6/22/08 - Pentecost 6 - Jeremiah 28:5-9

KNOW WHAT THE LORD SAYS
- He makes his Word available
- He makes his Word clear

Christianity is a very broad term. Because, as you well know, there are many different churches and denominations that call themselves “Christian” in this world. And with each different denomination comes a myriad of different teachings. On any biblical topic there is: baptism, the ends times, faith, the Lord’s Supper, even on Jesus himself… you will hear different things from different “Christians” on the exact same Scriptural subjects. And so you must, you must know what the Lord actually says. And this is not an impossible task. It is well within the ability God has given you to know what he says in his Word. Because the Lord has made his Word available to you and he has made his Word clear. Scripture is not a matter of interpretation; it’s a matter of what God clearly says in his Word. And so it is essential for you as a faithful and responsible Christian to know his Word well.
As we come across our sermon text in Jeremiah 28 this morning, we see that the Israelites were faced with this same kind of responsibility: it was essential for them to know exactly what the Lord said in his Word. Because they were hearing different things from different people. The prophet Hananiah was saying one thing while the prophet Jeremiah was saying another. And it wasn’t some insignificant argument about a minor detail either. It was a very critical matter that Hananiah and Jeremiah were debating because it dealt with the Israelites’ future in the Promised Land. And they only had to look at what Jeremiah was wearing to understand how important the truth really was.
Jeremiah was standing in the middle of the temple of God with an animal yoke fastened around his neck. This was a sign commissioned by the Lord himself indicating that the Israelites would be subject to the king of Babylon. And this was nothing extraordinary to hear for the Israelites at the time because the king of Babylon had already come before. He had already taken the silver and gold from the temple and he had already exiled many of the people to Babylon, including the former king of Judah, King Jehoiachin. And so now with that yoke around his neck Jeremiah was saying, “You are next! You will not escape! You too will all be subjects under the rule of Babylon. This is what the Lord says.” The priests there heard it. Many of the people of Israel who were there heard it. And they all saw Jeremiah standing there with that yoke resting on his shoulders.
But as the prophet Jeremiah stood there in the middle of the temple for all the people to see, the prophet Hananiah approached him and said just the opposite. He claimed the Lord would return the silver and gold, that he would bring back the captives, that he would restore King Jehoiachin to his throne, and that he would “break the yoke of the king of Babylon” (v.4) within two years. Our Scripture lesson then picks up the story as “the prophet Jeremiah replied... ‘Amen! May the LORD do so! May the LORD fulfill the words you have prophesied… Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true.’” In essence, Jeremiah was saying: “I wish that were true. I would like for your words to be fulfilled, Hananiah. But they won’t be. Because the Lord has promised disaster for his people.” And so now the Israelites were faced with a decision: who were they to believe? Jeremiah and Hananiah were telling them two different things. Exile or freedom. Two opposite futures both supposedly from the Lord himself. But the people of Israel should have had no problem knowing what teaching truly came from the Lord. All they had to do was look at the words of the Lord already available to them.
Earlier that year, the Lord had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah and said, “I will hand all your countries over to my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon… All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson” (Jer. 27:6,7). The people had heard these words, they could have gone back and read those words, and they had seen the yoke on Jeremiah’s neck to accompany those words. And so it should have been obvious to them that Hananiah couldn’t have been telling the truth because his prophecy contradicted these clear words of the Lord. And even well before this incident, when King Jehoiachin was still in the land, the Lord had said to Jehoiachin himself, “I will hand you over to those who seek your life, those you fear - to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Babylonians” (Jer. 22:25). The people had heard these words as well. They could have gone back and read these words that had been written down. And they had seen these words fulfilled when their king was taken into exile. And so years later it should have been obvious to them that Hananiah couldn’t have been telling the truth.
And, of course, it wasn’t just Jeremiah saying these things; many prophets before his time had prophesied the same catastrophes for the people of Israel. About 100 years before this confrontation between Jeremiah and Hananiah occurred, the prophet Isaiah said to the king of Judah, “The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord” (Isaiah 39:6). And around that same time period the prophet Micah also predicted that the Israelites would all be exiled, “Now you must leave the city to camp in the open field. You will go to Babylon” (Micah 4:10). The people had access to these words of the Lord - for the last 100 years! They could read them and hear them and remember them. And with these word at hand they could have seen that Hananiah’s words did not match up with the words of the Lord.
It is not known if the people of Israel did that. It isn’t clear from our story if the Israelites looked back at God’s Word that he had made available to them through the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah and Micah. But it seems that most of the people probably didn’t. They probably didn’t look back into Scripture to find out what God had said, because the Bible does tell us that the Israelites never repented, they were sent to Babylon because of their sins, and Jeremiah was kept confined in the courtyard of the palace guard and remained under house arrest all the way up until his prophecy came true and Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians. What an unfortunate end! What an unfortunate end to a people who had ready access to God’s Word, but people who did not think it worthwhile to make use of it. People who were not willing to look at what God actually said, and so were convinced to believe in the false reports of a man like Hananiah.
Of course, there are many “Hananiahs” still today. There are many people who call themselves “Christians” and yet teach and preach and believe and push ideas that are contrary to Scripture. And so because there are still many Hananiahs around us today, it is of extreme importance that you as a Christian know exactly what the Lord says! It is crucial for you to continue to dig into the Word of God, to search Scripture, to find and remember what the Lord says so that you do not end up like the Israelites. And to do that you must fight back your natural sinful laziness. It is a challenge for all of us because all of us are naturally spiritually lazy. And our spiritual laziness is never more evident than when we are content to believe what our church teaches without bothering to know why. For example: you believe that infants should be baptized. And that’s great! You should believe that! But why? Because that’s what your church teaches or because you know what the Lord says in his Word to back that up? Another example: you believe that women should not be pastors of congregations. And that’s great! You should believe that! But why? What does the Lord say in his Word to back that up? Another example: you believe that there is no such thing as the popular idea of the Rapture. And that’s great! You should believe that! But why? What does the Lord say in his Word to back that up? We are too often content to believe what our church teaches without taking the time to find out why in God’s Word. And that is pure spiritual laziness! You should never believe something just because the congregation you belong to teaches it. You should always strive to know exactly what the Lord says in his Word on any and every subject.
Throughout my Bible, there are notes and explanations and parallels penciled in the margins that I’ve picked up over the years. But there are some words or phrases or ideas that I’ve just put a question mark by. Why was this said? What does this mean? Why did the Holy Spirit have these words written down in this way? Usually, if I put a question mark down that means I don’t know the answer. And some of these questions marks I’ve come across year after year after year without ever bothering to find the answer! And every time I come across one of these question marks I tell myself that I don’t have time right now to find the answer, that I don’t know where to look, that I don’t know who to ask, or that I’ll probably find out the answer by the time I read this passage again. Laziness. Pure spiritual laziness. The Lord has made his Word available to me 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and I can’t find the time or the motivation to find out what he says? The Lord has made his Word available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you can’t find the time to read it on your own or to study it in a Bible class or to figure out what a passage says or to re-read a paragraph that you daydreamed through or to ask me a question or to look elsewhere for some help? Laziness. Pure spiritual laziness.
And don’t think of the Word of God as some indecipherable Shakespearean poem. And the Word of God is not a random conglomeration of confusing and senseless commands. The Word of God is absolutely clear because God had his words written down specifically for you. He didn’t have them written down to be vague. He didn’t have them written down so that just anyone could come up with their own interpretation. The Lord made sure his words were undeniably clear. And what an incomparable blessing that is! What a blessing that we know exactly what the Lord says! He clearly tells us precisely what he wants us to know. He clearly tells us who we are: sinners. He clearly tells us what that means: hell. He clearly tells us what we can do about it: nothing. He clearly tells us what he has done about it: everything. And he clearly tells us what that means: heaven, forever, with him. It is clear from Scripture that Christ has done everything for our salvation. Christ has done everything everything. When Christ was on this earth he was a workaholic! He was always preaching, teaching, healing, helping, praying, living, dying, rising. And Christ still is a workaholic. He is still ruling, protecting, guiding, leading, watching, and loving us every day of our lives. Christ is always at work. And his work on this earth and now in heaven means that spiritually lazy Christians like us are forgiven. His work means that spiritually dead people like all human beings are by nature can be saved without any work at all - simply through faith in their Savior. The Lord’s continual work means our eternal rest. And that is crystal clear in his Word. Thank the Lord for the clarity of his gospel. Thank the Lord for the clarity of his Word because that is something we could not live without! How could we have any joy or peace or comfort or hope for the future if his words were not clear? But they are clear. And you can be assured of your forgiveness and salvation and resurrection from the grave because that’s what God clearly says.
It is a shame that the Old Testament Israelites refused to see the clarity of God’s Word. And they suffered dearly for it. Less than a decade after Jeremiah spoke these words that we read in chapter 28, the king of Babylon completely destroyed Jerusalem and sent almost all of the people still there into exile. They spent the next 70 years in captivity, away from their homeland, away from their temple, and away from their inheritance. And all this happened because they did not pay attention to the words of God that he had made so clear to them in so many different ways. Don’t let that happen to you. Know what the Lord says. His Word is available and his Word is clear. Take advantage of that. If you are not currently participating in a Bible study, I strongly encourage you as a Christian friend and as the under-shepherd of your soul, to find a time or a topic that works for you. Whether it is Sunday morning, Wednesday evening, Friday morning, or a different time and place - I will accommodate any and every request to study the Word together. Please tell me what works for you. If you are not currently reading your Bible on a regular basis, make it a priority to do it. Pick a specific time each day that you can sit down and read what the Lord says to you. I can think of nothing more important for you to do with 5-10 minutes of your day. If you are in the habit of skipping over things or ignoring or forgetting or not paying attention to sections in Scripture that you don’t quite understand, slow down, pause, go back, re-read, do some research, look on the WELS website, ask me - that’s what I’m here for… In everything that you are doing with God’s Word and everything you are not doing: take the time to know what the Lord is saying to you in the clear words of Scripture.
Please work at this with me, my faithful Christian friends. With the Lord’s help I will try to know him better. And I ask you to join me in understanding his Word to the best of our abilities. It will take extra time. It will take extra effort. But for the sake of our faith, and for the good of God’s glory, I pray that the Lord would help us in this - starting today and for the rest of our lives.
Amen.

“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” - 1 Peter 3:18