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- Oct 26, 2007
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"Go, tell Hananiah, 'Thus says the LORD: You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron. Jeremiah 28:13 ESV
Everyone wants to believe everything is going to be all right. And it will be…eventually. But nothing will be perfect until God calls His children eternally home. Thinking things will be all right before then is both foolish and dangerous.
The prophet Jeremiah regularly had bad news for God’s chosen people. In one symbolic act, God told Jeremiah to make for himself a yoke to put around his neck like a farm animal. Jeremiah explained that the yoke was an example of how Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was going to put God’s people in bondage.
A rival—and false—prophet named Hananiah took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck, broke it, and declared God would remove the threat of Nebuchadnezzar in the same way within two years. Hananiah’s declaration was much more hopeful than Jeremiah’s, but that didn’t make it true.
Hananiah encouraged people with false hope. He didn’t tell people to turn toward God in their distress. He told them the distress was unfounded.
When life isn’t going the way you want it to, well-meaning friends may tell you everything will be all right soon, whereas real friends will encourage you to depend on God regardless of your circumstances and pray alongside you come what may.
Prayer: Lord, help me not to ignore troubles but to rely on You alone.
Everyone wants to believe everything is going to be all right. And it will be…eventually. But nothing will be perfect until God calls His children eternally home. Thinking things will be all right before then is both foolish and dangerous.
The prophet Jeremiah regularly had bad news for God’s chosen people. In one symbolic act, God told Jeremiah to make for himself a yoke to put around his neck like a farm animal. Jeremiah explained that the yoke was an example of how Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was going to put God’s people in bondage.
A rival—and false—prophet named Hananiah took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck, broke it, and declared God would remove the threat of Nebuchadnezzar in the same way within two years. Hananiah’s declaration was much more hopeful than Jeremiah’s, but that didn’t make it true.
Hananiah encouraged people with false hope. He didn’t tell people to turn toward God in their distress. He told them the distress was unfounded.
When life isn’t going the way you want it to, well-meaning friends may tell you everything will be all right soon, whereas real friends will encourage you to depend on God regardless of your circumstances and pray alongside you come what may.
Prayer: Lord, help me not to ignore troubles but to rely on You alone.
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