So what’s The Truth and which of us can claim it? (or are there many?)
How can you tell fake news from what’s authentic? Which forecast do we prefer or medical opinion? Which poll do you prefer to read? The good news or the harsh?
Way pre our contemporary fake news problems, people have struggled with prophets and messengers who offer conflicting visions, all supposedly from higher up.
Is Jeremiah real or fake news? Are the other local prophets?
Sometimes, only time can tell.
In this chapter, dating to the brief reign of Zedekiah, Judah’s last king - in between the first attack by Babylon and the final blow - Jeremiah walks around Jerusalem with a yoke around his neck, an outsized necklace that reminds the people — do not rebel -take on the yoke of Babylon and live!
But the Pro-Egyptian camp is growing and the popular populist slogan is heard in Judah - “Babylon may come and go but the Nile will flow forever.”
The puppet king favors a treaty with Egypt and rebellion against Babylon. Jeremiah’s attempts to convey the counter messaging falls flat. The people stick to nationalist agendas and prefer the court’s party line -risk rebellion over surrender and survival.
One of the local propaganda prophets who supports the king is a guy by the name of Hanania son of Azur, from nearby Gibeon, who stands up in the temple to deliver his good news to Jerusalem — in two years time Babylon will collapse, and the exiled King of Judah will return to Jerusalem, along with the looted vessels from the temple. Just two years — all be will! Stick with Egypt!
For some strange reason, perhaps because the unusual specific timeline, Jeremiah, standing there and hearing his opponent, hesitates from outright challenging the other prophet and responds to Hanania - Amen. May it be so.
Perhaps Jeremiah too is hopeful that the lost treasures will come home and the exile will be over? Likely - but he has insider’s info that it won’t be son. Yet he hopes.
But as soon as Jeremiah submits, Hanniah demonstrates dramatic measures and wins the public debate:
But the prophet Hananiah removed the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, and broke it; and Hananiah said in the presence of all the people, “Thus said YHWH: So will I break the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon from off the necks of all the nations, in two years.” And the prophet Jeremiah went on his way.
Jeremiah’s silent departure from the debate, with yoke broken, heart and pride probably broken too - is a big deal. In essence, he concedes to the voice of the prophets who deny the prospects of retribution and destruction and sooth the people with what he believes are false and wrong projections - what about the harsh hard truth?
But how can you tell who is wrong or right? In the Torah Moses tells the people that a false prophet is the one whose words do not turn out to be the truth - in other words — you simply have to wait and see. Who has patience?
What complicates things is that the prophet’s job is to change reality — convince the people to repent and thus get God to change the fate of things.. there’s really no real formula, except, again, for patience. Somehow also intuition is important here. Who has intuition?
Jeremiah has no patience. Just a prophetic intuition that he’s right.
He regrets his Amen and meets privately with his opponent, accusing him of peddling lies:
And to prove his point Jeremiah warns Hannaiah - you will die within the year.
And so it is.
But it won’t matter. The debate has been seared in the public eye, the fake news heard much louder than Jeremiah’s, and the debate continues, one false prophet down, many more to go. Babylon is on its way to Jerusalem.
Jeremiah knows the other prophets and the ones show spread false hopes, both those in Jerusalem and those already exiled in Babylon - and will name them, with condemnation, one by one - coming up in the next chapter. Who knows who’s right?
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