Jeremiah 28:10 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the boldness of the false prophet. To finish the insult he had planned against Jeremiah, he took the yoke from Jeremiah’s neck, the yoke Jeremiah had worn as a sign of the nations’ coming slavery to Nebuchadnezzar, and broke it. He wanted to make his own sign seem stronger than Jeremiah’s and to look as if he had defeated Jeremiah’s message. Notice how the lying spirit in this false prophet copies the language of the Spirit of truth: “This is what the Lord says: I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon” not only from this nation, but from all nations, within two full years. Whether Hananiah, the false prophet, had convinced himself of this through excitement, or whether he knew it was false and only tried to persuade the people, is not clear. But it is clear that he spoke with great confidence. It is nothing new for lies to be spoken in God’s name.

Here we also see the patience of the true prophet. Jeremiah quietly went away, and when he was insulted, he did not answer back. He would not argue with a man who was filled with rage and standing among priests and people who were already against him. He did not leave because he had nothing to say. He left because he wanted to wait until God gave him a direct answer, which he had not yet received. He expected God to send a special message about Hananiah, and he would not speak until that came. “I hear it as one who is deaf,” he says in effect, “for you, Lord, will hear, and you will answer for me.” Sometimes it is wisdom to step back rather than fight. When anger is racing forward, give way to it.

Here we also see God’s justice in deciding between Jeremiah and his enemy. Jeremiah went away like a man without any rebuke on his lips, but God soon put a word in his mouth. God always stands up for those who quietly commit their cause to him. First, God confirmed the truth Jeremiah had spoken. Jeremiah himself was not to doubt what he had delivered in God’s name just because it was met with such bold opposition. If we have spoken God’s truth, we must not take it back because people argue against it. Truth is strong and will prevail. Let it stand, and let us stand with it. Human unbelief and blasphemy cannot make God’s word useless. Hananiah had broken the wooden yokes, but Jeremiah must make iron yokes for them (Jeremiah 28:13). God said, “I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations, and it will press harder on them” (Jeremiah 28:14), so they will serve the king of Babylon and will not be able to throw off his rule, however much they struggle. Who can fight against God’s purpose? God repeats the point again: “I have also given him the beasts of the field.” This seems to mean something important. By their wickedness, people had made themselves like the beasts that perish, and so they deserved to be ruled with harsh power, the way animals are ruled. Nebuchadnezzar ruled in that way. He killed whom he wished and kept alive whom he wished.

Second, Hananiah is sentenced to die for speaking against God’s word. Jeremiah, once he had God’s command, boldly tells him this to his face, though he had said nothing before receiving that command. Hananiah’s sins were that he deceived the people and insulted God. “You have made this people trust in a lie,” Jeremiah says, because he encouraged them to expect peace, which would make their ruin even worse when it came. But that was not the worst part. “You have taught rebellion against the Lord.” He had taught the people to despise the good counsel God had already given through the true prophets and had made that counsel worthless to them. Those who tell sinners they will have peace if they keep going on in sin have much to answer for. They harden hearts against the warnings of God’s word and against the ways God uses to bring people to repentance.

The judgment on Hananiah was this: “I will remove you from the face of the earth,” as one unfit to live on it. He would be buried in it. “This year you will die,” and he would die as a rebel against the Lord, with death coming to him as a curse. That sentence was carried out (Jeremiah 28:17). Hananiah died in the same year, within two months, because his prophecy is dated in the fifth month (Jeremiah 28:1), and his death came in the seventh. Good people may also be taken suddenly in the middle of life, and sometimes that is mercy, as it was with Josiah. But because this death was foretold as punishment for sin, and then came exactly as said, it rightly stands as a sign from heaven against Hananiah and a confirmation of Jeremiah’s calling. If the people’s hearts had not already been badly hardened by sin’s deceit, this would have stopped them from being further hardened by their prophets’ deceit.