Every so often while reading the Bible, I get flashbacks to my years in Sunday School. Most of those flashbacks come from the ‘memory verses’ I had to memorize each week for Sunday School. It never ceases to amaze me that thirty years later those verses are still stored somewhere in my memory.

Recently, while reading the book of Jeremiah, I had one of those flashbacks and it led to a deeper study of this story.

You will probably recognize these words just as I did;

Jeremiah 29:11-13

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

What a powerful verse this has been to me and to many others over the years.

Imagine comforting and powerful this must have been for Judah to hear. Judah had been taken captive by Babylon. They had no future. Their land, their possessions and their children had been stripped from them. They thought God had abandoned them. They thought God was done with them. Then, the prophet Jeremiah brings this promise of hope and deliverance.

As comforting as this was to Judah, most of us overlook an important detail of this prophecy found in the previous verse;

Jeremiah 29:10

10 For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

The promise of deliverance was given, but it would take seventy years for deliverance to come. An entire lifetime for most. That meant almost every person who was taken captive would die in captivity. Imagine receiving a promise that your answer has come but then discovering you would have to wait seventy years to receive it. That is like receiving no answer at all.

During Jeremiah’s time there were many prophets sharing many messages. In this particular story, there was another prophet named Hananiah. Hananiah shared what sounded like a similar message to Jeremiah’s, except for one slight variation;

Jer 28:2-4

2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

3 Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:

4 And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the Lord: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Deliverance would come in two years time instead of seventy years. Only one detail was different, but that one variation completely changed the message.

Who do you believe? Jeremiah or Hananiah?

That is pretty easy, two years of captivity versus seventy? I’ll take the two years every time, how about you? That is what Judah did, they believed Hananiah. At least until God took his life. (Jer 28:16-17)

In this story, we learn something about Jeremiah that we can relate to each of us; Jeremiah wanted to believe Hananiah. The true prophet wanted to believe the message of the false prophet;

Jer 28:6

6 Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the Lord do so: the Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the Lord’s house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.

I don’t know why Jeremiah was tempted to believe Hananiah’s message except that he was weary of the people ignoring his own message. Jeremiah had been preaching the Word of God for twenty five years with little or no results. He made a stand in Judah when nobody else was doing so. It was tempting, if only for a short time, for Jeremiah to desire the approval of the people. After all, their message wasn’t all that different. It was almost the same, only one detail was different. Why not accept it? Why not preach it?

If this was tempting for Jeremiah, it will also be tempting for us. You will be tempted to preach what the people want to hear. You will be tempted to seek the approval of the people. You will be tempted to change just one detail of the message. However, when you change just one detail, you change the entire message.

Jeremiah came to understand he could not do that. Not even one detail. We must come to the same understanding. It is a matter of life or death. It cost Hananiah his life.

In this last hour of the Church, we must loudly declare as Paul did;

Acts 20:27

27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

Preach all of the counsel of God. Don’t seek the approval of man, seek the approval of God. Yes, you will be tempted. Yes, you will have your moments, but you can stand as Jeremiah did. Don’t change even one detail of the message. Keep preaching all the Truth of the Word of God. Ultimately, Truth is the only thing that will save your generation. Truth is the only thing that will bring life.