Chapter 28 of Jeremiah could be subtitled the showdown at the temple of God. You may recall that Jeremiah had told the people about the yoke they would be wearing – serving the king of Babylon for their disobedience. Well the prophet Hananiah (at least he carried that title) “confronted Jeremiah in the temple” and basically calls him a liar. He says the yoke will go away within two years and the people will be free and things returned to normal. He makes some very bold statements and claimed them to be direct from God. To make his point, “Hananiah grabbed the yoke from Jeremiah’s shoulders and smashed it”. So in just the same way as Jeremiah had used the yoke to make a point earlier, now Hananiah uses it to tell a different story – that freedom is coming. Great show – the people were obviously ecstatic – and the story was looking brighter.
Only one problem. Hananiah had the story wrong. He didn’t have a word from God – he was showboating his own agenda. Jeremiah did not respond at the time other than to say “we’ll wait and see”. I am impressed that there was no argument, no lashing out, no self protection by Jeremiah here at all. He basically had just been undermined in front of all the people and he doesn’t really respond – at least not strongly. That is because he realizes it is not his battle – it is God’s. Sometimes we want to get in the middle and make things our own that really belong to God. So often we think it is up to us to set the record straight, when in fact, if we just stay out of the way God is fully capable of doing that all by Himself. He doesn’t really need me to be the one who trys to straighten out the world. Sure I need to speak and more importantly live His truth. I need to set an example. But to get into a shouting match here, Jeremiah would have accomplished nothing. So he “walked out”. Jeremiah didn’t get dragged into a battle of words or “I’m a better prophet than you are” kind of talk. He just let it be.
So what is the rest of the story? Later when the time was right and he had a direct word from God about the situation, then he confronted Hananiah. But not in his time or with his words or in his power. He waited for God to move first. Of course the message was strong and Jeremiah calls him a liar and tells him he will be dead before the year was up. And what happens? “Prophet Hananiah died that very year”. Guess who the people believed to be the prophet now? Had Jeremiah tried to justify it himself, it would have been a choosing of sides and a we vs them mentality with people lining up where they were best served. This way, there was only one side – God’s side. We need to learn from the example Jeremiah sets here. We mess up things in life often when we try and take responsibility for things that are not ours in our own way. We need to wait for God and then deal with them His way as He directs.
Posted by asorensen 
