Commentary - Jeremiah 28:1-4

Bird's-eye view

Jeremiah 28 presents us with a stark and necessary confrontation. This is not a polite disagreement in a theological journal; it is a head on collision between the word of the Lord and the word of a man. At stake is the very definition of faith. Is faith a submission to the revealed will of God, however difficult, or is it a confident assertion of what we would like God to do? Jeremiah, bearing the wooden yoke, is the embodiment of the former. Hananiah, full of bluster and patriotic fervor, is the champion of the latter. He preaches a gospel of wishful thinking, a theology of positive confession, and it is as deadly then as it is now.

The issue here is sovereignty. God had declared, through His prophet Jeremiah, that Judah must submit to the yoke of Babylon. This was not a recommendation; it was a decreed judgment for generations of covenant rebellion. Hananiah’s rebellion is therefore not simply against Jeremiah, but against the sovereign God who ordains all things, including the chastisement of His people. Hananiah offers a cheap grace, a quick fix, a restoration without repentance. It is a message that tickles the ears and swells the national pride, but it is a lie from the pit. This chapter serves as a permanent warning against all prophets who would tailor their message to the desires of their audience rather than the decrees of God.

Outline

Context In Jeremiah

This chapter does not occur in a vacuum. In the preceding chapter, Jeremiah had sent a message, symbolized by yokes, to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, as well as to Zedekiah in Judah. The message was unequivocal: serve the king of Babylon and live. Do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers who tell you that you will not serve him, for they prophesy a lie to you (Jer. 27:9). Hananiah is the local embodiment of precisely this kind of false prophet. He is the man Jeremiah had just warned everyone about.

The historical situation is tense. Zedekiah is a vassal king, placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar. There are constant rumblings of rebellion, of forming alliances with Egypt to throw off the Babylonian yoke. Hananiah’s prophecy is not just religious wishful thinking; it is political treason. He is pouring gasoline on a fire that God has commanded to be put out. He is urging the people to trust in the strength of princes and the hope of a quick reversal, rather than humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God.

Key Issues

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Now it happened in the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of Yahweh in the sight of the priests and all the people, saying,

The Spirit is careful to ground this confrontation in concrete historical reality. This is not a parable. It happened in a specific year, a specific month, under a specific king. Lies thrive in generalizations and vague spiritual mists, but truth is always incarnational. The lie is spoken by a named man, Hananiah, from a known place, Gibeon. He holds the official title of prophet, which makes his lie all the more venomous. A wolf is most dangerous when it looks just like a sheepdog. And notice the location: in the house of Yahweh. Sacrilege is bold. The devil prefers to work in holy places, challenging God's true word right in the middle of the sanctuary. This is done publicly, in the sight of the priests and all the people. Hananiah wants an audience because his message is designed for popular appeal. He is challenging Jeremiah's authority, and he wants everyone to see it.

2 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Here is the lie, dressed up in the livery of heaven. Hananiah begins with the classic prophetic formula, "Thus says Yahweh of hosts." He is claiming direct revelation. This is the essential sin of the false prophet: to put words in God's mouth. He is not misinterpreting a text; he is inventing one. And what is his message? "I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon." This is a direct, flat contradiction of what Jeremiah has been preaching for years. Jeremiah said, "Put your necks under the yoke" (Jer. 27:12). Hananiah says, "God has already broken it." He preaches a past tense victory that is entirely imaginary. This is the essence of feel good prophecy. It ignores the present reality of sin and judgment and skips straight to a triumphant conclusion that has not been earned and which God has not decreed.

3 Within two years I am going to return to this place all the vessels of the house of Yahweh, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon.

False prophets love to be specific about dates, because it lends an air of authority to their lies. "Within two years." It sounds so certain, so confident. This is a promise of rapid, almost effortless restoration. The return of the temple vessels would be a huge sign of God's favor and the end of their humiliation. Hananiah is promising a return to glory without the intervening process of repentance. He is offering the crown without the cross. This is always the nature of false gospels. They offer a shortcut to blessing that bypasses God's ordained process of discipline and sanctification. God had promised, through Jeremiah, that the exile would last seventy years (Jer. 25:11). Hananiah knocks sixty eight years off the sentence. It is a much more appealing offer, and that is precisely why it is so deadly.

4 I am also going to return to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares Yahweh, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’ ”

Hananiah doubles down. Not only will the holy objects return, but so will the king and all the exiles. This was the ultimate restoration fantasy. It was a promise to turn back the clock, to undo the consequences of their sin, to pretend the judgment never really happened. He is prophesying what the people desperately wanted to hear. They wanted their king back. They wanted their families back. They wanted their national pride restored. And Hananiah gives it to them, gift wrapped with a "declares Yahweh" on top. He concludes by repeating his central lie: "for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon." Repetition is a key tool for propagandists. Say it often enough, and with enough confidence, and people will begin to believe it. But a lie repeated is still a lie, and a rebellion against God's sovereign decree, no matter how piously it is framed, is still rebellion.

Application

The spirit of Hananiah is alive and well. It thrives in any church where the desires of man are allowed to trump the decrees of God. It is present in any teaching that promises health, wealth, and prosperity without the path of discipleship, suffering, and submission. It is the voice that tells us what our itching ears want to hear: that God's primary job is to make us happy, successful, and comfortable right now.

Jeremiah’s ministry, by contrast, shows us the true nature of faith. True faith receives the word of God as it is, not as we would like it to be. It bows to His sovereign decrees, even when they are hard. It accepts His discipline, knowing that He chastens those He loves. It understands that the way to true restoration is not by breaking the yoke of God's providence, but by submitting to it until He, in His own time, lifts it.

We are called to be a people of the truth. This means we must have a deep suspicion of any message, however popular, that promises a shortcut to glory. The true gospel message is that the yoke of sin and death has been broken, but it was broken by Christ on the cross. He wore the ultimate yoke of God's wrath so that we might be freed. Our path now is to take up His yoke, which is easy, and His burden, which is light (Matt. 11:29-30). But it is still a yoke. It is still a call to submission, obedience, and walking a narrow road. We must reject the Hananiahs of our day and cling to the true prophet, the Lord Jesus, whose words are life, even when they call us to die to ourselves.