Day 227. Jeremiah 27-29

Now we are again back in the reign of the Zedekiah, Jerusalem has been sacked but not destroyed, and a large number of its citizens, including King Jehoiachin, deported as hostages. The besieging army is gone, but the shadow of Babylon falls very darkly upon the little kingdom of Judah. The LORD instructs Jeremiah construct another visual parable—"Make yourself a yoke of straps and bars"—such as are used for controlling oxen—"and put them on your neck" (27:2), he says. Apparently there was a high-level summit going at the time, the neighboring kings having sent envoys to Jerusalem to form an alliance to throw off the power of Babylon. Jeremiah, wearing his yoke, is instructed to give these envoys a message from the LORD: "I have given all these lands into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him even the wild animals of the field to serve him" (27:6). His power, however, will not last forever—he
too will become a slave to other nations and other great kings. But for the time being, anyone who revolts again him, rebels against the will of God. "Serve him and his people, and live," God tells the nations. Prophets and soothsayers have counseled resistance and revolt, but they are prophesying a delusion. If the nations resist the king of Babylon and refuse to wear his yoke, they will perish.
Jeremiah gives King Zedekiah the same message from the LORD—"Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live" (27:12). Do not refuse to do so, the prophet says, or you and your city will perish. Some of the precious vessels from the LORD's house had been taken away as plunder together with that first group of exiles. The loss of those sacred vessels was a sore point, as we can imagine. Other prophets had been saying that that the vessels would "soon be brought back from Babylon" (27:16). This is a lie, Jeremiah tells the king, and he must not listen to it or act upon it, lest the rest of the furnishings of the temple go the same way. As for what remains of the temple furnishings--"They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall stay, until the day when I give attention to them, says the LORD. Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place" (27:22)—but in my own time.
Jeremiah was not without prophetic rivals. One was a certain Hananiah who, in the first years of Zedekiah's reign, prophesied that "within two years" the Davidic king, Jehoiachin, and the rest of the exiles, together with the vessels taken from the temple would be restored, for the LORD had revealed to him that he was about to "break the yoke of the king of Babylon" (28:4). Jeremiah knows this is a falsehood, that God had told Hananiah no such thing. But he does not argue—wisely. All Jeremiah will say is this—"The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms." He continues—"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 that prophet" (28:9). The proof of the porridge is in the tasting, in other words.
But in a dramatic gesture, Hananiah seizes the yoke that Jeremiah has been wearing and breaks it, proclaiming that this is how the LORD will break the yoke of the king of Babylon "within two years" (29:11). Jeremiah goes his way without comment. But later the LORD send this message through Jeremiah to Hananiah—"You have broken wooden bars only to forge iron bars in place of them!" (28:13). Your posturing has made the situation worse, because as a result people have come to share your delusion. "You made this people believe a lie," Jeremiah tells him. And now the LORD says to you: "Within this year you will be dead, because you have spoken rebellion against the LORD" (28:16). And sure enough, in a few months Hananiah is dead, and the truth is again driven home—it is fatally dangerous to ridicule or otherwise trifle with God's prophets.
Now Jeremiah undertakes to write a letter on the LORD's behalf to the exiles in Babylon. The essence of the letter is this—settle in for a long haul. "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile," God tells them, "and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare" (29:7). And do not listen to those prophets who tell you that you will return home soon, he cautions—it is a lie. "I did not send them," says the LORD (29:9). Only after seventy years have passed will the LORD visit the exiles and bring them back to Jerusalem, as he has promised. Until then, sit tight.
The letter also says that the LORD is intent upon the destruction of King Zedekiah and those who remained behind in Jerusalem because they believed the words of false prophets—he "will make them like rotten figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten" (29:17). Especially nasty treatment will be meted out to a certain Zedekiah and Ahab, false prophets, who, because they spoke "lying words" in the name of the LORD, the king of Babylon will roast in the fire.
A certain Shemaiah, one of the exiles in Babylon writes back to Jerusalem reprimanding the priest Zephaniah for not doing enough to control a certain "madman who plays the prophet"(29:26). This Jeremiah of Anathoth has had the presumption to actually send a letter to the exiles in Babylon telling them—"It will be a long time; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat what they produce" (29:28). It was not a message the exiles wanted to hear, but it is the truth. (Humankind cannot stand very much truth, as we said before.)
The priest Zephaniah reads this letter to Jeremiah, and the LORD gave his prophet this reply—"Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, though I did not send him, and has led you to trust in a lie, therefore thus says the LORD: I am going to punish Shemaiah of Nehelam, and his descendents; he shall not have anyone living among his people see the good that I am going to do to my people, says the LORD, for he has spoken rebellion against the LORD" (29:32-33). Shemaiah and his family will not survive to return to the Land of Promise. They will all perish in Babylon. More evidence, if more were still required, that playing fast and loose with God's special people can get you into deep trouble. God may at times treat his prophets roughly, but God help anyone else who does.