Jeremiah 28

Jeremiah 28:2

HANANIAH, THE FALSE PROPHETChapter 28 continues the prophecy of the yokes. One of the false prophets, Hananiah, refutes the prophecy of Jeremiah and claims to give the true Word of the Lord: Well, Jeremiah made it clear that Hananiah was not a prophet of God and that he was giving the people a lie. Hananiah actually took the wooden yoke from off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it, 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 (v. Jer_28:11).” As a judgment upon him, God said to tell him that he would die within the year. Notice what happened:

Jeremiah 28:15

He died, just as God said he would. You would think this would alert the people and they would say, “Look, Jeremiah is the one who is calling the shots. Jeremiah is the one who is giving us God’s Word.” However, they were not convinced, but went on in their rebellion against the Word of God. Judah listened to the wrong voices, and we have done the same thing in our own recent history. Since the time of World War II we have not had any true leaders in this country. Someone once asked Gladstone, the great English jurist, what was the mark of a great statesman. He gave this answer: “A great statesman is a man who knows the direction God is going for the next fifty years.” My friend, we certainly have not had leaders like that. As a result, we have missed a great opportunity as a nation for leadership in the world, and the great middle class of our nation has been corrupted. We are headed down, just as England went down, and just as Judah went down. We have refused to listen to the Word of God.