Do You Trust in a Lie?

A con man—short for “confidence man”—tries to get you to have confidence in him so that you will trust in his lie. Then he can take advantage of you. It is a way of stealing, not by force, like a robber, or by secrecy, like a burglar, but by deception.

Much religion works the same way. Some say they are the “one true church” and that to be right with God, you must belong to them. Others claim God gave their prophet “another testament.” They want your allegiance or your money. The key is to get you to trust in a lie.

In Jeremiah 28, Jeremiah wears the yoke God told him to make as a sign that Judah must submit to Nebuchadnezzar. Hananiah sounds like a true prophet: “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.” Jeremiah says they must submit to the yoke now. Hananiah says it has already been broken.

Who are they going to believe? We are biased toward what confirms what we want to hear. The people do not want to submit to Babylon, so they are biased toward Hananiah and against Jeremiah.

Hananiah promises that within two years the temple vessels and the exiles will return. His language conveys confidence. The people like that much better than Jeremiah’s hard words about submission. Yet notice what is absent from Hananiah’s prophecy. Jeremiah says, “Repent; amend your ways and your doings.” Hananiah just gives the promise. He says nothing about repentance, reformation, prayer, or a new heart. He offers favor without holiness and restoration without returning to God. This is a central test of false teaching: it aims to please rather than profit, to soothe rather than save.

Jeremiah wants Hananiah’s promise to be true too. He says, “Amen! May the LORD do so.” But just because he wants it does not make it true. He will not invent a revelation to defend himself.

Hananiah then takes the yoke bars from Jeremiah and breaks them. This symbolic act makes the lie visible, memorable, and emotionally irresistible. He again speaks with absolute confidence: “Thus says the LORD.” But he contradicts the earlier prophets and tells the people what they want to hear: salvation with no cross and nothing to bear. Repetition increases confidence, but it does not create truth.

“Jeremiah the prophet went his way.” He does not retaliate, seize the stage, invent an immediate answer, or quarrel. He speaks again only after “the word of the LORD came” to him. Hananiah manufactures revelations to suit himself and his audience. Jeremiah waits for God’s Word. The restraint of a true preacher is as revealing as the confidence of a false one.

When God’s Word comes, the Lord tells Jeremiah, “You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron.” Hananiah’s stunt did not change God’s decree. It encouraged resistance that made the coming bondage more severe. We worsen our chastening when we resist it. We try to break our wooden yokes and receive an iron one instead.

God condemns Hananiah because “you have made this people trust in a lie.” The people believe that their humiliation will end in two years, whether they amend their ways or not. Why repent if deliverance is guaranteed? Why forsake the sins I love, many conclude, if I can be saved from hell merely by repeating a prayer and perhaps undergoing baptism?

False assurance is not merely inaccurate. When spoken in God’s name, it promotes rebellion by teaching people that there will be no judgment for their lawlessness. Hananiah offers peace by denying judgment. The gospel offers peace because judgment has actually been borne. God’s judgment is real, our guilt is real, and Jesus has satisfied God’s justice for everyone who trusts in him.

If the institution disappeared, the prophet was exposed, the emotion faded, and your works were weighed, what would you trust in then? Do not trust in lies. Trust in Jesus, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me.”

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church is Danville’s Reformed church.