SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/20/2014
7:52 AM
My Worship Time
Focus:
Jeremiah Confronts a False Prophet
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
28:1-17
Message of the
verses: “ 1 Now in the same year, in the beginning of
the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month,
Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the
house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying,
2 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the
God of Israel, ’I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 ’Within two years I am going to bring back to
this place all the vessels of the LORD’S house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 ’I am also going to bring back to this place
Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who
went to Babylon,’ declares the LORD, ’for I will break the yoke of the king of
Babylon.’" 5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in
the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who were
standing in the house of the LORD, 6 and the prophet Jeremiah said, "Amen!
May the LORD do so; may the LORD confirm your words which you have prophesied
to bring back the vessels of the LORD’S house and all the exiles, from Babylon
to this place. 7 “Yet hear now this word which I am about to speak in your
hearing and in the hearing of all the people! 8 “The prophets who were before
me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many lands and against
great kingdoms, of war and of calamity and of pestilence. 9 "The prophet who prophesies of peace,
when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known as
one whom the LORD has truly sent."
10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the neck of
Jeremiah the prophet and broke it. 11
Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, "Thus
says the LORD, ’Even so will I break within two full years the yoke of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations.’" Then
the prophet Jeremiah went his way. 12
The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet had
broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 13 "Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, ’Thus
says the LORD, "You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made
instead of them yokes of iron." 14 ’For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,
"I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may
serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him. And I
have also given him the beasts of the field."’" 15 Then Jeremiah the prophet said
to Hananiah the prophet, "Listen now, Hananiah, the LORD has not
sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. 16 "Therefore thus says the LORD, ’Behold,
I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to
die, because you have counseled rebellion against the LORD.’" 17 So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year in the seventh month.”
As we go through this 27th chapter of Jeremiah
we will see that a false prophet will take off the yoke that Jeremiah is
wearing and will give a false prophecy to the priests and to the people at the
house of the Lord.
The reason that Hananiah (the false prophet) was telling
this prophecy was because during this time Nebuchadnezzar was taking care of an
uprising in his own country and therefore Hananiah probably figured that this
would be the end of Nebuchadnezzar so that he would not be able to return and
fight against Judah. He was wrong as we
will see.
The message from Hananiah was that God had broken the
yoke of Nebuchadnezzar and therefore he broke the yoke that Jeremiah was
wearing to show this was true, and went on to tell all the people of this. We know from our recent study that this message
was in conflict with what Jeremiah had prophesied to the people. Jeremiah’s message from chapter 27:16-22 was
that God would visit His people after the 70 years of captivity was complete
and then He would allow the returning captives to bring back the articles that
belonged in the temple.
We can see a bit of fun that Jeremiah had with Hananiah
as he responded “"Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD confirm your
words which you have prophesied to bring back the vessels of the LORD’S house
and all the exiles, from Babylon to this place.” He then goes on to tell Hananiah the truth
along with all the people around him, but then he would tell Hananiah that the
Lord said that he would die in this very year that he spoke this false
prophecy. “So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year in the
seventh month.”
God told the people through Jeremiah that since they
would not repent that he would give an iron yoke to Nebuchadnezzar. Let us look at Deuteronomy 28:48 “therefore
you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in
thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron
yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.”
Moses wrote this many years before all of this was happening to
Judah.
Dr. Wiersbe finishes this portion of his commentary with
the following paragraph. “God doesn’t
usually strike people dead in such a dramatic fashion, but it did happen to the
followers of Korah (Num. 16), to Uzzah (2 Sam. 6), to the Assyrian army (2Kings
19:35), and to Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5).
‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Heb.
10:31).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: God is a God who
has an attribute that is justice, and because all men are born into this world
as sinners and capable of doing much wrong God will judge all men for their
sins. However the good news is from the
Gospel of Jesus Christ that He took the justice and wrath of God in His body on
the cross in order to satisfy God’s demand for the punishment of sin and all we
need to do is to confess that we are sinners and that we do sin and then accept
the forgiveness that God has given us through Jesus Christ and invite Him into
our lives to be our Savior and our God, and then we will be born into the
family of God.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-9.
5 Have this attitude in
yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form
of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied
Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness
of man. 8 Being found in appearance as a
man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death
on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him,
and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Joseph” (Luke 2:4-5).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘"My soul
exalts the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. "For He has
had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; For behold, from this time on
all generations will count me blessed."For the Mighty One has done great
things for me; And holy is His name.”
Answer in our next SD.
6/20/2014 8:30 AM
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