about the temple (Jeremiah 27:2). The point of his object lesson was that all nations must come under the yoke of the king of Babylon.” [1]

“And it happened in the same year, at 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, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, ‘Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon, says the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.” Jeremiah 28:1-4

Hananiah told sinners what they wanted to hear. Are you rebellious? Not a problem. Are you defiant? No worries! He predicted that God would change their circumstances for the better even if they continued in their idolatrous ways.

“Christians do not talk about God’s judgment because they enjoy it. The only reason we teach these things is because the Lord Jesus Christ teaches them in the Bible.” “Leslie Newbiggin accurately states, ‘It is one of the weaknesses of a great deal of contemporary Christianity that we do not speak of the last judgment and of the possibility of being finally lost.’” [2]

1 Thessalonians 5:3 warns us, “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”

“Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who stood in the house of the Lord, and the prophet Jeremiah said, ‘Amen! The Lord do so; the Lord perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring back the vessels of the Lord’s house and all who were carried away captive, from Babylon to this place.’” Jeremiah 28:5-6

“So what should Jeremiah do? More to the point, what should we do when people in our own culture rejects the hard truths of God’s Word? Francis Schaeffer explains that the situation has not changed very much, if at all, since the days of Jeremiah: ‘Any man who thinks he can speak truly of the things of God today into such a culture as our own and not have such words spoken against him is foolish. It is not possible.’” [3]

How does one respond to a popular movement that is not from God? Hold your tongue? Let your anger flare? People liked what Hananiah had to say, but he had essentially called God and Jeremiah liars. How did Jeremiah respond? At first, Jeremiah’s response was docile. He replied “Amen! The Lord do so; the Lord perform your words which you have prophesied.”

But Jeremiah’s secondary response was not docile. He warned them.

“Nevertheless hear now this Word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: the prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms—of war, disaster, and pestilence. As for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the Word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has truly sent.” Jeremiah 28:7-9

Hananiah spoke of unconditional prosperity. Jeremiah points out that the Biblical prophets who preceded them prophesied of judgments. That was the norm! They would have to wait and see if Hananiah’s prophecy came to pass because it did not line up with the Biblical pattern.

Fulfillment is a valid proof that a prophecy is from God. (Deuteronomy 18:22)

1 Corinthians 14:32-33 says, “The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.” If a man utters words that do not line up with the Word of God, and if the Holy Spirit unsettles the hearts of those who hear him, then, no one should immediately act on his words. The Bereans received the Apostle Paul’s message with great eagerness, but still “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)

“Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck and broke it. And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: even so I will 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.” Jeremiah 28:10-11

Jeremiah did not respond to Hananiah’s theatrics. He walked away. However, before Jeremiah got very far, the Word of the Lord came to him again.

“Now the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ‘Go and tell Hananiah, saying, thus says the Lord: you have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made in their place yokes of iron.’” Jeremiah 28:12-13

If people rejected Jeremiah’s lighter and breakable wooden yoke (Babylon), their rejection would yield a heavier and unbreakable iron yoke, namely, loss of God’s care and provisions.

Jeremiah spoke in accordance with the Law of Moses as recorded in Deuteronomy 27:47-48, “Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.”

“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him. I have given him the beasts of the field also. Jeremiah 28:14

Nebuchadnezzar prefigures the antichrist of the last days. According to Revelation 13:16-17, the antichrist of the last days will “force all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.”

Hananiah prefigures the false prophets amidst God’s people in that future time. They derive their messages from what they perceive people want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3 says, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

“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.’ So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.” Jeremiah 28:15-17

Jeremiah told Hananiah to his face that he was a false prophet who promoted false beliefs.

Hananiah falsely predicted that within two years the yoke of Babylon would be broken. Jeremiah rightly predicted that Hananiah would die within two years.

Babylon’s yoke was not broken. Hananiah died two months later. [4]

Deuteronomy 18:20 says, “A prophet who presumes to speak in My Name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the Name of other gods, is to be put to death.”

In the last chapter of the Bible in Revelation 22:18-19, the Lord says, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.”

When the disciples of Jesus asked Him for signs of the end times, the first sign that He gave to them was, “Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.” (Matthew 24:11)

I am very concerned for those who watch movies that are supposedly based on the Bible but add and subtract and change what the Bible says. Such movies slip little doses of lies into God’s Word. Those who speak for God should be careful to only say what God has said. The prophet Micaiah was asked to speak what a king wanted people to hear. He replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what the Lord tells me.” (1 Kings 22:14)

Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name and in Your Name drive out demons and in Your Name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!’

Hebrews 10:26-27 says, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”

God provides for us a clear guideline to discern the authenticity of a prophetic word. Revelation 19:10 says, “The Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.” In John 5:43, Jesus said to the deceived religious people of His day, “I have come in My Father’s Name, and you do not accept Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.” A true prophet testifies for God in the Name of Jesus, and calls people to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation.

In Matthew 11:29, Jesus urged us, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Jesus wore the yoke the Father gave to Him. His yoke symbolizes fellowship with the Heavenly Father. Let us gladly remain harnessed to God. In Him we have a harvest that lasts forever.

Are we wearing Christ’s yoke? Or have we broken it off as Hananiah did? God daily graciously invites us to work side by side in harmony with Him.



[1] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 397-399

[2] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 397-399

[3] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 400, 405

[4] Hananiah uttered his prophecy in the fifth month (Jeremiah 28:1). His death took place in the seventh month (Jeremiah 28:17), that is, within two months. It is eternally dangerous to contradict God’s Word.