Jeremiah 28 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Hananiah Opposes Jeremiah and Dies

28 In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 I will also bring back to this place King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, says the LORD, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”

5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD; 6 and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD fulfill the words that you have prophesied, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the LORD, and all the exiles. 7 But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. 8 The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet.”

10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, and broke it. 11 And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: This is how I will break the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years.” At this, the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

12 Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 13 Go, tell Hananiah, Thus says the LORD: You have broken wooden bars only to forge iron bars in place of them! 14 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations so that they may serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they shall indeed serve him; I have even given him the wild animals. 15 And the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you made this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the LORD: I am going to send you off the face of the earth. Within this year you will be dead, because you have spoken rebellion against the LORD.”

17 In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.

Jeremiah 29 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles in Babylon

29 These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 This was after King Jeconiah, and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It said: 4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,[a] 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the LORD.

October 13, 2019

Jeremiah 28:1-17, 29:1-9

Seek the Welfare of the City

Kerra Becker English

Jeremiah mixes politics and religion, and meddles deeply in both. But even the lectionary would have us skip over that part. We sift out the parts that sound nice, that bring us comfort, which is exactly what reading a longer portion of this narrative would indicate that we are NOT supposed to do – according to God’s Word.

But for the contemporary reader, it takes effort to figure out more precisely what’s going on here. If I have to look up information on the cast of characters in this political drama, my hunch is that you might too. It takes context to know WHY Jeremiah is telling the exiles to settle down in Babylon – that the stay might just be longer than expected. Because, as you may be able to imagine, they weren’t exactly thrilled about being driven away from their homes and plopped down in enemy territory. They were eager to believe that this situation was going to be temporary, that they could go back to the way it used to be, and not have this loathsome other power to contend with. But that’s not how it’s going to be.

Chapter 28 opens with the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. The last time Judah had a

“good” king was under Josiah, and Josiah’s sons who followed him were notoriously really bad news. Egypt took over the area shortly after Josiah’s death, and it wouldn’t take long for the

Egyptain Pharoah Necho to depose the second son whom Josiah picked as his successor, and instead appointed the eldest son Elaikim to rule over Judah, changing his name to Johoiakim, which means: “He whom Yahweh has set up.” Johoiakim was hungry for the power that had been entrusted to his father. But that same hunger for power made him a ruthless tyrant, and a sinful, lustful, murderous wretch. He switched alliances as suited him, paid political tribute out of the religious coffers, and exiled nobility who could get in his way. His reign, after 11 years, was succeeded by his son Jeconiah, who only reigned for 3 months plus a few days. It’s Jeconiah whom this other prophet, Hananiah, suggests should reclaim power and sit on his father’s throne instead of Josiah’s third son, still living, Zedekiah. Back up one more chapter, to chapter 27 and

Jeremiah is instructing the now ruling Zedekiah to bring any power he has UNDER the yoke of

Babylon. Otherwise, if they do anything but comply with what Nebuchadnezzar wishes, they are likely to be utterly destroyed. At least if they continue under Babylon, they still continue.

Jeremiah actually makes himself a yoke to wear to illustrate his point, well, and because

God told him to. Is Jeremiah looking like a crazy person about now? Probably so. Who wants to listen to the guy in a yoke delivering doomsday news? Here’s where we enter the verbal showdown between these two prophets. Hananiah suggests that this yoke that Jeremiah keeps yammering on about isn’t a problem. It was easily made, and can be easily broken. Two years tops, and everything will be absolutely back to normal. This rhetoric, no doubt, made Hananiah a more popular prophet, as he proclaimed that God was more than ready to “break the yoke of the

King of Babylon” bringing back the exiled Jeconiah and the Judean treasures that had been taken along with their King.

Jeremiah certainly did not believe this prophecy. Nor should we. When a priest, or prophet, or any person of power either religious or political tells us stories too good to be true, our familiarity with God’s word should make us a little more than suspect of those predictions of good times ahead. Especially when they tell us that they will take us back to the “good old days” we should be looking for the Jeremiahs who might be more on the fringe of popularity, but actually have the courage to speak the truth about our less than certain future.

Jeremiah goes after this false prophet in dangerous territory. The two prophets make their stand-off in front of a crowd of priests and a congregation of people eager for some better news.

After Hananiah has already whipped up the crowd with promises of a future that looks an awful lot like a mere restoration of the past, Jeremiah steps in to the emotional soup and says, “Amen brother. May the Lord do so JUST LIKE YOU SAID.” I understand not wanting to disagree right in that moment. The people needed to know that Jeremiah also wanted what they wanted, and just as badly. There wasn’t a person there, Jeremiah included, who wanted to believe that this

Exile was going to go on for a lengthy period of time. And yet, Jeremiah dares to speak next about the prophets of the past who understood that war, and famine, and pestilence would come to afflict many great nations. The only prophet of peace who is to be believed, he says, is the prophet of peace whose narrative actually comes to pass. Otherwise, those feel good prophets are just propagandists, creators of good feelings who mask what’s really going on in the world.

Hananiah, not wanting to concede anything, takes Jeremiah’s yoke and breaks it, proclaiming that’s exactly what God will do. The message Jeremiah gets from God after that is that the wood yoke indeed was nothing. In its place will be an iron yoke, a stronger submission that would confirm that God was allowing Nebuchadnezzar a long and powerful reign. And to add to that, Jeremiah says to the prophet Hananiah: “Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you made this people trust in a lie. Therefore, thus says the Lord, I am going to send you off the face of the earth. Within a year, you will be dead, because you have spoken rebellion against the Lord.” Final verse of that chapter…. Boom. And Hananiah died. Which brings us to chapter 29 and the verses we might find more familiar. These words are part of a letter, a letter that Jeremiah writes to the exiles who have been transported to

Babylon. The letter goes from Jeremiah to his King, King Zedekiah, to be put in the hand of the

King with overarching power, King Nebuchadnezzar who now rules the Empire with Judah in it.

The letter says this to those who find themselves as newcomers in Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where

I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. [and because we aren’t stopping there] 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of

Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name;

I did not send them, says the Lord.

Now, doesn’t it make a difference to know the context of those words? Words that once sounded to me something like “bloom where you are planted” take on a whole new meaning.

These few verses are the remnant of a political document officially shared between Kings, after a deadly showdown among prophets. Rather than allow ourselves to make these few verses into a feel-good text, we need to know that the exiles weren’t all that interested in building houses, growing families, and becoming good citizens of Babylon. Quite the opposite. They were being warned, again, to not be deceived by false prophets and their dreams of how it used to be.

To read these verses for today takes intent. What if we are being asked to make our home in the reality that is the here and now rather than to long for how things were in another time?

What if we are being asked to put our hope in the relationships and generations to come even as the stability of our planet grows more uncertain? What if, rather than bemoaning our current circumstances, our goals become set on seeking the welfare of the places where we have been sent, knowing that when we seek the good of the whole, we will find the good in ourselves?

It’s a daunting task given by a prophet who is absolutely sure of God’s truth, and willing to question the lies of his culture. Now I have to tell you that I owe what’s going on in my head this morning to our former intern Charles Freeman who suggested that the 28th chapter of

Jeremiah ought to be set as an epic rap battle, Hamilton style. It is indeed a prophetic showdown between the true prophet Jeremiah and his nemesis Hananiah to be played out in history between

Kings and kingdoms. It is an ancient text in which we can see contemporary parallels if we tilt our head and incline our ear enough to notice. HOW we tell our history, even our Biblical history matters, or else it just gets thrown into the trash heap of stuff that no longer has relevance. This story matters, a lot, for a world in which having hope is getting harder. This is not cheap hope, it’s costly hope that says we may not even see what the end shall be, and right now some of our ends are looking bleak. So take your imagination far this morning. And seek the good in the here and now in the very place you find yourself. And as you do, don’t let any “Let’s feel good now” prophets sway you from the true course thinking it’s going to be easy. Amen.