The Sweet Poison of a Lie Text: Jeremiah 28:1-4
Introduction: The Marketplace of Prophecy
We live in a time, much like Jeremiah's, where the spiritual marketplace is glutted with prophets for hire. You can find a prophecy for any occasion, tailored to fit any itching ear. If you want health, wealth, and a perpetual green light at every intersection, there is a man on television who will sell you that prophecy for three easy installments. If you want a god who affirms your every lifestyle choice, who winks at sin and calls it self-expression, there are legions of smiling clergy who will prophesy that for you, free of charge. They offer a god who is a cosmic butler, a divine therapist, whose chief aim is your personal fulfillment.
But the true God, Yahweh of hosts, is not so pliable. He is not a lump of clay to be molded by our desires. He is the potter, and we are the clay. And sometimes, the potter, in His infinite wisdom and love, determines that the clay must be marred, that it must be sent into the fire of affliction, that it must be subjected to the hard providence of a foreign king. This is a difficult word. It is not a popular word. It is not a word that will build a megachurch. But it is, very often, the Word of the Lord.
In Jeremiah 28, we are thrust into a head-on collision between two prophets in the house of God itself. On one side stands Jeremiah, the grim-faced bearer of bad news, the man who has been preaching judgment and submission to Babylon for years. He wears a wooden yoke on his neck as a living object lesson of God's decreed will. On the other side stands Hananiah, a man whose message is as smooth as butter and as sweet as honey. He is the prophet of optimism, the purveyor of positive thinking. He speaks of peace, restoration, and a quick end to all their troubles. One of these men is speaking for God. The other is speaking from the deceit of his own heart. The tragedy is that the people, from the priests to the common man, desperately want to believe the lie. And we must understand that the most dangerous lies are not told in the dark alleys of overt paganism, but right in the house of God, in the sight of the priests and all the people.
This chapter is a master class in discernment. It teaches us that the test of a true prophet is not his charisma, not his confidence, not the popularity of his message, and not even the piety of his language. The ultimate test is whether his word aligns with the revealed, covenantal character of God and whether it comes to pass. Hananiah’s rebellion is not just a personal squabble with Jeremiah; it is a direct assault on the sovereign decree of Yahweh. It is an attempt to rewrite God's hard providence with the ink of wishful thinking.
The Text
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, "Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 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. 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.’ ”
(Jeremiah 28:1-4 LSB)
The Setting for Rebellion (v. 1)
The confrontation begins with a very specific historical marker, grounding this spiritual battle in the grit of real-world politics.
"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," (Jeremiah 28:1)
The timing is crucial. This is the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign. Zedekiah is a puppet king, installed by Nebuchadnezzar after he carted off the previous king, Jeconiah, to Babylon. The political atmosphere in Jerusalem is thick with intrigue and nationalist fervor. Ambassadors from surrounding nations are meeting in Jerusalem, trying to cook up a coalition to rebel against Babylon (Jeremiah 27:3). It is into this volatile situation that Jeremiah has been sent with his message of submission, symbolized by the yoke on his neck. He has told them that God Himself has given these lands to Nebuchadnezzar, His servant (Jeremiah 27:6). To resist Babylon is to resist God.
Now comes Hananiah. Notice his credentials. He is "the prophet." He is not some fringe character shouting on a street corner. He is part of the religious establishment. He is from Gibeon, a Levitical city, which means he likely had priestly connections. And where does he choose to make his stand? "In the house of Yahweh in the sight of the priests and all the people." This is a public, official, and direct challenge. He is not whispering dissent in a corner; he is seizing the microphone in the central sanctuary of Israel's faith. He intends to use the authority of God's house to contradict God's word.
This is a timeless tactic of the enemy. False teaching is most potent when it cloaks itself in the vestments of orthodoxy. It stands in the pulpit, it quotes the Bible, and it speaks in the name of the Lord. Hananiah’s rebellion is staged for maximum impact, designed to undermine Jeremiah's authority and rally the nation to a course of suicidal defiance.
The Counterfeit Word (v. 2)
Hananiah begins his prophecy by mimicking the authoritative language of a true prophet. He steals the letterhead of heaven.
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.'" (Jeremiah 28:2 LSB)
This is the prophetic formula: "Thus says Yahweh of hosts." He is claiming direct revelation from the covenant God of Israel. But his first statement is a lie, and it is a lie that directly contradicts what God had just said through Jeremiah. God, through Jeremiah, had said, "I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar" (Jer. 27:6) and "bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon" (Jer. 27:12). Hananiah says the exact opposite: "I have broken the yoke."
Notice the verb tense. He says, "I have broken," past tense. He is declaring that in the heavenly court, the decree has already been made. The victory is already accomplished. All that remains is for it to unfold on earth. This is a powerful rhetorical device. It is meant to inspire confidence and dismiss Jeremiah's message as old news, as a word that has been superseded by a fresh, victorious revelation. This is the language of triumphalism. It is the gospel of "your best life now." It ignores the present reality of sin and judgment and leaps directly to a glorious future that God has not promised. It is a theology that refuses to live under the yoke of God's hard, sanctifying providence.
The Specific, Seductive Promises (v. 3-4)
A good lie is always specific. Vague platitudes don't move a nation to rebellion. Hananiah now adds concrete details and a firm deadline to his counterfeit prophecy.
"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. 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.’" (Jeremiah 28:3-4 LSB)
This was exactly what the people wanted to hear. First, the return of the temple vessels. This was a matter of national and spiritual pride. The plundering of the temple was a profound humiliation, a sign that Yahweh had been defeated by the gods of Babylon. Hananiah promises a swift reversal. This is not just about getting their stuff back; it is about vindicating their national honor and the honor of their God.
Second, he promises the return of the king, Jeconiah, and all the exiles. This was a deeply personal and political promise. Many of the people listening in the temple had family members who had been carried away in that first deportation. And Jeconiah, though in exile, was still considered by many to be the legitimate king, not the puppet Zedekiah. Hananiah is essentially promising a full restoration of the Davidic monarchy and the reunification of their families.
And he puts a timeline on it: "within two years." Jeremiah had prophesied seventy years of exile (Jeremiah 25:11). Hananiah slashes the sentence from seventy years to two. This is the essence of all false prophecy. It minimizes the severity of sin, it shortens the time of chastisement, and it promises a crown without a cross. It offers cheap grace. It tells people that repentance is not really necessary, that submission to God's discipline is for the weak, and that a glorious deliverance is just around the corner, regardless of the state of their hearts.
He concludes by repeating his central lie, framing it with the authoritative "declares Yahweh": "for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon." This is a flat contradiction of God's revealed will. God's will was for them to wear the yoke as a chastisement for their generations of covenant unfaithfulness. Hananiah preaches a gospel of yoke-breaking, but it is a rebellion against the yoke of God Himself. He is counseling them to throw off the very discipline God had sent for their own good. This is the sweet poison of a lie. It tastes like freedom, but it leads to death.
Conclusion: The Yoke You Choose
In this initial confrontation, the battle lines are clearly drawn. It is the hard word of God versus the soft word of man. It is the call to submission versus the call to rebellion. It is the long road of sanctification versus the shortcut of wishful thinking.
The people of Judah were faced with a choice. They could accept the wooden yoke of Babylon, which was in fact the yoke of God's fatherly discipline, and live. Or they could listen to Hananiah, break the wooden yoke, and in so doing, invite upon themselves a yoke of iron (Jeremiah 28:13). This is always the choice before us. God, in His providence, places certain yokes upon us. It may be a difficult marriage, a chronic illness, a financial hardship, or a hostile culture. Our first instinct, egged on by the Hananiahs of our age, is to break it, to declare that God wants us to be free from all such encumbrances.
But true freedom is found not in breaking God's yoke, but in submitting to the yoke of His Son. Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
The choice is not between a yoke and no yoke. The choice is between the hard, crushing yoke of our own rebellion, which always ends in death, and the easy, light yoke of Christ, which is the yoke of grace, forgiveness, and true freedom. Hananiah offered a false freedom that led to destruction. Jeremiah, and ultimately Christ, offers a true submission that leads to life. We must learn to discern the voices. We must reject the sweet poison of the lie and embrace the hard, life-giving truth of God's Word, even when it comes in the form of a yoke.