Jeremiah 28

Day 29: Jeremiah 28: 1-17

But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true (Jeremiah 28:9, NIV). 

                Something that my pastor always says that I think is really funny but also true is that “a lot of people weren’t sent, they just went.” Everyone who calls themselves a prophet is actually not sent by God; they gave themselves the calling because they liked the title and feeling of importance. So many people call themselves prophesying or saying “God said” and nothing that they say come to fruition because they spoke out of their flesh and not a word from God. Sometimes people will speak things out of faith (such as saying God will heal someone who’s sick, etc.) and that’s not necessarily a bad thing but we still must operate in the spirit and allow God to show us what His will is. We can want certain things to happen so badly that we want to speak it into existence but the reality is that it simply may not be God’s will. Jeremiah even says himself as Hananiah is speaking of God bringing relief and solving their problems, that he too hoped the Lord would fulfill that prophesy if it was true (v. 6-9). It’s okay to exercise our faith and hope for God to turn situations around however our obedience to  God is going to play a factor in that and we have to go and speak as God leads us. The problem with Hananiah although his message sounded good and made the people feel good, it was a lie. It was a confirmation to the people that God would honor their disobedience by giving them relief from the punishment that He poured out on them for disobeying Him. I sense that Hananiah wanted to be liked and that he wanted to calm the itching ears of the people by giving them a word that sounded good and toss “and the Lord said” on to it to make it sound official. God loves His people but understand that He will not reward disobedience and that there are also consequences for speaking false prophesies (v. 16-17).