False Hope And God's Truth

Dr. James Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

August 22, 2004

Text: Psalm 9:7-10 (see Jeremiah 27-28)

Today I want to talk about false hope and God's truth. We can be so anxious for things to be the way we want, we are easily seduced by false prophets, politicians and preachers who tell us what we want to hear. But all too often what we want to hear is not the same as God's truth. This is especially true when we are in such bondage to our desires that we confuse what we want with God's will.

The story found in chapters 27 and 28 of the Book of Jeremiah deals with this conflict. The year was 594 B.C.; it had only been four years since Babylonia had conquered Judah . The king of Judah and most of the leadership of the country had been marched to Babylon to live in exile. Much of the treasury and many of the valuables from the temple had been confiscated. Judah had been reduced to being a vassal state serving Babylonia . A puppet king had been placed on the throne.

I can only imagine what those who live in a conquered nation ruled by a foreign power must feel. It is bound to be a crippling blow to the self-image of the society. Within the hearts of conquered people I have read about there is a deep longing to regain independence. There is a deep desire to be rid of foreign rule.

This was certainly true of the people who had been left behind in Judah . As this story takes place, there had been grumbling throughout Judah and murmured longings for independence. In 594 there was a meeting in Jerusalem . Representatives from several small countries that Babylonia had conquered met to discuss the possibility of revolt. What had given them courage was Egypt was becoming powerful once again. They were hoping Egypt would come to their aide and help them throw off the yoke of Babylon .

Jeremiah went to that meeting and made a very dramatic statement. It would have been a great media event if they had had television in those days. To impress the message God had given him on the minds of those leaders, Jeremiah made a yoke, similar to the kind of yoke used on oxen to pull a plow or a cart. Jeremiah placed this yoke around his neck and wore it as he delivered the message from God.

The message was that God was God of the entire world, and that even though the king of Babylon did not realize it, he too was in the service of God. The people of Judah and the other nations Babylonia had conquered were not to revolt. They were to accept the judgment of God that had fallen on them because of their sin. They were to accept the yoke Babylonia had placed around their necks. Their bondage to Babylon was going to last at least two generations.

However, there was hope. God was with them. God would enable them to endure what they had to endure, and their bondage would not last forever. The time would come when the rule of Babylon would end and the exiles would be returned. But that time was not now. It was in the distant future.

This was not what the people wanted to hear. They did not want to hear about a long term solution. They wanted deliverance now. They wanted independence now. They wanted to hear something other than the pronouncement that God was with them and the assurance God had had not forgotten them. They wanted the Babylonians defeated, not merely the assurance God was with them in the midst of their servitude.

We can understand their desires. When we are going through bad times, even if the bad times are the consequences of what we did or failed to do, even when because of our sin we deserve the mess we are in, we want God to “fix it” and “fix it” now.

People then were not unlike we are. The result was they did what we sometimes do. They confused what they wanted with God's will. It was like what I have done at times. I believe God loves me, and because I believe God loves me, I assume God is going to give me what I want.

This is the way Hananiah viewed the situation. Like Jeremiah, Hananiah claimed to be a spokesman for God – a prophet. However, Hananiah's message was very different. Whereas Jeremiah had spoken of Babylonian's domination ending in two generations, Hananiah spoke of it ending in two years. In two years all the treasures would be returned and the exiles would be coming home.

It was the message the people wanted to hear. It was the hope they all longed would come true. Even Jeremiah wished it were so and uttered the prayer: “Amen! May the Lord do so ….”

Hananiah had his own flare for the dramatic. He took the yoke from Jeremiah's neck and broke it declaring: “God will break the yoke that the king of Babylon has placed around your necks.” The Bible does not tell us what he crowd's response was. I suspect it was enthusiastic, like delegates at a political convention responding to their nominee saying what they want to hear. Hananiah was promising what they all wanted to believe was true.

Some time later God spoke to Jeremiah and sent him to deliver a harsh message to Hananiah. “Listen, Hananiah,” Jeremiah said, “you have not spoken God's truth. You have made this people embrace false hope and trust a lie. What you have done is rebellion against the Lord and because of that, God will not allow you live out the year.”

I doubt Hananiah was what we would call a bad person. I suspect he was like many of us. He could not imagine what he so strongly desired to be true not being true. So, he proclaimed his desire as if it were God's truth, and that is just what the people of Judah wanted to believe and to hear. After all, they were the chosen people; surely God would make it happen as Hananiah had said. Besides, there was some evidence the revolt could be successful. Egypt , a rival of Babylon in the Middle East , was becoming powerful again.

The problem with Hananiah was not in what he wanted. The problem was not in what he wished would happen. Even Jeremiah wished what Hananiah said was true. The problem is Hananiah confused what he wanted with God's will. The problem is Hananiah declared what he wished would happen as what God would make happen. The problem is Hananiah saw only what he wanted to see; he allowed his fantasies and dreams of independence to distort his perception of reality, and he confused his fantasy about Egyptian power and Egypt coming to rescue Judah with reality. The problem is, Hananiah was so sure that what he wanted is also what God wanted, that he placed his faith in false hope.

God help us when we are so caught up in what we want we confuse our desires with God's will. God helps us when we want what we want so strongly we believe a fantasy about how some sort of Egyptians are going to be God's instrument in giving us what we want. God help us when we are so confident that God wants what we want that we no longer feel the need to seek God's will.

It is then, when we are so confident we know God's will, we are most likely to be in conflict with God's will. When we stop seeking the will of God through worship, prayer and study we tend to wander away from God and engage is all sorts of self-serving in the illusion we are doing the will of God. When we are overconfident that we know God's will is when we most in danger of confusing our desires with God's will and placing our trust in false hope.

Whatever else this story from Jeremiah tells us, it urges us to be diligent is seeking God's will. This takes some intentional effort. It takes scheduling time for regular worship, prayer and study.

This is the time of year most of us are readjusting our daily schedules. I hope and pray each of us will be intentional in scheduling into our daily and weekly routine time to try to discern God's will for our lives.

We cannot have the abundant life, the eternal life Jesus talked about as long as we are confusing what we want with God's will. God's promise of abundant life is not a guarantee life will be the way we want life to be. The promise of abundant and eternal life is the promise that regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, our living matters – matters to God. We can have a rich life of meaning and purpose even as we endure some sort of Babylonian captivity. By God's grace, not only can we handle life the way life really is, we can live with a profound hope in God. We can live in the confident hope that God's will, will be done, and in that we can find joy and peace. True hope is in God, rather than in hoping God will do what we want. True hope is confidently trusting in God and God's grace, regardless of the situation we are in.

  God, forgive us when we arrogantly confuse what we want with your will. As we fill our schedules for the fall, motivate us to intentionally set aside time on a regular basis to strive to discern your will for us. Amen.  

Pastoral prayer:

God, as we strive to do what is right, give us confidence that is not arrogance and humility that is not timidity. Forgive us when we are so afraid of doing the wrong thing we fail to do the right thing. Help us distinguish between appropriate caution and cowardice. Rescue us from being paralyzed by our longing for a certainty that is impossible to have in this life. Give us faith in your merciful understanding and strengthen our confidence so we will have the courage to do the best we can. Help us walk between the extremes of arrogance that claims too much and caution that does too little. Protect us from substituting our wants for your will. Our fears and desires too often distort our perceptions; motivate us continually to strive to discern your will and motivate us to become involved in life, doing what you want done. Enable us to follow the example of Christ in seeking your will and investing our ourselves in doing it and living as Jesus was teaching us to live when he taught us to pray: “Our Father ….”