February 29, Jeremiah 28
Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke-bars from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: "Go, tell Hananiah, 'This says the LORD: you have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron." - Jeremiah 28:12-13
The battle between good and evil, right and wrong, true and false goes on every day of the world. It happens all around us. We recognize it in the war against terrorism. We see it in a political debate about an agenda that violates basic principles of right and wrong. But the struggle is much closer to home than that. It goes on inside us, in our hearts and minds. The battle for control of the human mind and will is fought daily. So we must daily resist evil and daily dedicate ourselves to godliness.
Sometimes the contest is sharply focused in a particular event. Perhaps that sentence made you think of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, or Elijah's contest with the 450 prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel. Did you imagine old Joshua telling the people to choose that day whom they would serve? Maybe you thought of some individual in the gospel records who did or did not answer the call to follow Jesus.
Jeremiah 28 is about a face to face conflict between a false prophet (Hananiah) and a true prophet of God (Jeremiah). Hananiah flatly contradicted what Jeremiah said about the Babylonian captivity. When they met face to face, Jeremiah was still wearing the yoke he had worn to tell the leaders and the people to submit to the God-appointed yoke of Babylonian captivity. Hananiah said the yoke was broken. He claimed that within two years the people and the treasures and vessels Nebuchadnezzar had taken away would return to Jerusalem. Jeremiah said he hoped Hananiah was right, and that his word would be tested by whether what he said happened or not. Jeremiah knew it contradicted what God had told him and other prophets.
Hananiah used Jeremiah’s yoke to illustrate his point. He reached over and removed it from Jeremiah's neck. He broke the wooden bars of it as a sign that the Babylonian captivity would end soon. After that, Jeremiah told him what God said about what he had done. Hananiah had indeed broken the wooden bars. But God said his rebellious act and lying words had turned the bars of Babylonian captivity into iron instead of wood. He led the people to trust a lie, and through Jeremiah God told the false prophet that he would die within a year. And he did.
It may be alright for you and me to have different opinions and ideas about many matters. We may agree to disagree about certain topics. But it's not alright to disagree with the revealed word of God. God said that Hananiah rebelled against the LORD with his prophecies that contradicted what God said. You and I may choose to accept or reject what God has revealed and commanded. But it's another matter to contradict what God has said or claim the Lord told us something different from what he has clearly revealed in his word. Let's remember that we will account to God for rebelling against his word. Jesus said that the word he had spoken would judge us at the last day. I want to agree and submit with that standard of judgment, don't you?
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—February 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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