Bible Reading: Judges 15; Acts 19; Jeremiah 28; Mark 14
Jeremiah 28:16-17 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. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
The so called prophet Hananiah told the people that within two years the yoke of the king of Babylon would be broken from off the back of the people of Israel. Interestingly, Jeremiah had told the people that the captivity would last seventy years. Hananiah made a big deal of this by taking the wooden yoke that Jeremiah was wearing around his neck and breaking it. Where did Hananiah get his message? It must have come from his own heart because God did not give it to him. God was speaking through Jeremiah, not Hananiah. Jeremiah's message was not an easy one to hear, nor was it the one the people wanted to hear. They did not want to believe that God had given all the nations to Nebuchadnezzar. They did not want to hear that Jerusalem would fall to Babylon and their king would be taken. They did not want to hear that God's protection and provision was only with those who went away to Babylon.
People want to hear a message of blessing from the LORD and not a message of rebuke or warning. The New Testament tells us:
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Because of Hananiah's false message to the people, Jeremiah told him that God was going to cast him off the face of the earth. In other words, he was going to die because he taught rebellion against the LORD. Hananiah had committed a sin unto death. God had made up his mind and there was nothing that would change it.
1 John 5:16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
There was no need interceding for Hananiah, because God was not going to repent. Later that year, Hananiah died. Teaching rebellion against the LORD is a serious offence. Jesus says:
Matthew 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Be sure that you teach the truth about God and his Word!
In Christ,
Rody
