The Amen of Hard Providence Text: Jeremiah 28:5-9
Introduction: Two Prophets, Two Realities
We find ourselves today in the middle of a public theological brawl, a heavyweight contest in the house of the Lord. On one side, we have Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, a man acquainted with grief, carrying the heavy yoke of God's hard providence on his shoulders. On the other side, we have Hananiah, a popular, patriotic prophet, a man with a message the people wanted to hear. The setting is the Temple, in front of the priests and all the people. The stakes are the life and death of a nation. This is not a friendly debate in a seminary classroom. This is spiritual warfare, fought with words, in the open, for the souls of God's people.
The issue at hand is the central issue of every generation: who speaks for God? Hananiah had just delivered a rousing, optimistic sermon. He prophesied that the yoke of Babylon would be broken in two years. The stolen temple vessels would be returned. The exiled king would be restored. It was a message of peace, prosperity, and quick relief. It was precisely what the people's itching ears wanted to be tickled with. It was a message that made them feel good about their situation without requiring them to feel bad about their sin.
Jeremiah, on the other hand, had been preaching a message of submission to God's judgment. He wore a literal wooden yoke as a sign of the hard providence that had fallen upon Judah for her covenantal unfaithfulness. His message was grim: settle in, build houses, plant gardens in Babylon, because you are going to be there for seventy years. This was not a message designed to win friends and influence people. It was a message designed to honor God by speaking the truth, no matter how unpleasant.
In our passage, we see Jeremiah's response to Hananiah's feel-good prophecy. And in his response, we learn a crucial lesson about discerning truth from falsehood, about the nature of true faith, and about how to say "Amen" to the hard providences of God. We live in an age drowning in Hananiahs, men who promise health, wealth, and victory without repentance. We desperately need to learn the wisdom of Jeremiah, who knew that true peace only comes on the other side of judgment, and true hope is only found in submission to the sovereign will of God, however mysterious or difficult that will may be.
The Text
Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the sight of the priests and in the sight of all the people who were standing in the house of Yahweh, and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May Yahweh do so; may Yahweh establish your words which you have prophesied to return the vessels of the house of Yahweh and all the exiles, from Babylon to this place. Yet hear now this word which I am about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people! 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. The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known as one whom Yahweh has truly sent.”
(Jeremiah 28:5-9 LSB)
The Sincere and Submissive Amen (vv. 5-6)
We begin with Jeremiah's startling initial response.
"and the prophet Jeremiah said, 'Amen! May Yahweh do so; may Yahweh establish your words which you have prophesied to return the vessels of the house of Yahweh and all the exiles, from Babylon to this place.'" (Jeremiah 28:6)
Now, we might be tempted to read this as pure sarcasm, a dripping piece of irony. And while there is certainly a rhetorical edge to what Jeremiah is doing, we must not miss the profound sincerity here. The word "Amen" means "so be it," "truly," or "let it be established." It is an affirmation of what has been said. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, was no sadist. He did not delight in the suffering of his people. He loved Judah. He loved the Temple. He longed for the exiles to return. His heart's desire was for the peace and prosperity of his nation.
So when Hananiah prophesies a quick end to their suffering, Jeremiah's gut reaction as a man, as a patriot, is "Amen!" Who wouldn't want that? Who wouldn't want the cancer to be gone tomorrow? Who wouldn't want the prodigal to come home this afternoon? Jeremiah is showing us that a true man of God can desire and pray for a pleasant outcome, even while knowing that God's revealed will is something far harder. His personal desires are subordinate to God's declared purpose. He is saying, in effect, "Hananiah, what you have described is what every fiber of my being longs for. I wish it were true. May God indeed do it."
This is a crucial lesson for us when we face hard providences. We are permitted to pray for relief. We are allowed to desire a different path. Paul prayed three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed. Jesus in the garden prayed, "Let this cup pass from me." But notice the qualifier that always follows: "Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." Jeremiah's "Amen" is sincere in its desire, but it is also utterly submissive to the revealed word of God that he himself has been preaching. He is modeling for the people that our feelings and desires, no matter how noble, do not determine reality. God's Word does. He wants what Hananiah prophesies, but he knows what God has prophesied through him. And he will stand on God's word, not his own wishes.
The Appeal to the Prophetic Tradition (vv. 7-8)
Having aligned himself with the people's desires, Jeremiah now pivots to the standard of truth. He lays down the historical context for true prophecy.
"Yet hear now this word which I am about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people! 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." (Jeremiah 28:7-8 LSB)
Jeremiah says, "Let's check the historical record. Let's look at the pattern." He appeals to the canon, to the established prophetic tradition. What has been the consistent message of God's true messengers to sinful nations? It has not been a message of unconditional peace and automatic blessing. The true prophetic voice, from Moses to Isaiah, has always been a voice that calls sin, sin. It has been a voice that warns of the covenant curses. When a nation is in open rebellion, as Judah was, wallowing in idolatry and injustice, the default message from God is not "peace," but "war, calamity, and pestilence."
This is covenantal theology 101. God made a covenant with Israel. He promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28). The job of the prophet was to be a covenant lawyer, to bring God's lawsuit against a rebellious people. They were sent to diagnose the disease of sin and announce the coming judgment if there was no repentance. The baseline message of a true prophet in a time of cultural apostasy is a call to repent because the axe is laid to the root of the tree.
Jeremiah is essentially saying to the crowd, "You all know your Bibles. You know the stories of Elijah and Amos and Micah. Did they show up to Ahab and announce that everything was fine and dandy? No, they announced drought and judgment. The historical pattern is clear. God does not whisper sweet nothings into the ear of a nation that has spat in His face." Hananiah's message of easy peace, therefore, was an anomaly. It was out of step with the entire history of God's dealings with His people. It was a historical and theological outlier, and that should have been the first red flag for everyone listening.
The Test of a Feel-Good Prophecy (v. 9)
Finally, Jeremiah lays down the definitive test, the biblical standard for evaluating a prophet who deviates from the established pattern of warning and judgment.
"The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known as one whom Yahweh has truly sent." (Genesis 28:9 LSB)
This is a direct application of the law in Deuteronomy 18. The test for a prophet is fulfillment. If a man says, "Thus says the Lord," and the thing he predicts does not happen, he is a false prophet. He has spoken presumptuously, and you are not to fear him. Now, Jeremiah applies this principle with shrewd wisdom. He says that the burden of proof is always on the man who prophesies peace to a sinful nation.
Why? Because the message of judgment for sin is the covenantal default. It's the standing warning. If a prophet comes and says, "Repent, or you will be judged," and the people repent, and God relents (as He did with Nineveh), the prophet is not proven false. He was a true prophet because his message produced its intended effect according to God's revealed character. His warning was the instrument God used to bring about the repentance that averted the disaster. He was speaking consistently with God's covenantal warnings.
But the man who prophesies peace has no such theological safety net. His message is an exception to the rule. He is claiming that God is going to suspend the normal consequences of sin. He is claiming a special, extraordinary grace. Therefore, the standard for him is absolute, empirical fulfillment. If he says, "Peace in two years," then there had better be peace in two years. There is no wiggle room. The proof is in the pudding. Jeremiah is saying, "Hananiah, you have made a very specific, short-term prediction. We will all wait and see. If the exiles are back here in two years, then we will know God sent you. But until then, based on the entire prophetic tradition, the smart money is on judgment."
This is the great challenge to the modern church, which is filled with Hananiahs. They prophesy peace to a culture that has abandoned God. They promise revival without repentance. They preach a gospel of affirmation without transformation. They are in the business of ear-tickling. And Jeremiah's test still stands. We are to measure their words against the whole counsel of God. And we are to wait and see. Does their message produce holiness? Does it align with the historic faith? Does it come to pass? Or does it simply make unrepentant people feel comfortable on their way to destruction? The true prophet prepares the people for hard providence. The false prophet tells them it will never come.
Conclusion: Standing with Jeremiah
In this public showdown, Jeremiah provides us with a master class in spiritual discernment. He shows us that true faith does not deny reality for the sake of comfort. True faith can sincerely desire relief while simultaneously submitting to God's harder, revealed will. True faith tests all things against the consistent testimony of Scripture. And true faith understands that the burden of proof is always on those who promise easy solutions and cheap grace.
Hananiah's message was popular because it was easy. It required nothing of the people. Jeremiah's message was unpopular because it was hard. It required repentance, submission, and long-suffering endurance. But Hananiah's message was a lie, and it led to death. In fact, God struck Hananiah dead within two months of this confrontation, a stark confirmation of who was truly speaking for the Lord. Jeremiah's message was the truth, and it was the only path to ultimate survival and restoration.
We are called to be a people of Jeremiah in a world of Hananiahs. We are called to speak the truth in love, even when that truth is a hard word about sin and judgment. We are called to test the spirits, to reject the ear-ticklers, and to hold fast to the whole counsel of God. And we are called to say a sincere "Amen" to the will of God, even when it is a hard providence. For we know that our God is sovereign, that He works all things together for good for those who love Him, and that the path of submission, though it may pass through Babylon, is the only path that leads home.