Hananiah the false prophet

Hananiah could not stand the man. He was so negative and dragged down God’s people with his false prophecies, foretelling doom and destruction. He was a danger to the nation. Now he was walking around with a yoke on his neck, telling their King to serve the King of Babylon, prophesying death and destruction for Jerusalem and the people if they did not! He was so wrong. A careful study had shown Hananiah how often God had saved his people. Not only by bringing them out of Egypt, but on other occasions since. Why wouldn’t he do it this time? God would surely bring back King Jeconiah, along with the treasures from the temple that had been taken to Babylon. Hananiah himself was also a prophet, and he often encouraged the people by telling them this. They could stand encouraged, for the Lord would bring the exiles back to Jerusalem, and the temple treasures with them. They were God’s people, and the Temple was the Lord’s house; they would not be destroyed, for the Lord would save them. Yet still the other man walked around with that yoke on his neck, encouraging the people to serve the King of Babylon, and promising disaster if they did not. Couldn’t he see that the Babylonians were the enemy? It all came to a head one day when they were both in the temple. Hananiah prophesied saying that the Lord would break the yoke of the King of Babylon, bringing back the temple treasures along with all the exiles, including King Jeconiah. The other man still did not get it! Yes, he did say that he hoped it would come true, but then went on to say that the only way a prophet who prophesied peace could be seen as genuine was when his words came true. For Hananiah, that was enough. He removed the yoke from the other man’s neck and broke it, saying that the Lord would break the yoke of the King of Babylon within two years. The other man simply left. Beaten? Hananiah barely hoped that he would have got through to him. But no. Some time later the other prophet sought Hananiah out and told him that while Hananiah had broken a yoke of wood, the Lord would make a yoke of iron in their place, for all people would serve the King of Babylon. Then he went further! Saying that Hananiah himself was the false prophet, he told Hananiah that he would die that same year for encouraging the people to believe a lie. Hananiah could not believe the stubbornness of the man! Yet, later that year, Hananiah died. Time would prove the other man correct: King Jeconiah never came back to Jerusalem, and more exiles were taken to Babylon as the kingdom fell. Hananiah is remembered as a false prophet, only due to his interactions with the other man, in the book named after him: Jeremiah. (See Jeremiah 27 and 28).

I do not know why Hananiah prophesied falsely, or what his intentions were. Neither do I know whether he knew he was telling lies, or whether he genuinely believed his prophecies were from the Lord. He is introduced in Jeremiah 28 as ‘Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet from Gibeon’, so he was acknowledged as a prophet. But somehow, for whatever reason, he was not prophesying truly. Was he such a false prophet that he would spread lies simply because it meant an easier life for him? Or did he spend time in prayer and study and think that what he was saying would happen? Could he not cope with the thought that the Kingdom might fall, and had to believe that all would return? Maybe he was so caught up in seeing the Babylonians as the enemy that he could not hear what God was saying. Or maybe he was too linked in with the opinions of those around him to separate out what he was hearing. We will never know.

At the same time, it is not vitally important to know the answer. Any of the above could be true; and any of the above could be equally true of us today. Not that I am necessarily saying that we are all prophets; more that it could reflect on how we each hear and respond to God; and how we listen to those who preach God’s word to us. It all needs to come with a certain humility. Humility in listening both to ourselves and those we read or hear. Matthew’s gospel tells us how to recognise false prophets (see Matthew 7: 15-20), but it is not always that easy. There is also the possibility that people may genuinely believe they hold the word of God, as Hananiah does in the passage above. There is a humility in acknowledging that we may not have got it right; a humility in knowing that we could learn from the other person; a humility in allowing God to work above and beyond us. That God’s work will be done and God’s kingdom will come because God is the one who is working that. Yes, he will and does use us; but God works through our weaknesses, and God work will be done.

It can be complicated. We cannot live in an ‘anything goes’ church, where all sorts of false doctrines are spread because we do not dare to stand up and say ‘no’. At the same time, we need to be careful not to reject something that is of God’s leading. I am not suggesting any answers here, more just raising the issue, and getting us thinking. Just because someone says ‘This is the God’s word’ does not mean they are correct. To give any one person that much power could be dangerous; and, yet, Jeremiah was correct. He was prophesying the word of the Lord, only no-one listened. So how do we listen? The question may be more important than the answer.