Week 30 Jeremiah 29
Jeremiah wrote a letter to the Jewish people who were exiled in Babylon.
In that letter two dishonest prophets were named:
Ahab son of Kolaiah &
Zedekiah son of Maaseiah.
They were self-appointed prophets to the exiles. But Jeremiah wrote that they had told lies in the Lord’s name. That likely meant that A&Z said something like this (for instance): “the Lord told us that you-all would be freed from captivity next month”. So the one problem was the lie itself (no one returned home). And the second problem was that the lie was compounded when they said that the Lord said it.
This story sounded quite a bit like the story of Hananiah in the last chapter. Hananiah had said the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says… – when in actual fact the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel hadn’t said anything even vaguely like what Hananiah said.
And another prophet – Shemaiah – shows up right after A&Z. The Lord said that Shemaiah: has prophesied to you when I did not send him and has tricked you into believing his lies. Shemaiah had tried to fool people with his fake prophecy by saying the Lord endorsed it.
The outcomes were all bad:
A&Z were publicly executed by Nebuchadnezzar
Hananiah died two months after his prophecy
Shemaiah didn’t live long enough to see much of anything.
Jeremiah’s point? A) don’t manufacture fictitious futures and B) don’t double your trouble by crediting the Lord with your fabrication.
Note: Jeremiah 28:2 29:31 26 (NLT)