Recently I have been going through the book of Jeremiah, and not long ago, I read through the 28th chapter, which includes a showdown between Jeremiah and a false prophet named Hananiah. This chapter provides some helpful lessons about false prophets, and false teachers generally, and I thought it would be a useful exercise to go through it and show what I've gleaned. In the process, I'll also look at one or two other Scriptures dealing with false teachers and show how they apply to Hananiah.
Before I dive in properly, some background context: by the time Jeremiah was active, Israel had been divided into the northern and southern kingdoms, and Jeremiah was called by God to preach to the southern kingdom, Judah. In particular, he did a lot of preaching in Jerusalem, then the capital of Judah. This kingdom was given over to all manner of wickedness, including pagan worship, fornication and child sacrifice, among other things. God was ready to judge all this wickedness by sending the army of Babylon (headed up by King Nebuchadnezzar, the same one featured in the book of Daniel) to invade Judah, besiege Jerusalem and carry away the Jews into a captivity that would last 70 years. But He sent Jeremiah to make one last plea for repentance. However, his prophesying and preaching fell on deaf ears. In fact, Jeremiah was mocked and scorned to such an extent that at one stage he wished he'd never been born! But despite his immense unpopularity, he kept faithfully preaching the message God told him to.
But while Jeremiah warned the people about the coming Babylonian invasion, and also told the people to surrender and go into captivity because those who chose to stay and fight would end up being killed by sword, famine or pestilence, other prophets had a rather different message, and one such prophet was Hananiah. So let's have a look now at what he had to say:
And it came to pass the same year, in 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, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD'S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. (Jeremiah 28:1-4)
Here we see two key characteristics of false teachers. Firstly, they can sound a lot like genuine people of God. The way Hananiah talks sounds very much like how Jeremiah himself spoke. They can use the same phrases and the same general pattern of speech to make themselves appear Christian. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) Hananiah was such a minister of Satan, cunningly transforming himself to appear as a true prophet. Secondly, they preach a message that appeals to people. The truth is often not very appealing. Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. (Isaiah 30:8-11) The people of Judah didn't want to hear Jeremiah's right things. But they would have been loving the smooth things and deceits uttered by Hananiah! He was also using good words to deceive his hearers. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. (Romans 16:18) One could also describe this little speech of Hananiah's as "great swelling words": For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. (2 Peter 2:18) Hananiah was saying, in so many words, "Don't worry about this Nebuchadnezzar dude. Our God, the GOD OF ISRAEL, is gonna take him down! He's gonna totally smash him! In two years, we'll all be back to normal, guys." That kind of talk certainly sounded more appealing than "You're going into captivity for 70 years because of your sins, don't fight it, just surrender, because the Lord has given you into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar", which is a rough summary of what Jeremiah was preaching around this time.
Actually, a third point that I came across in Matthew Henry's commentary on this chapter is that false teachers only promise MATERIAL blessings, whereas true ministers of God emphasise the SPIRITUAL blessings He offers to those who repent and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Like today's "prosperity preachers", Hananiah is all about the material things only. In his world, Nebuchadnezzar is going down, the treasures of the Temple are coming back, and life is going to be just peachy. It's all about the here and now. He does not speak one word about matters of eternal importance.
After listening to this fair speech by Hananiah, Jeremiah responds with some rather delicious sarcasm:
Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD, Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD'S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place. (Jeremiah 28:5-6)
Jeremiah is saying in so many words, "Would that it were so!" In some ways, Jeremiah himself probably would have been pleased if Hananiah's prophecy had been a true one. I must say that it's interesting Jeremiah reacts this way rather than say straight up, "That's a pack of lies!" Rather than disagreeing with Hananiah, he starts out by mockingly agreeing with him. However, he goes on to point out that he is not the first "doomsaying" prophet of God:
Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people; The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him. (Jeremiah 28:7-9)
This last bit is particularly key. Rather than outright accuse Hananiah of being a false prophet, Jeremiah instead says, in essence, "Let's see if this prophecy of yours comes true. If it does, then it came from God. If it doesn't, then it did not." Jeremiah doesn't have to call Hananiah a false prophet when the failure of his prophecy will say it instead. He echoes the principle expressed in Deuteronomy 18:22, When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. Very often (although not always), false prophets give prophecies of peace. That is because preaching peace is far more popular than preaching doom for the unrepentant! Hananiah was saying there was going to be peace again in just a couple more years. That would have made people feel good, unlike that mean old Jeremiah who was always making people feel bad with his reproving of their sins and warnings of God's judgement.
False teachers tend to be bold, and Hananiah is unperturbed by what Jeremiah had to say to him. Let's see now what he does next:
Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it. And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I 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)
To understand why Jeremiah was wearing a yoke around his neck, we need to go back to the previous chapter. Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck (Jeremiah 27:2) The reason is to symbolise the following: And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. (Jeremiah 27:8 )
So Jeremiah had the yoke around his neck in the first place to illustrate that not only Judah, but many other nations around it, would be forced to serve the king of Babylon. He didn't just put it on for a lark, but because God specifically instructed him to do so. It was a visual reminder of God's judgement. However, Hananiah kind of "hijacks" the yoke to illustrate his own false prophecy. Here we see another important characteristic of false teachers: they take the things of God and use them for their own twisted purposes. Hananiah took the symbol of God's judgement and turned it into a false symbol of liberation from Babylon. (Notice again how he mimics the speech patterns of a real prophet.) It's like how today they take the rainbow and turn the symbol of God's promise not to flood the world into a symbol of perversion that He judges! Of course, what they most often twist is the Word of God itself: As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16) Whereas Jeremiah was faithfully obeying God, Hananiah was really just going by his own imagination. Jeremiah himself exposes this particular characteristic of false teachers: Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. (Jeremiah 23:16-17) This is exactly what Hananiah was doing.
Paul warns in 2 Corinthians 11:15 that the end of false teachers shall be according to their works, and Hananiah was about to find this out. Judgement was about to be pronounced on him, and Jeremiah was to give him the bad news. Let's look at the first part of this:
Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also. (Jeremiah 28:12-14)
What God is saying here is that Hananiah's false prophecy of peace in two years is going to result in worse bondage for the people of Judah. The false belief that Nebuchadnezzar would be defeated in just two years would encourage them to remain in Jerusalem and fight the Babylonians, the very thing God had told them NOT to do! Such is the way of false teachers. The "freedom" they promise actually leads to greater bondage. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. (2 Peter 2:19) Hananiah was just such a servant of corruption.
The next two verses reveal two more key characteristics of false teachers. Here's the first:
Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. (Jeremiah 28:15)
Another false prophet is condemned for the same thing in the next chapter: Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie (Jeremiah 29:31)
True ministers of God preach the TRUTH and want people to TRUST IN GOD. But false preachers instead cause people to TRUST IN A LIE. In Hananiah's case, that lie was "God's going to cause Nebuchadnezzar to lose big in a couple of years". Modern lies might include "God wants to make you rich" or "Jesus told us not to judge anyone, so we shouldn't speak against sin" or maybe "God wants all religions living in peace and harmony together", among others. Usually, this trust is gained through clever rhetoric - the good words and fair speeches that deceive the HEARTS of the simple (undiscerning).
Jeremiah then says to Hananiah: Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD. (Jeremiah 28:16)
Once again, Shemaiah is also reproved for this in the next chapter: Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the LORD; because he hath taught rebellion against the LORD.
The final thing to learn from Hananiah then is that false prophets and other kinds of false apostles TEACH REBELLION AGAINST GOD. Genuine ministers of God teach OBEDIENCE to Him. They exhort people to OBEY His Word. But for all their fine words, false teachers are all about rebellion. A New Testament example is the false prophetess called Jezebel: Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. (Revelation 2:20) Committing fornication and eating things sacrificed to idols are both sins and as such, acts of rebellion against God. Hananiah was teaching rebellion against God because his "prophecy" was encouraging people to stay in Jerusalem rather than surrender to the Babylonian army as God had commanded. It would also have made them more comfortable in their sin rather than understand that God was judging them for it. A particularly devious trick that false teachers play is to teach rebellion while making it appear as though God actually approves of it. After all, they "speak for God", so God must be OK with these sins. But people who listen to such false teachers are in for a rude shock. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. (Psalm 50:21)
The 28th chapter of Jeremiah then ends with this rather dismissive note about Hananiah's death: So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month. (Jeremiah 28:17)
Jeremiah was thus proven a true prophet (not for the first time). He said Hananiah would die, and so he did. However, it is important to note that Jeremiah did not wish death on Hananiah. He was rather pronouncing the judgement that God had given him. He spoke a true word from God, and so it came to pass. Meanwhile, Hananiah, for all his fine words and grand gestures, died with no fanfare in the end. He is summarily dismissed from Biblical history, while Jeremiah, whom many people did wish dead and even tried to kill at different times, lives on.
Anyway, I hope this has been a useful study. There are of course other things that can be learned about false teachers from other sections of Scripture, but these were some of the characteristics I thought could be learned from examining Hananiah, and I thought I'd share these gleanings while my study of this passage was still reasonably fresh in my mind.
