Suppose that you were someone fresh on the scene listening to this discussion between two supposed prophets. How on earth were you to know who was telling the truth: who was a genuine prophet of the Lord? It is clear that the country was awash with people claiming to be prophets in Jeremiah’s days (see Jeremiah chapter 14). The culture is very different in our times but still we are bombarded – including online – by those who claim to have the answer to life’s complex, intractable problems. 

A sound scriptural principle, outlined in 1 John 4:1, is that we should ‘test the spirits’. Those listening to Jeremiah and Hananiah would have done well to apply the idea. They might have learned, from experience and relationship, who those individuals are whom we can trust. This account does not come at the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry. Many of those watching really should have known that Jeremiah was a true servant of God whose word was to be trusted and should have advised others. This is true even though Hananiah was telling the people what they wanted to hear. A second method of testing is simple. Jeremiah could afford to walk away (in verse 11) because he knew that his words and not the other person’s would come true.

Ask God, who by his Spirit inspired the Scriptures, to illumine your mind by the same Spirit and give you understanding as you read today.

In the Hebrew Bible the word for ‘prophet’ appears 16 times in this chapter, with about half applied to Hananiah and half to Jeremiah. Hananiah’s name means ‘the Lord is gracious’ and his message seems to be that the Lord was more gracious than Jeremiah was suggesting.¹ Nevertheless, although he is clearly a false prophet, the text never says that explicitly. We must work it out. Jeremiah is wearing the yoke that God told him to wear² when Hananiah, who features only in this chapter, is abruptly introduced as ‘the prophet’ who announces in the Temple what the false prophets of 27:16 were saying: ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says … Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the Lord’s house’ (vs 2,3). Jeremiah expresses his hope that what Hananiah was saying would happen. Then, to drive the message home, Hananiah breaks the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck, announcing that God was about to break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah silently withdraws. 

A short time later Jeremiah reappears with a word from God for Hananiah. ‘The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore … This very year you are going to die’ (vs 15,16). Two months later it happened. Verse 9 is right in the middle of the chapter. How do we sift false prophecy from true? Jeremiah points out that in the past the prophets had overwhelmingly announced disaster; Hananiah was announcing shalom (well-being). This new and different announcement needed to be put to the test. Sometimes when we are trying to sift what is false from what is true, we just need to wait and see, trusting God to work out his purposes.

In this world of conspiracy theories and fake news, ask God to give you discernment in your media consumption and to enlighten anyone you know who is consumed by conspiracies.

¹ Walter Brueggemann, Jeremiah 26–52: To Build and to Plant, Eerdmans, 1991, p23–24  ² Jer 27:2