Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

Again we’re in the way-back machine to Jehoiakim’s reign. This chapter is 18-19 years into Jeremiah’s ministry – even further into the past than yesterday. The Book of Jeremiah gives the majority of the words of the Lord up front, and then it goes into some of the happenings and more of the words of the Lord afterwards.

The Lord told Jeremiah to go stand in the Temple courts and prophesy that if they do what God says, if they obey Him, all will be well. But if they do not obey, then the Temple would be like Shiloh (where the Lord abandoned the people who abandoned Him first and the ark went to their enemies for a time – Psalm 78:60; 1 Samuel 5:1). God was hoping some would hear and repent. Well, the religious leaders didn’t like that. They seized Jeremiah and demanded to know why he was prophesying their ruin? The people around them agreed and everyone was very set against Jeremiah.

The government leaders heard about it and they came down to the Temple. The religious leaders were demanding Jeremiah’s death, but Jeremiah spoke up and said he was ONLY saying what God told him to say. God was saying for the people to repent and obey Him so things would be well with them. But if they didn’t repent judgment was coming. Jeremiah gave himself over saying ‘do what you will with me’ because he wasn’t going to stop speaking the truth God spoke to him. The officials declared Jeremiah had done nothing worth of death. Some of them even pointed out that Micah had said the same things (Micah 3) in the days of Hezekiah. Did King Hezekiah kill Micah for this message? No. So why should they kill Jeremiah? If they killed Jeremiah it would be making things worse for themselves. God was with Jeremiah. Although they argued, they did not kill him.

Jehoiakim’s son only reigned three months. After him came Zedekiah. At the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign, the Lord came to Jeremiah and told him to make bonds and yokes and to put them on his neck. He was also to send copies to the king of Edom, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon. Jeremiah’s message was this: The Lord says that He made the Earth, made men, and made the beasts. They are all in His great power. His outstretched arm has given them to whom He wished. Now He has given them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. All nations would serve him and his son and his son’s son – until the time of the end of his kingdom comes. Until then, nations that don’t serve Nebuchadnezzar will be punished and whomever doesn’t put their necks under his yoke will be punished with sword, famine, and pestilence. He warned them not to listen to the prophets, sorcerers, and enchanters who said that they will not serve the king of Babylon. That they will have peace.

God told them He had spoken to Zedekiah, king of Judah. He had spoken to the priests of His people. And He had warned all of them that they were NOT to listen to false prophets. They were NOT to listen to lying priests. All would be carried to Babylon as slaves and treasures. Even the vessels of the Temple would go there. He warned them all to listen to what He said and do as He instructed. That was the only way to survive the coming judgment. Nebuchadnezzar was the Lord’s servant and things would go as the Almighty God spoke.

“And it was in that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah, the son of Azzur, the prophet who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of Yahweh before the eyes of the priests and all the people, saying, “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon” (Jeremiah 28:1-2).

Hananiah was prophesying that within two years God would bring Jeconiah and all the captives in Babylon back to Israel – this was in the fifth month. That the Lord would break the yolk of the king of Babylon. Basically, the opposite of the message that Jeremiah had been speaking out. Hananiah ripped the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah and broke it. Jeremiah left, going his way.

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah told him to go back to Hananiah and tell him: you have broken yokes of wood, but in doing so have turned them into yolks of iron. A yoke of iron has been put on the necks of the nations by the Lord God Almighty. They would serve Babylon. Jeremiah was told to tell Hananiah that he was NOT sent by the Lord. He made a people trust in a lie. Because of that, the Lord is about to cast him (Hananiah) off the face of the Earth. This year he would die because he had taught rebellion against the Lord.

Hananiah died in that same year in the seventh month. So he lived only two more months.

Summary

Key Players: God, Jesus, Jeremiah, Hananiah

Key Verse(s): Jeremiah 26:1-6, 10-15, 24; 27:1-7; 28:1-4, 10-11, 15-17