A Tale of Two Teachers
A prophet was a messenger of God. They were men, and sometimes women, who literally spoke for God. They were divinely chosen to relay God’s exact messages to His people. Think of it as the prophets taking dictation from God and reading it back to the people. Jeremiah was a prophet for over forty years. During his years of being a prophet, he saw the continued Assyrian control of Israel, as well as the destruction of Jerusalem and capture of Judah by Babylon. He prophesied during the most difficult time of Judah’s existence – during their major moral decline and disobedience to God; and during their siege by Babylon. His messages of covenant unfaithfulness and call to repentance were not well received by the people of Judah. His warnings that God was about to punish Judah if they didn’t turn away from their idolatry and back to the Lord caused the king and political leaders to hate him, declare him a traitor, and imprison him. His own hometown wanted to kill him.
There was no doubt that the Truth Jeremiah was preaching to the people was hard for them to hear, but it was made much harder by false prophets who were giving “good and happy” messages claiming they were from God. Jeremiah prophesied to the king of Judah that Babylon was going to overthrow Judah and take control of it and the people for 70 years. The king and the people were to just allow it, understanding that this was all being done by the Sovereign Hand of God as punishment for their offenses against God and failure to turn back to Him after many, many warnings to do so. Jeremiah 27:6, “Now I (God) have given all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.” Shortly after, a man named Hananiah came along and contradicted Jeremiah’s words saying that God was not going to punish the people of Judah for very long. In fact, within 2 years, God would overthrow the King of Babylon and all would be well again in the land of Judah. Hananiah was a false prophet, meaning his words were of his own making and not from God. Of course, the people like Hananiah’s “happy” message a lot more than Jeremiah’s “doom and gloom” message so they decided to believe him, and others like him, and not Jeremiah’s.
Scripture tells us that prophecy is closed with the Bible. Hebrews 1:1 – 2 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” However, in the New Testament, “teacher” is sometimes substituted for “prophet.” We can understand why because even though they are not receiving new prophecy from God, Biblical teachers, like prophets, are giving people a direct message from God through Scripture. When teachers study, contextualize, and interpret the Bible correctly, and then pass it along to those they are instructing, they act in many of the same ways as the prophets did. Sadly, as in the days of Jeremiah and the other Old Testament prophets, people don’t want to hear messages that “bring them down.” They don’t want to hear that they have an inborn sin nature and that their sin is an offense to our Almighty, Holy God, deserving of His wrath. They would rather pull out one line of Scripture and give it a whole new (a.k.a. false) meaning. Instead of telling people to recognize their sin, turn from it, and turn to Jesus, making Him Lord and Savior of their life, these false teachers pedal garbage like, “God is love so anything goes if you do it “in the name of love.” They fail to define that while God is certainly love, He is perfect, holy love, and perfect love cannot allow sin to go unpunished. We could write a book on the false trash out there being sold as “Christian.” Truth is not always easy to hear, and honestly, some (even pastors or teachers) just don’t want to deal with it. 2Timothy 3:1-5 shows us this was always to be expected; “In the last days (times between the first coming and second coming of Jesus) . . . people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.”
Since the time of creation, human nature has not changed. The above litany could apply just as easily to the people of Noah’s time, Jeremiah’s time, Jesus’ time, and the present. So what do we do about it? Paul finishes the verses with this advice in 2Timothy 3:5b, “Avoid such people.” And the only way to avoid people who want you to believe their lies, instead of God’s Truth, is to know God’s Truth for yourself.
Don’t be afraid of the Truth! Like C.S. Lewis said, “God is not safe, but He is good!” No matter how hard, unpleasant, or even devastating the Truth may be, it is given by our Sovereign, Almighty God who, for His elect, promises all things will work together for our Spiritual good and for His glory!
And if you are wondering what ever happened to Hananiah, God, through Jeremiah, told him he would be removed from the face of the earth. Later that same year, he died.
