And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Jeremiah 28:11 Self in service P. B. Power, M. A. (with Jeremiah 26:14 ): — We couple these passages together, because they lead our minds to the same important thought, namely, the laying aside of "self" by the servants of the Lord. Hananiah takes the yoke from off Jeremiah s neck, and breaks it, and so discredits him and his prophecy in the presence of the people. "And the prophet Jeremiah went his way." He left it to God to vindicate His own honour, which He did very soon — very terribly. Before the princes also, in chap. Jeremiah 26., he tells out uncompromisingly all the truth of God; he knew that he did so at the peril of his life. "As for me," — he was not insensible to personal suffering, still himself he was as nothing — "behold I am in your hand, do with me as seemeth meet unto you." By this complete abnegation of "self" on the part of the prophet, we are led to consider some matters connected with "self" in our service. There is a young period in the Christian's life, when we are deceived by not seeing "self" at all; when we have no dread of it; when we never even suspect its existence. At this time, we mistake its energies for spiritual life, and often seek to carry out what is really the Lord's work, in the powers and energies of the flesh, i . e. "self." There is a period farther on, when we detect "self" partially. The Spirit of God has led us onward in our education, and raised our standard, making us watchful and distrustful of "self" to some degree. Then comes a yet more advanced stage, when we see "self" to such an extent as to make us dread it greatly — when we see it ever intrusive, ever substituting motives low and mean for what should be holy and high; and we wage war with this "self," fully determined to put it down. There is also yet a more advanced state, when we have attained such a knowledge of the power of "self" that, while we war with, and repress it, we have come to know that here we shall never have done with it, and look forward to full deliverance only when we reach that land where there is perfect freedom. I. THE WRONG OPERATIONS OF "SELF" IN SERVICE. Much that we do may be done from the action of mere natural feelings — there may be nothing of God in it at all A man may be gratifying only his own natural energy in all that seems so earnest and true. And when we allow "self" to influence us, we shall be subjected to disturbing influences. Self-love will be easily wounded in the rough contact with opposers of the truth. And our judgment will be warped. It is very hard to be calm, and judicial, when under the influence of strong personal feelings, and where personal interests are concerned. Self will also drive us on too far. We shall not know when "to go our way." We need not go far to detect some of the evil effects which flow from this wrong operation of "self" in service. It gives the enemy occasion to blaspheme. Satan continually attempts to confound persons and principles; men will look at the imperfect way in which we have manifested the principle, and not at the principle itself. Our infirmities become mixed up with the cause of God, and so far as they can, bring it into disrepute. And thus that saying becomes true — "religion suffers more from her friends than her enemies." II. THE EXPULSION OF "SELF" FROM SERVICE. How can this be done? In the most favourable of cases only by degrees. But what is a man to do? 1. He must seek for enlightenment on this subject from the Holy Spirit. 2. Let him seek for a more perfect sympathy with Christ. If we have this, we shall become assimilated with Him — we shall grow like Him; His mind will transfuse itself into our mind — and the principles, on which He acted, will become ours. 3. And then the seeking for a true knowledge of our own insignificance is very important in putting down "self." We both think and act sometimes as though we were the first cause; and not only the first cause, but the final object also — as if all were to be by us, and for us — the axe thinks that it is doing all the work, and is independent of the one that heweth therewith. The very learning our insignificance will be helpful; and, when we have learned it in some degree, it will keep us, in proportion as the lesson has been learned, to our proper place. ( P. B. Power, M. A. ) Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron. Jeremiah 28:13 Yokes of wood and of iron A. Maclaren, D. D. To throw off legitimate authority is to bind on a worse tyranny. Some kind of yoke every one of us must bend our necks to, and if we slip them out we do not thereby become independent, but simply bring upon ourselves a heavier pressure of a harder bondage. I. WE HAVE THE CHOICE BETWEEN THE YOKE OF LAW AND THE IRON YOKE OF LAWLESSNESS. Even a band of brigands, or a crew of pirates, must have some code. I have read somewhere that the cells in a honeycomb are circles squeezed by the pressure of the adjacent cells into the hexagonal shape which admits of contiguity. If they continued circles, there would be space and material lest, and no complete continuity. So, in like manner, you cannot keep five men together without some mutual limitations which are shaped into a law. Now, as long as a man keeps inside it he does not feel its pressure. A great many of us, for instance, who are in the main law-abiding people, do not ever remember that there is such a thing as restrictions upon our licence, or the obligation to perform certain duties; for we never think either of taking the licence or of shirking the duties. The yoke that is accepted ceases to press. Once let a man step outside, and what then? Why, then, he is an outlaw; and the rough side of the fence is turned outwards, and all possible terrors, which people within the boundary have nothing to do with, gather themselves together and frown down upon him. I need not remind you of how this same thesis — that we have to choose between the yoke of law and the iron yoke of lawlessness — is illustrated in the story of almost all violent revolutions. They run the same course. First the rising up of a nation against intolerable oppression, then revolution devours its own children, and the scum rises to the top of the boiling pot. Then comes, in the language of the picturesque historian of the French Revolution, the type of them all — then comes at the end "the whiff of grapeshot" and the despot. First the government of a mob, and then the tyranny of an emperor comes to the people that shake off the yoke of reasonable law. II. WE HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THE YOKE OF VIRTUE AND THE IRON YOKE OF VICE. We are under a far more spiritual and searching law than that written in any statute-book, or administered by any Court. Every man carries within his own heart two things, and two persons; the court, the tribunal, the culprit, and the judge. And here, too, if law be not obeyed, the result is not liberty, but the slavery of lawlessness. A great philosopher once said that the two sublimest things in the universe were the moral law and the starry heavens. And that law "I ought" bends over us like the starry heavens with which he associated it. No man can escape from the pressure of duty, and on every man is laid, by his very make, the twofold obligation, first to look upwards and catch the behests of that solemn law of duty, and then to turn his eyes and his strength inwards and coerce or spur, as the case may be, the powers of his nature, and rule the kingdom within himself. Now, as long as a man lets the ruling parts of his nature guide the lower faculties, he feels comparatively no pressure from the yoke. But if he once allows beggars to ride on horseback whilst princes walk — sense and appetite and desire, and more or less refined forms of inclination to take the place which belongs only to conscience interpreting duty — then he has exchanged the easy yoke for one that is heavy indeed. What does a man do when, instead of loyally accepting the conditions of his nature, and bowing himself to serve the all-embracing law of duty, he sets up inclination of any sort in its place? What does he do? I will tell you. He unships the helm; he pitches compass and sextant overboard; he fires up the furnaces, and screws down the safety-valve, and says, "Go ahead!" And what will be the end of that, think you! Either an explosion or a crash upon a reef! and you may take your choice of which is the better kind of death — to be blown up or to go down. III. WE HAVE THE CHOICE BETWEEN THE YOKE OF CHRIST AND THE IRON YOKE OF GODLESSNESS. If you do not take Christ for your Teacher you are handed over either to the uncertainty of your own doubts or to pinning your faith to some man and enrolling yourself as a disciple who is prepared to swallow down whole whatsoever the rabbi may say, giving to him what you will not give to Jesus; or else you will sink back into utter indolence and carelessness about the whole matter; or else you will go and put your belief and your soul into the hands of a priest; or shut your eyes and open your mouth and take whatever" tradition may choose to send you. The one refuge from all these, as I believe, is to go to Him and learn of Him, and take His yoke upon your shoulders. But, let me say further, it is better to obey Christ's commandments than to set ourselves against them. For if we will take His will for our law, and meekly assume the yoke of loyal and loving obedience to Him, the door into an earthly paradise is thrown open to us. His yoke is easy, not because its prescriptions and provisions lower the standard of righteousness and morality, but because love becomes the motive, and it is always blessed to do that which the Beloved desires. When "I will" and "I ought" cover exactly the same ground, then there is no kind of pressure from the yoke. Christ's yoke is easy because, too, He gives the power to obey His commandments. ( A. Maclaren, D. D. ) The two yokes I. MEN MUST WEAR SOME YOKE. In every stage of life — childhood, youth, manhood; and in every station of life — servants, masters, &c. 1. God has made and sustains us, and asks that we submit to His will 2. With our passions and propensities, if we break the yoke it is meet we should wear, and do not serve God, we at once bend our necks to another yoke and serve slavishly our own selves. II. CHRIST'S YOKE IS AN EASY ONE TO WEAR. 1. The yoke of Christ is a right one. Serve Jesus Christ, and it is found that the Christian law is perfection itself. 2. The yoke of Christ is framed in our interest. To believe in Christ is the highest wisdom; to repent of sin is the most delightful necessity; to follow after holiness is the most blissful pursuit; to become a servant of Christ is to be made a king and priest unto God. 3. Christ s yoke is not exacting. He, in His grace, always gives us of His bounty when He asks of us our duty. 4. It is an easy yoke. Never did a man wear it but he always loved to wear it. 5. The bright example of Christ makes the yoke pleasant to bear. He Himself has carried the very yoke we bear, and we have blessed fellowship with Him in this. 6. All who have borne Christ's yoke have had grace given equal to the weight of the burden. Wolsey regretted that he had not "served God with half the zeal he had served his king," but none has ever bewailed the zeal with which he followed Christ! 7. Christians who have borne this yoke always desire to get their children into it. Often men say, "I do not want my sons to follow my trade, it is wearying, its pay is small," &c. III. THOSE WHO REFUSE CHRIST'S EASY YOKE WILL HAVE TO WEAR A WORSE ONE. 1. Turning from the right road, from the cry of rectitude, because it threatens shame or loss, will entail vaster after-losses. 2. Backsliders, by putting off the yoke of Christianity, have not improved their condition. 3. They who refuse the Bible and follow tradition, Do these perverts of the true Christian religion get an easier yoke? No.; there are penances and mortifications, &c, 4. The self-righteous who attempt to work their own way to heaven. Self-righteousness is an iron yoke indeed. 5. Unbelievers, who will not believe the simple revelation of God, presently find themselves committed to systematic misbeliefs, which distract reason, oppress the heart, and trammel the conscience. 6. Lovers of pleasure. Pleasure often means lust, and gaiety means crime; and self-indulgence brings beggary and degradation, In the last tremendous day of Christ's coming to judgment, the Christian's yoke will be as a chain of gold about his neck; but sin, pleasure, will be as an iron yoke, a burden of enslaving woe. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Jeremiah 28:16 Thoughts on death Anon. 1. Let men live ever so many years, some one year will be the year of their death. 2. Every year is a year of death to many; there never was a year since the abbreviation of human life, since the extensive propagation and dispersion of mankind over all countries on the face of the earth, which has not been a year of death to tens of thousands, 3. Last year was a year of death to very many. 4. This year, very probably, will be a year of death to some of us. This or the other tree may be cut down; this or the other branch may be lopt off, and fall to the ground. Let us see then that we be ready, that if cut down, it may be in mercy, not in wrath; that if plucked up by the root and transplanted, it may be to be transplanted in a far better soil, where the air is more genial, where the fruits are always ripe. 5. No one of us knows but God may be saying to him or her, "This year thou shalt die." Futurity is wisely hid from man; we know not the year or day of our death we need therefore constantly to watch. 6. It may be in mercy or in wrath that God is saying to this or the other one, "This year thou shalt die." It was in wrath that this was said to Hananiah. 7. The year of one's death is a most eventful year to him. This dissolves our connection with the present world; it issues us into the world of spirits. If we are the Lord's people, it associates us with God, Christ, angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect in the state of glory and blessedness. 8. There is no outliving the appointed year of one's death. No distinction of rank, no worldly pre-eminence, no degree of riches, influence, or power, no plea of necessity, no supposed usefulness in civil or sacred society, can prevent death. 9. The year of one's death may come very unexpectedly. ( Anon. ) Solemn thoughts J. Bunter. I. THIS SENTENCE IS DOUBTLESS EXPRESSIVE OF THE DECISION OF GOD CONCERNING MANY THIS YEAR. 1. The page of history affords no record of a single year in which death desisted from his work of destruction. 2. The last year of many is now commended. 3. Various are the means by Which God's design will be executed. II. NO INDIVIDUAL CAN BE CERTAIN THAT THIS DOES NOT EXPRESS GOD'S DECISION CONCERNING HIMSELF. 1. Utterly impossible for us to know who are, or are not, included in God's appointments. 2. The circumstances of some render it most probable that this year will be their last. 3. Doubtless those who think least of death, and confidently reckon on future years, will find this sentence fulfilled. III. IT IS THE DUTY AND INTEREST OF ALL TO USE WISELY THE GRACIOUS HOURS THEY ENJOY. 1. What is it to die? To pass from this state of being into the immediate presence of our Maker and Judge. 2. Am I prepared to die? 3. Begin the year with earnest preparation. ( J. Bunter. ) A sermon on the New Year S. Davies, D. D. It is highly probable, that if some prophet, like Jeremiah, should open to us the book of the Divine decrees, one or other of us would there see our sentence, and the time of its execution fixed, "Thus saith the Lord, This year thou shalt die." There some of us would find it written, "This year thou shalt enjoy a series of prosperity, to try if the goodness of God will lead thee to repentance." Others might read this melancholy line, "This year shall be to thee a series of afflictions: this year thou shalt lose thy dearest earthly support and comfort; this year thou shalt pine away with sickness, or agonise with torturing pain, to try if the kind severities of a Father's rod will reduce thee to thy duty. Others, I hope, would road the gracious decree, "This year, thy stubborn spirit, after long resistance, shall be sweetly constrained to bow to the despised Gospel of Christ. This year shalt thou be born a child of God, and an heir of happiness, which the revolution of years shall never, never, terminate." Others perhaps would read this tremendous doom, "This year My Spirit so long resisted, shall cease to strive with thee; this year I will give thee up to thine own heart's lusts, and swear in My wrath thou shalt not enter into My rest." Others would probably find the doom of the false prophet Hananiah pronounced against them: "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die." I. THIS YEAR YOU MAY DIE. 1. Your life is the greatest uncertainty in the world. 2. Thousands have died since the last New Year's Day; and this year will be of the same kind with the last; the duration of mortals; a time to die. 3. Thousands of others will die: it is certain they will, and why may not you? 4. Though you are young; for the regions of the dead have been crowded with persons of your age; and no age is the least security against the stroke of death. 5. Though you are now in health and your constitution seems to promise a long life; for thousands of such will be hurried into the eternal world this year, as they have been in years past. 6. Though you are full of business, though you have projected many schemes, which it may be the work of years to execute, and which afford you many bright and flattering prospects. 7. Though you have not yet finished your education, nor fixed in life, but are preparing to appear in the world, and perhaps elated with the prospect of the figure you will make in it. 8. Though you are not prepared for it. 9. Though you deliberately delay your preparation, and put it off to some future time. 10. Though you are unwilling to admit the thought. Death does not slacken his pace towards you, because you hate him, and are afraid of his approach. 11. Though you may strongly hope the contrary, and flatter yourself with the expectation of a length of years. II. WHAT IF YOU SHOULD? If you should die this year, then all your doubts, all the anxieties of blended hopes and fears about your state and character will terminate for ever in full conviction. If you are impenitent sinners, all the artifices of self-flattery will be able to make you hope better things no longer; but the dreadful discovery will flash upon you with the resistless blaze of intuitive evidence. You will see, you will feel yourselves such. This year you may die: and should you die this year, you will be for ever cut off from all the pleasures of life. Then an everlasting farewell to all the mirth, the tempting amusements and vain delights of youth. Farewell to all the pleasures you derive from the senses, and all the gratifications of appetite. Then farewell to all the pompous but empty pleasures of riches and honours. The pleasures both of enjoyment and expectation from this quarter will fail for ever. But this is not all If you should die this year, you will have no pleasures, no enjoyments to substitute for those you will lose. Your capacity and eager thirst for happiness will continue, nay, will grow more strong and violent in that improved adult state of your nature. And yet you will have no good, real or imaginary, to satisfy it; and consequently the capacity of happiness will become a capacity of misery; and the privation of pleasure will be positive pain. If you die this year, you will not only be cut off from all the flattering prospects of this life, but from all hope entirely, and for ever. If you die in your sins, you will be fixed in an unchangeable state of misery; a state that will admit of no expectation but that of uniform, or rather ever-growing misery; a state that excludes all hopes of making a figure, except as the monuments of the vindictive justice of God, and the deadly effects of sin. III. IS IT POSSIBLE TO ESCAPE THIS IMPENDING DANGER? 1. Your case is not yet desperate, unless you choose to make it so; that is, unless you choose to persist in carelessness and impenitence, as you have hitherto done. 2. You all know that prayer, reading, and hearing the Word of God, meditation upon Divine things, free conference with such as have been taught by experience to direct you in this difficult work; you all know, I say, that these are the means instituted for your conversion: and if you had right views of things, and a just temper towards them, you would hardly need instruction or the least persuasion to make use of them. ( S. Davies, D. D. ).

Benson Commentary Jeremiah 28:1 And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, Jeremiah 28:1-4 . And it came to pass the same year — Namely, the same in which the preceding prophecy was delivered; for the words manifestly refer to the time specified at the beginning of the foregoing chapter, and confirm the conjecture there made, that Jehoiakim is put there, by a mistake in the copies, for Zedekiah: see note on Jeremiah 26:1 , where the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign is termed the beginning of it. Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet — That is, a pretended prophet. Being of Gibeon, a city belonging to the priests, it is probable he was a priest as well as Jeremiah; spake unto me in the house of the Lord — Delivered publicly, and solemnly, and in the name of the Lord, what he wished to be considered as a true prediction; in the presence of the priests and of the people — Who probably were expecting to have some message from Heaven. In delivering this reigned prophecy, Hananiah designed to confront and contradict Jeremiah. His prediction is, that the king of Babylon’s power, at least over Judah and Jerusalem, should be speedily broken; that within two full years the vessels of the temple should be brought back, and Jeconiah, and all the captives that were carried away with him, should return; whereas Jeremiah had foretold that the yoke of the king of Babylon should be bound on yet faster, and that the vessels and the captives should not return for seventy years. Jeremiah 28:2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Jeremiah 28:3 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: Jeremiah 28:4 And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Jeremiah 28:5 Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD, Jeremiah 28:5-9 . The Prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the Lord do so! — Thereby expressing his hearty concern for the good of his nation, and wishing that God would repent him of the evil wherewith he had threatened them by his ministry; for such an affection had he for them, and so truly desirous was he of their welfare, that he would have been content to lie under the imputation of being a false prophet so that their ruin might have been prevented. Nevertheless, hear thou now this word — As if he had said, The word which I am about to speak concerns thee, and not thee alone, but all the people, therefore do thou mark it well, and let them observe it also. The prophets that have been before me and before thee — Namely, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and others; prophesied both against many countries and great kingdoms, &c. — “Jeremiah offers two reasons in defence of his own prophecies, and against those of Hananiah. 1st, That many other prophets agreed with him in prophesying evil against the Jews, and other neighbouring countries; whereas Hananiah, being single in his predictions, nothing but the perfect answering of the event to them could give him the authority of a true prophet. 2d, That, considering the general corruption of the people’s manners, it was highly probable that God would punish their iniquities. To this the Jews add a third explication of the words, namely, that when any prophet foretold peace and prosperity, (namely, unconditionally and absolutely, as Hananiah here did,) his prophecy must certainly be fulfilled to prove him to be a true prophet; whereas, when a prophet foretold evil, which was Jeremiah’s case, the event might be suspended by the repentance of the persons concerned.” — Lowth. Jeremiah 28:6 Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD'S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place. Jeremiah 28:7 Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people; Jeremiah 28:8 The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. Jeremiah 28:9 The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him. Jeremiah 28:10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it. Jeremiah 28:10-14 . Then Hananiah took the yoke from off Jeremiah’s neck — Thus it appears that Jeremiah wore this yoke, agreeably to the command given him by God, as a symbol of that subjection to the king of Babylon to which he admonished the Jews and other neighbouring nations to submit, in order that they might prevent the extreme evil which would otherwise fall upon them: and this yoke Hananiah took off the prophet’s neck, and broke it, by way of a symbolical sign that the Jews, and these other nations, should be freed from the Babylonian yoke within two years. And the Prophet Jeremiah went his way — Quietly and patiently, knowing that it would answer no good end to contend with one whose mind was heated, and in the midst of the priests and people that were violently set against him. Doubtless he expected that God would soon send a special message to Hananiah, and he would say nothing till he received it. It is often our wisdom and duty to yield to violence, to bear revilings with patience, and to retreat rather than contend. Then the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah — To ratify and confirm the prophecy he had lately uttered; saying, Go and tell Hananiah, Thou hast broken the yokes of wood, &c. — Which were light and easy; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron — Such as no human strength can break; that is, thou shalt bring a heavier and more grievous yoke upon them than they otherwise would have had, by persuading them not to submit to Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah 28:11 And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Jeremiah 28:12 Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet , after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Jeremiah 28:13 Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron. Jeremiah 28:14 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also. Jeremiah 28:15 Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Jeremiah 28:15-17 . Then said Jeremiah, Hear now, Hananiah — Jeremiah, being a second time confirmed in the truth of what he had foretold, and having likewise a special revelation relating to this false prophet, comes and calls him by his name, and tells him his doom, that he should die within a year, because he had taught rebellion against the Lord — Had taught people to believe and trust to what was false, contradicting God’s will revealed by Jeremiah, and encouraging and exciting the people to hold out against Nebuchadnezzar, and not quietly to yield to this dispensation of God. “Thus, as Hananiah had limited the accomplishment of his prophecy to the space of two years, to gain credit with the people by such a punctual prediction, so Jeremiah confines the trial of his veracity to a much shorter time, and the event, exactly answering to the prediction, evidently showed the falsehood of Hananiah’s pretences.” — Lowth. So Hananiah died the same year in the seventh month — Two months after he had uttered this false prophecy, as appeareth from Jeremiah 28:1 . So dangerous a thing it is for those who speak in the name of God to teach people contrary to his revealed will! Jeremiah 28:16 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD. Jeremiah 28:17 So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Jeremiah 28:1 And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, CHAPTER IX HANANIAH Jeremiah 27:1-22 , Jeremiah 28:1-17 "Hear now, Hananiah; Jehovah hath not sent thee, but thou makest this people to trust in a lie."- Jeremiah 28:15 THE most conspicuous point at issue between Jeremiah and his opponents was political rather than ecclesiastical. Jeremiah was anxious that Zedekiah should keep faith with Nebuchadnezzar, and not involve Judah in useless misery by another hopeless revolt. The prophets preached the popular doctrine of an imminent Divine intervention to deliver Judah from her oppressors. They devoted themselves to the easy task of fanning patriotic enthusiasm, till the Jews were ready for any enterprise, however reckless. During the opening years of the new reign, Nebuchadnezzar’s recent capture of Jerusalem and the consequent wholesale deportation were fresh in men’s minds; fear of the Chaldeans together with the influence of Jeremiah kept the government from any overt act of rebellion. According Jeremiah 51:59 , the king even paid a visit to Babylon, to do homage to his suzerain. It was probably in the fourth year of his reign that the tributary Syrian states began to prepare for a united revolt against Babylon. The Assyrian and Chaldean annals constantly mention such combinations, which were formed and broken up and reformed with as much ease and variety as patterns in a kaleidoscope. On the present occasion the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon sent their ambassadors to Jerusalem to arange with Zedekiah for concerted action. But there were more important persons to deal with in that city than Zedekiah. Doubtless the princes of Judah welcomed the opportunity for a new revolt. But before the negotiations were very far advanced, Jeremiah heard what was going on. By Divine command, he made "bands and bars," i.e., yokes, for himself and for the ambassadors of the allies, or possibly for them to carry home to their masters. They received their answer not from Zedekiah, but from the true King of Israel, Jehovah Himself. They had come to solicit armed assistance to deliver them from Babylon; they were sent back with yokes to wear as a symbol of their entire and helpless subjection to Nebuchadnezzar. This was the word of Jehovah:- "The nation and the kingdom that will not put its neck beneath the yoke of the king of Babylon That nation will I visit with sword and famine and pestilence until I consume them by his hand." The allied kings had been encouraged to revolt by oracles similar to those uttered by the Jewish prophets in the name of Jehovah; but:- "As for you, hearken not to your prophets, diviners, dreams, soothsayers and sorcerers, When they speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon. They prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; That I should drive you out, and that you should perish. But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, That nation will I maintain in their own land (it is the utterance of Jehovah), and they shall till it and dwell in it." When he had sent his message to the foreign envoys, Jeremiah addressed an almost identical admonition to his own king. He bids him submit to the Chaldean yoke, under the same penalties for disobedience-sword, pestilence, and famine for himself and his people. He warns him also against delusive promises of the prophets, especially in the matter of the sacred vessels. The popular doctrine of the inviolable sanctity of the Temple had sustained a severe shock when Nebuchadnezzar carried off the sacred vessels to Babylon. It was inconceivable that Jehovah would patiently submit to so gross an indignity. In ancient days the Ark had plagued its Philistine captors till they were only too thankful to be rid of it. Later on a graphic narrative in the Book of Daniel told with what swift vengeance God punished Belshazzar for his profane use of these very vessels. So now patriotic prophets were convinced that the golden candlestick, the bowls and chargers of gold and silver, would soon return in triumph, like the Ark of old; and their return would be the symbol of the final deliverance of Judah from Babylon. Naturally the priests above all others would welcome such a prophecy, and would industriously disseminate it. But Jeremiah spake to the priests and all this people, saying, Thus saith Jehovah:- "Hearken not unto the words of your prophets, which prophesy unto you. Behold, the vessels of the house of Jehovah Shall be brought back from Babylon now speedily: For they prophesy a lie unto you." How could Jehovah grant triumphant deliverance to a carnally minded people who would not understand His Revelation, and did not discern any essential difference between Him and Moloch and Baal? "Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation?" Possibly, however, even now, the Divine compassion might have spared Jerusalem the agony and shame of her final siege and captivity. God would not at once restore what was lost, but He might spare what was still left. Jeremiah could not endorse the glowing promises of the prophets, but he would unite with them to intercede for mercy upon the remnant of Israel. "If they are prophets and the word of Jehovah is with them, Let them intercede with Jehovah Sabaoth, That the rest of the vessels of the Temple the Palace, And the City may not go to Babylon." The God of Israel was yet ready to welcome any beginning of true repentance. Like the father of the Prodigal Son, He would meet His people when they were on the way back to Him. Any stirring of filial penitence would win an instant and gracious response. We can scarcely suppose that this appeal by Jeremiah to his brother prophets was merely sarcastic and denunciatory. Passing circumstances may have brought Jeremiah into friendly intercourse with some of his opponents; personal contact may have begotten something of mutual kindliness; and hence there arose a transient gleam of hope that reconciliation and cooperation might still be possible. But it was soon evident that the "patriotic" party would not renounce their vain dreams: Judah must drink the cup of wrath to the dregs: the pillars, the sea, the bases, the rest of the vessels left in Jerusalem must also be carried to Babylon, and remain there till Jehovah should visit the Jews and bring them back and restore them to their own land. Thus did Jeremiah meet the attempt of the government to organise a Syrian revolt against Babylon, and thus did he give the lie to the promises of Divine blessing made by the prophets. In the face of his utterances, it was difficult to maintain the popular enthusiasm necessary to a successful revolt. In order to neutralise, if possible, the impression made by Jeremiah, the government put forward one of their prophetic supporters to deliver a counter blast. The place and the occasion were similar to those chosen by Jeremiah for his own address to the people and for Baruch’s reading of the roll-the court of the Temple where the priests and "all the people" were assembled. Jeremiah himself was there. Possibly it was a feast day. The incident came to be regarded as of special importance, and a distinct heading is attached to it, specifying its exact date, "in the same year" as the incidents of the previous chapter-"in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month." On such an occasion, Jeremiah’s opponents would select as their representative some striking personality, a man of high reputation for ability and personal character. Such a man, apparently, they found in Hananiah ben Azzur of Gibeon. Let us consider for a moment this mouthpiece and champion of a great political and ecclesiastical party, we might almost say of a National government and a National Church. He is never mentioned except in chapter 28, but what we read here is sufficiently characteristic, and receives much light from the other literature of the period. As Gibeon is assigned to the priests in Joshua 21:17 , it has been conjectured that, like Jeremiah himself, Hananiah was a priest. The special stress laid on the sacred vessels would be in accordance with this theory. In our last chapter we expounded Jeremiah’s description of his prophetic contemporaries, as self-important and time serving, guilty of plagiarism and cant. Now from this dim, inarticulate crowd of professional prophets an individual steps for a moment into the light of history and speaks with clearness and emphasis. Let us gaze at him, and hear what he has to say. If we could have been present at this scene immediately after a careful study of chapter 27, even the appearance of Hananiah would have caused us a shock of surprise-such as is sometimes experienced by a devout student of Protestant literature on being introduced to a live Jesuit, or by some budding secularist when he first makes the personal acquaintance of a curate. We might possibly have discerned something commonplace, some lack of depth and force in the man whose faith was merely conventional; but we should have expected to read, "liar and hypocrite" in every line of his countenance, and we should have seen nothing of the sort. Conscious of the enthusiastic support of his fellow countrymen and especially of his own order, charged-as he believed-with a message of promise for Jerusalem, Hananiah’s face and bearing, as he came forward to address his sympathetic audience, betrayed nothing unworthy of the high calling of a prophet. His words had the true prophetic ring, he spoke with assured authority:- "Thus saith Jehovah Sabaoth, the God of Israel, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon." His special object was to remove the unfavourable impression caused by Jeremiah’s contradiction of the promise concerning the sacred vessels. Like Jeremiah, he meets this denial in the strongest and most convincing fashion. He does not argue-he reiterates the promise in a more definite form and with more emphatic asseveration. Like Jonah at Nineveh, he ventures to fix an exact date in the immediate future for the fulfilment of the prophecy. "Yet forty days," said Jonah, but the next day he had to swallow his own words; and Hananiah’s prophetic chronology met with no better fate:- "Within two full years will I bring again to this place all the vessels of the Temple, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away." The full significance of this promise is shown by the further addition:- "And I will bring again to this place the king of Judah, Jeconiah ben Jehoiakim, and all the captives of Judah that went to Babylon (it is the utterance of Jehovah); for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon." This bold challenge was promptly met:- "The prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people that stood in the Temple." Not "the true prophet" and "the false prophet," not "the man of God" and "the impostor," but simply "the prophet Jeremiah" and "the prophet Hananiah." The audience discerned no obvious difference of status or authority between the two-if anything the advantage lay with Hananiah; they watched the scene as a modern churchman might regard a discussion between ritualistic and evangelical bishops at a Church Congress, only Hananiah was their ideal of a "good churchman." The true parallel is not debates between atheists and the Christian Evidence Society, or between missionaries and Brahmins, but controversies like those between Arius and Athanasius, Jerome and Rufinus, Cyril and Chrysostom. These prophets, however, display a courtesy and self-restraint that have, for the most part, been absent from Christian polemics. "Jeremiah the prophet said, Amen: may Jehovah bring it to pass; may He establish the words of thy prophecy, by bringing back again from Babylon unto this place both the vessels of the Temple and all the captives." With that entire sincerity which is the most consummate tact, Jeremiah avows his sympathy with his opponent’s patriotic aspirations, and recognises that they were worthy of Hebrew prophets. But patriotic aspirations were not a sufficient reason for claiming Divine authority for a cheap optimism. Jeremiah’s reflection upon the past had led him to an entirely opposite philosophy of history. Behind Hananiah’s words lay the claim that the religious traditions of Israel and the teaching of former prophets guaranteed the inviolability of the Temple and the Holy City. Jeremiah appealed to their authority for his message of doom:- "The ancient prophets who were our predecessors prophesied war and calamity and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms." It was also a mark of the true prophet that he should be the herald of disaster. The prophetical books of the Old Testament Canon fully confirm this startling and unwelcome statement. Their main burden is the ruin and misery that await Israel and its neighbours. The presumption therefore was in favour of the prophet of evil, and against the prophet of good. Jeremiah does not, of course, deny that there had been, and might yet be, prophets of good. Indeed every prophet, he himself included, announced some Divine promise, but:- "The prophet which prophesieth of peace shall be known as truly sent of Jehovah when his prophecy is fulfilled." It seemed a fair reply to Hananiah’s challenge. His prophecy of the return of the sacred vessels and the exiles within two years was intended to encourage Judah and its allies to persist in revolt. They would be at once victorious, and recover all and more than all which they had lost. Under such circumstances Jeremiah’s criterion of "prophecies of peace" was eminently practical. "You are promised these blessings within two years: very well do not run the terrible risks of a rebellion: keep quiet and see if the two years bring the fulfilment of this prophecy it is not long to wait." Hananiah might fairly have replied that this fulfilment depended on Judah’s faith and loyalty to the Divine promise; and their faith and loyalty would be best shown by rebelling against their oppressors. Jehovah promised Canaan to the Hebrews of the Exodus, but their carcases mouldered in the desert because they had not courage enough to attack formidable enemies. "Let us not." Hananiah might have said. "imitate their cowardice, and thus share alike their unbelief and its penalty." Neither Jeremiah’s premises nor his conclusions would commend his words to the audience, and he probably weakened his position by leaving the high ground of authority and descending to argument. Hananiah at any rate did not follow his example: he adheres to his former method, and reiterates with renewed emphasis the promise which his adversary has contradicted. Following Jeremiah in his use of the parable in action, so common with Hebrew prophets, he turned the symbol of the yoke against its author. As Zedekiah ben Chenaanah made him horns of iron and prophesied to Ahab and Jehoshaphat, "Thus saith Jehovah, With these shalt thou push the Syrians until thou have consumed them," { 1 Kings 22:11 } so now Hananiah took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it before the assembled people and said:- "Thus saith Jehovah, Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within two full years." Naturally the promise is "for all nations"-not for Judah only, but for the other allies. "And the prophet Jeremiah went his way." For the moment Hananiah had triumphed; he had had the last word. and Jeremiah was silenced. A public debate before a partisan audience was not likely to issue in victory for the truth. The situation may have even shaken his faith in himself and his message: he may have been staggered for a moment by Hananiah’s apparent earnestness and conviction. He could not but remember that the gloomy predictions of Isaiah’s earlier ministry had been followed by the glorious deliverance from Sennacherib. Possibly some similar sequel was to follow his own denunciations. He betook himself anew to fellowship with God, and awaited a fresh mandate from Jehovah. "Then the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah. Go and tell Hananiah: Thou hast broken wooden yokes; thou shalt make iron yokes in their stead. For thus saith Jehovah Sabaoth, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the necks of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon." We are not told how long Jeremiah had to wait for this new message, or under what circumstances it was delivered to Hananiah. Its symbolism is obvious. When Jeremiah sent the yokes to the ambassadors of the allies and exhorted Zedekiah to bring his neck under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, they were required to accept the comparatively tolerable servitude of tributaries. Their impatience of this minor evil would expose them to the iron yoke of ruin and captivity. Thus the prophet of evil received new Divine assurance of the abiding truth of his message and of the reality of his own inspiration. The same revelation convinced him that his opponent was either an impostor or woefully deluded:- "Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto the prophet Hananiah, Hear now, Hananiah; Jehovah hath not sent thee, but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith Jehovah: I will cast thee away from off the face of the earth; this year thou shalt die, because thou hast preached rebellion against Jehovah." By a judgment not unmixed with mercy, Hananiah was not left to be convicted of error or imposture, when the "two full years" should have elapsed, and his glowing promises be seen to utterly fail. He also was "taken away from the evil to come." "So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year in the seventh month"- i.e., about two months after this incident. Such personal judgments were most frequent in the case of kings, but were not confined to them. Isaiah { Jeremiah 22:15-25 } left on record prophecies concerning the appointment to the treasurership of Shebna and Eliakim; and elsewhere Jeremiah himself pronounces the doom of Pashhur ben Immer, the governor of the Temple; but the conclusion of this incident reminds us most forcibly of the speedy execution of the apostolic sentence upon Ananias and Sapphira. The subjects of this and the preceding chapter raise some of the most important questions as to authority in religion. On the one hand, on the subjective side, how may a man be assured of the truth of his own religious convictions; on the other hand, on the objective side, how is the hearer to decide between conflicting claims on his faith and obedience? The former question is raised as to the personal convictions of the two prophets. We have ventured to assume that, however erring and culpable Hananiah may have been, he yet had an honest faith in his own inspiration and in the truth of his own prophecies. The conscious impostor, unhappily, is not unknown either in ancient or modern Churches; but we should not look for edification from the study of this branch of morbid spiritual pathology. There were doubtless Jewish counterparts to "Mr. Sludge the Medium" and to the more subtle and plausible "Bishop Blougram"; but Hananiah was of a different type. The evident respect felt for him by the people, Jeremiah’s almost deferential courtesy and temporary hesitation as to his rival’s Divine mission, do not suggest deliberate hypocrisy. Hananiah’s "lie" was a falsehood in fact but not in intention. The Divine message "Jehovah hath not sent thee" was felt by Jeremiah to be no mere exposure of what Hananiah had known all along, but to be a revelation to his adversary as well as to himself. The sweeping condemnation of the prophets in chapter 23, does not exclude the possibility of Hananiah’s honesty, any more than our Lord’s denunciation of the Pharisee’s as "devourers of widows’ houses" necessarily includes Gamaliel. In critical times, upright, earnest men do not always espouse what subsequent ages hold to have been the cause of truth. Sir Thomas More and Erasmus remained in the communion which Luther renounced: Hampden and Falkland found themselves in opposite camps. If such men erred in their choice between right and wrong, we may often feel anxious as to our own decisions. When we find ourselves in opposition to earnest and devoted men, we may well pause to consider which is Jeremiah and which Hananiah. The point at issue between these two prophets was exceedingly simple and practical-whether Jehovah approved of the proposed revolt and would reward it with success. Theological questions were only indirectly and remotely involved. Yet, in face of his opponent’s persistent asseverations, Jeremiah-perhaps the greatest of the prophets-went his way in silence to obtain fresh Divine confirmation of his message. And the man who hesitated was right. Two lessons immediately follow: one as to practice; the other as to principle. It often happens that earnest servants of God find themselves at variance, not on simple practical questions, but on the history and criticism of the remote past, or on abstruse points of transcendental theology. Before any one ventures to denounce his adversary as a teacher of deadly error, let him, like Jeremiah, seek, in humble and prayerful submission to the Holy Spirit, a Divine mandate for such denunciation. But again Jeremiah was willing to reconsider his position, not merely because he himself might have been mistaken, but because altered circumstances might have opened the way for a change in God’s dealings. It was a bare possibility, but we have seen elsewhere that Jeremiah represents God as willing to make a gracious response to the first movement of compunction. Prophecy was the declaration of His will, and that will was not arbitrary, but at every moment and at every point exactly adapted to conditions with which it had to deal. Its principles were unchangeable and eternal; but prophecy was chiefly an application of these principles to existing circumstances. The true prophet always realised that his words were for men as they were-when he addressed them. Any moment might bring a change which would abrogate or modify the old teaching, and require and receive a new message. Like Jonah, he might have to proclaim ruin one day and deliverance the next. A physician, even after the most careful diagnosis, may have to recognise unsuspected symptoms which lead him to cancel his prescription and write a new one. The sickening and healing of the soul involve changes equally unexpected. The Bible does not teach that inspiration, any more than science, has only one treatment for each and every spiritual condition and contingency. The true prophet’s message is always a word in season. We turn next to the objective question: How is the hearer to decide between conflicting claims on his faith and obedience? We say the right was with Jeremiah; but how were the Jews to know that? They were addressed by two prophets, or, as we might say, two accredited ecclesiastics of the national Church; each with apparent earnestness and sincerity claimed to speak in the name of Jehovah and of the ancient faith of Israel, and each flatly contradicted the other on an immediate practical question, on which hung their individual fortunes and the destinies of their country. What were the Jews to do? Which were they to believe? It is the standing difficulty of all appeals to external authority. You inquire of this supposed Divine oracle and there issues from it a babel of discordant voices, and each demands that you shall unhesitatingly submit to its dictate on peril of eternal damnation; and some have the audacity to claim obedience, because their teaching is " quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus. " One simple and practical test is indeed suggested-the prophet of evil is more likely to be truly inspired than the prophet of good; but Jeremiah naturally does not claim that this is an invariable test. Nor can he have meant that you can always believe prophecies of evil without any hesitation, but that you are to put no faith in promises until they are fulfilled. Yet it is not difficult to discern the truth underlying Jeremiah’s words. The prophet whose words are unpalatable to his hearers is more likely to have a true inspiration than the man who kindles their fancy with glowing pictures of an imminent millennium. The divine message to a congregation of country squires is more likely to be an exhortation to be just to their tenants than a sermon on the duty of the labourer to his betters. A true prophet addressing an audience of working men would perhaps deal with the abuses of trades unions rather than with the sins of capitalists. But this principle, which is necessarily of limited application, does not go far to solve the great question of authority in religion, on which Jeremiah gives us no further help. There is, however, one obvious moral. No system of external authority, whatever pains may be taken to secure authentic legitimacy, can altogether release the individual from the responsibility of private judgment. Unreserved faith in the idea of a Catholic Church is quite consistent with much hesitation between the Anglican, Roman, and Greek communions; and the most devoted Catholic may be called upon to choose between rival antipopes. Ultimately the inspired teacher is only discerned by the inspired hearer: it is the answer of the conscience that authenticates the divine message. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.