FALSE PROPHETS

 

FALSE PROPHETS

In Parshaot Re’eh and Shoftim there is a warning given about listening to a false prophet. The world has certainly had its share. The mass suicide at Jonestown in 1978 comes to mind. So before you dip into that tub of cyanide laced Kool-Aid think of the warning within Parsha Re'eh:

13:2 –“If there will arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of a dream, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,

and the sign or the wonder of which he spoke to you happens, [and he] says, "Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us worship them,"

you shall not heed the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of a dream; for the Lord, your God, is testing you, to know whether you really love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul”.

In Parsha Shoftim at 18:20 - 

But the prophet who intentionally speaks a word in My name, which I did not command him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die".

In the Book of Jeremiah there is a poignant encounter with the false prophet Hananiah.  In terms of background it begins at Chapter 26:6 where Hashem tells Jeremiah that Nebuchadnezzar is Hashem’s servant and is doing Hashem’s will.

“And now, I have given these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and even the beasts of the field I have given to him to serve him”.

 

The warning continues at verses 9 and 10:

“And you, heed not your prophets or your diviners or your dreams or your soothsayers or your sorcerers, who say to you, saying, "You shall not serve the king of Babylon."

For they are prophesying falsely to you in order to remove you far from your land, and so that I will drive you out and you will perish”.

 

In Chapter 28 there is a confrontation between Hananiah and Jeremiah in which Hananiah refutes Jeremiah’s prophesy and says falsely at Verse 11:

“And Hananiah said before the eyes of all the people, saying: So said the Lord: So will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, in another two full years, off the neck of all the nations. And Jeremiah the prophet went on his way”.

 

Verses 15-17 conclude the confrontation:

“And Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet: The Lord did not send you, and you assured this people with a lie.

Therefore, so said the Lord: Behold I send you off the face of the earth; this year you shall die, for you have spoken perversion against the Lord".

BOTTOM LINE: 17: "And Hananiah the prophet died in that year, in the seventh month”.