FWD: Morning Manna (Sept. 20); BP: Jer. 28; RBTTY: II Cor. 12; Eccl. 4-6

So far I actually feel better in my lower back.  However, appt with urologist Mon around noon to consult about the stone, looks pretty big on x-ray.  God Bless

 
Samuel D. High
sdhigh@aristotle.net

 

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-----Original Message-----
From: Apostle Tom <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Sent: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:13:44 -0500
To: <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Subject: Morning Manna (Sept. 20); BP: Jer. 28; RBTTY: II Cor. 12; Eccl. 4-6
 

September 20                                                                                                          “False Prophets of Peace”

 

“Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah, the prophet, ‘Hear now, Hananiah:  The Lord has not sent you—but you make this people to trust in a lie.  Therefore, thus says the Lord:  Behold, I will cast you from off the face of the earth; this year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the Lord.’  So, Hananiah, the prophet, died the same year in the seventh month.”

                                                                                                                                              Jeremiah 28:15-17

     Woe to those who preach such things—and woe to those who listen to them.

     “Peace, peace.  Prosperity and plenty.”

     That’s the message the false prophets proclaimed in Jeremiah’s day, which stood in stark contrast and contradiction to the message God’s “Weeping Prophet” delivered.  Yet, the people preferred the message of “health, wealth and prosperity” because their “ears were uncircumcised and the Word of the Lord was unto them a reproach and they had no delight in it” (Jer. 6:10).  They’d sinned so long that they “were no longer ashamed and couldn’t blush” (6:15) and refused to walk in God’s way or hearken to the watchman’s sounding of the trumpet on the wall (6:16-17).

 

     But, then along comes Hananiah.

     The son of a prophet from Gibeon (Jer. 28:1), a city in the territory of Benjamin, about six miles northwest of Jerusalem, Hananiah came on the scene preaching a message in direct opposition to Jeremiah’s message.  He said, “Thus speaks the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying, ‘I have broken the yoke of the King of Babylon.  Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord’s House, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place and carried them to Babylon’” (vv.2-3).

 

     It would seem that even Jeremiah himself applauded this message of hope and restoration (vv.5-6).  He stood up in front of the folks and said “Amen—the Lord so do!  The Lord perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the Lord’s House and all that’s been carried away from this place into Babylonian captivity” (vv.5-6).

 

     But, then Jeremiah went on to say “Nevertheless, hear now this word that I speak in your ears and in the ears of all the people:  The prophets that have been before me and before you of old prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms of war and of evil and of pestilence.  The prophet, which prophesied of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then the prophet will be known, that the Lord has truly sent him” (vv.7-9).

 

     Interestingly, Hananiah reached over and took off Jeremiah’s wooden yoke and broke it into pieces (v.10).  He then told their listeners that the God of Abraham would be doing that same thing for them within two years (v.11).  No doubt the people rejoiced at this “word from the Lord”—for anyone can endure suffering if he sees an end in sight.  But, the Lord told Jeremiah that their yoke would soon become a “yoke of iron” (vv.13-14) because they “trusted in a lie instead of turning to the truth” (v.15).  May the Holy Spirit help us today to be grounded in His Word so we won’t do the same.