Year 6, Day 81: Jeremiah 28

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Prophet

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11.  The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.

Clash of the Titans.  Jeremiah meets up with an adversary who tells him that he is completely wrong.  The false prophet Hananiah declares that the bondage to Babylon will be over in two years.  In other words, Hananiah has just contradicted Jeremiah’s message.  The Lord told Jeremiah that the bondage would last 70 years.  Hananiah says it will be less than two.

Of course, we know Hananiah was wrong.  We also know that Hananiah died before he could ever see whether he was right or Jeremiah was right.  Clearly Hananiah was the false prophet.  He wasn’t interested in bringing God’s message to the people.  He was interested in bringing what the people wanted to hear to their ears.

This isn’t the only thing that I want to address, though.  Did you hear how Jeremiah defended himself?  Jeremiah says that prophets always speak about death, war, famine, and destruction.  In fact, it is expected that this is the case.  We don’t even need to wonder if such a message is from God!  How do we know this?  We know humanity.  If there is anything that we can know, it is that humanity will always bring about war and strife and conflict.  We’ll never get away from it.  That’s why we always need prophets around us.

When do we need to wonder about a message or a messenger?  When a messenger brings a message of peace, we should stop and check with God.  When in the face of human existence upon this planet has there ever truly been a time of peace?  True peace will only come when Christ returns and brings the world under His authority and under His judgment.  Until that time comes, we should look upon the prophet of peace with skepticism and always remember to test his message.  For the most part, human beings typically just don’t have it in us to live at peace without the help of God.

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