Jeremiah (1-31) 28:1 Commentary and Bible Study

‘It came to pass the same year’ – not the same year as that referred to in chapter 27. This isn't the speech to Jehoiakim at the beginning of the previous chapter, the year of that. Neither is this the messages to the neighbouring nations. This isn't the speech to the priests. This now is a different year. ‘It came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah.’ The same year refers to the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, and indeed, in the fourth year of his reign. So there is very little time to go now before the great invasion and the fall of Jerusalem. This prophecy takes place in the fifth month: it is all very precise. And the one named is a prophet, Hananiah, the son of Azur, not mentioned anywhere else. He is a prophet, which was of Gibeon. Gibeon was a priestly city. So Azur was presumably a priest, as well as a prophet, and so very likely was Hananiah. He certainly has audience with the priests in a special gathering in this very chapter, so he was a significant person, a priest and a prophet. And he addressed Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests. It was a public meeting and all the people were there. Of course, that doesn’t mean literally all the people of Judah or all the people of Jerusalem; it simply means that it was a public meeting. The house of God would be crowded out. This must have been advertised in some way, announced by the crier in the city. ^What is the significance of this? ‘And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah’, another prophet, but a false prophet, ‘which was of Gibeon, spake unto me’, directly to Jeremiah, ‘in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,’ and he gives a completely contradictory message to that of Jeremiah. And he says, ‘Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon’, and it is finished, it is smashed, and you are going to be able to come back, and everything will be well. ‘Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD'S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: ⁴ And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’ Within two years. There will be no final invasion such as Jeremiah has been warning about. There will be no catastrophe. Indeed, within two years, Nebuchadnezzar is going to fall. How could he say such a thing? There was no political likelihood that such a thing could ever happen. There was nobody capable of challenging Babylon. It was madness to say such a thing: that Babylon will fall in two years. Jeremiah says 70 years. Hananiah says two years, and everything will be returned. Verse 4 it becomes more extravagant still. ‘And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’