The False Prophet Hananiah Series

The False Prophet Hananiah

Introduction: False prophets—those who prophesy in the name of any “god” or “goddess” besides the One True and Living God—have been a problem since Old Testament days. Whether it was the serpent in Eden lying to Eve about not dying, to those who teach false doctrines these days, these people have been around and they’re going to remain for a while.

During Jeremiah’s lifetime, one of the most obvious false prophets was a man named Hananiah. We’ll take a look at Hananiah’a prophecy and what happened to him as a result.

1 The False Prophecy

Text: Jeremiah 28:1-4 , KJV: 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, 2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 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: 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 was not the only prophet to live in the last several years before Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, was carried away to Babylon. There were a few contemporaries, prophets of the LORD, God of Israel like Ezekiel and Daniel but there were also a number of false prophets. The LORD had said, “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied (Jer. 23:21, KJV)”. That chapter, by the way, has some very strong words from the LORD about false prophets and it’s still worth reading.

When the events in this chapter took place, Jeremiah had already been prophesying for a number of years. Nobody else knew, at the time, that Judah had only about a dozen years before captivity became a reality for the people. Who knows, maybe they thought that with a new king, there would be a new hope, or something. As we, and they, know, it didn’t turn out that way.

Now, at an unspecified time, here came Hananiah, a prophet and son of a prophet from Gibeon. That city was known as far back as Joshua’s time (see Joshua 9) and along with three others was one of only four cities to surrender to Israel! Their cunning and desire to live has always been something I’ve thought about for many years. Digressing for a moment, Gibeon was rewarded by becoming a city for the priests along with Anathoth, Jeremiah’s hometown (Josh. 21:17-18).

Some may be concerned with the statement in verse 1 that this event took place “in the beginning” of Zedekiah’s reign, but it was “in the fourth year and in the fifth month (around August in our calendar)” when Hananiah spoke the words of this prophecy. A few of the commentators, like Matthew Poole (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/poole/jeremiah/28.htm), have an explanation. Matthew Henry, in his complete commentary, (there is an abridged version) (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/mhcw/jeremiah/28.htm) observed that the first few years of Zedekiah’s reign were truly a “beginning” for him. John Gill also provides comments about this (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/jeremiah/28.htm).

The fact remains, though, that Jeremiah had preached and warned the people about judgment to come, but there were no known results. He also provided glimpses of the future, which also seemed to be ignored. Jeremiah 29 is one such example of what was to come. Hananiah’s message, however, was completely different.

He (Hananiah) then made three prophecies as follows:

--“I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon”. As I understand the translation, Hananiah was saying, “This is a done deal” There is no way that had come true. Babylon may not have been laying siege to Jerusalem at the time, but they’d be back with a vengeance.

Jeremiah had been told to wear a wooden yoke as a symbol to Judah and several other nations that they were all going to be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (Jer. 27:1-7). I’ve not yet found a picture or drawing of one of these yokes but the basic description is something that controls either an animal or even a slave. What Jeremiah was wearing, and those he had sent to the other kings, were apparently all literal yokes made out of wood (https://biblehub.com/text/jeremiah/27-2.htm). One wonders at the reaction of those other kings when they received this “item” from Jeremiah!