Jeremiah-Hananiah, the Prophet Who Lied to Make People Feel Good

By Mary Vee
Jeremiah 28

From Jeremiah's Journal

Photo Courtesy - Jeremiah wearing a yoke

Being a prophet of God is sometimes a very difficult job. My name is Jeremiah.

Sometimes other men will claim to be a prophet. They gather the people around them and say God gave them a message.

I'm not the only prophet God has spoken to.

But if a man claims to be a prophet and lies to the people, I get pretty cranky. 

Take for example Hananiah. He stood in the temple and told the priests and all the people there that within two years all the prisoners would come back from Babylon, including Jehoiachin. He also said Nebuchadnezzar would no long rule our land and all the things taken from the temple would be brought back at that time.

"Well," I said. "This would be wonderful if it were true." But I knew it was not the truth because God said the time would be seventy years.

I turned to the people in the temple and said, "From the early times, prophets have told us war, disaster, and plague would come to many countries and great kingdoms. But, the prophet who said peace would come would prove to be a real prophet if and only if his words came true. I say in two years Hananiah's words will not come true because God, himself said Nebuchadnezzar would rule over us for seventy years."

Hananiah walked over to me, in front of all the people, took the yoke off of me and broke it. He stood and said to all the people, "The Lord says, 'In the same way, I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar off of all the nations, including Judah within two years."

I walked away. Unwilling to listen to his lies any more. Not long after, the Lord spoke to me again. He said, "Go to the Hananiah and tell him Nebuchadnezzar will rule for seventy years. And because you lied to the people you will die."

Seven months later, Hananiah died.


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1. Hananiah was a __________ prophet (good or bad)
2. What lie did Hananiah tell the people?
3. What did Hananiah do in front of the people to convince them he was not lying?
4. What was the truth?
5. Who told the truth?
6. What happened to Hananiah?

Elisha-Disrespect in Bethel Brings Grave Consequences

By Mary Vee
II Kings 2

From Elisha's Scrolls

Many years have passed now since ungodly kings began to teach the Israelites to walk away from worshipping God. King Jeroboam put golden statues of calfs in many locations around the country and told the people they could worship the calf as their god instead of walking all the way to the Temple in Jerusalem. The people obeyed.

As time went by, the people didn't see the value in the prophets (men sent my God to bring messages to the people). The kings and the people killed many of them, and listened only to fake prophets who told them words they liked to hear. Even the great prophet Elijah felt alone at times.

There are very few Israelites left who will invite us to their home for a meal or a night's sleep anymore. Lord have mercy. 

Not only are the adults showing disrespect and violence against us, but they are also teaching their children to mock us. The parents have no restraint on the their children when they bully the prophets. In fact, the children don't suffer any punishment, they are praised and therefore have made harassment of prophets a sport.

Elijah, my mentor and friend recently went up to the heavens in a chariot of fire. He brought me comfort and taught me many things. We'd discussed the strong disrespect of prophets especially in Bethel.

The Lord sent me to do a task in Bethel, a city close to Jerusalem. I put on Elijah's coat and took my walking staff and walked the road to Bethel in confidence. Knowing the Almighty would protect me.

As I drew close to the city, a group of children ran from the city gates to my direction. When they arrived they circled me like wild snapping dogs and shouted insults. They raised their fists as though I had harmed them.

I kept walking, choosing to ignore them, but this only encouraged their wrath. Their words became louder and they fell into a group behind me. I turned back, looking for any remorse in  their faces, any cause to give mercy to these children.

There was none. I had seen the same look of the faces of grown men who killed because of their anger. Their parents from Bethel had taught these children a hatred and a desire to torment, to the utmost, any prophet of God. 

This sin needed to stop. These children would grow up to men who's goal would be to rid the country of any men of God. 

The children shouted a new chant, "Go on up, you bald head!" 

There was the proof. These children knew Elijah went up to the heavens. They wanted me to leave as well. And the disrespect for the position God has given me in their statement "bald head" showed they would never change.

I looked back at them one more time. Was there even one child who regretted their mission? No. Not one. 

This must stop. "In the name of the Lord you are all cursed."

A true prophet is one who speaks the truth. When he says something for God, it will happen.

Two she bears sprang from the woods and attacked the children. 

The people of Bethel have now seen the consequence of their anger and disrespect for God.

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Author's note: This was a difficult story to tell. I didn't know much of the background before researching in Matthew Henry's commentary. Without the background it seemed easy to think Elisha was cruel. But Matthew Henry points out that, without the Lord's approval, the curse would not have been fulfilled. This was a huge sin in the country of Israel that needed not to be passed on to future generations.

photo courtesy of visualbiblealive.com

Where is Elijah?

By Mary Vee
II Kings 2

From the Scrolls Kept to Record Events 

from the 50 Prophets of Jericho

As scribe for the group of prophets residing in Jericho it has been my duty to record the events we witness and participate in. 

Yesterday, late in the afternoon, Elijah and Elisha came to our city. Elijah had work to do and Elisha came as his apprentice.

The Lord spoke to us, saying He would take Elijah on this day. We confirmed the message with one another and agreed the Lord had indeed spoken to us.

As Elijah performed duties in our city, assigned by God, we pulled Elisha aside and told him what the Lord had said.

Elisha nodded as if he already knew. He asked us to not tell anyone. 

We obeyed, but wanted to see what the Lord would do. We followed the two prophets from a distance, which unfortunately meant we could not hear their words. At least we could see where they went.

The two prophets approached the Jordan River and stopped. Elijah removed his coat and hit the water with it. We had heard about the Lord dividing the Red Sea for Moses and the Israelites escaping the Egyptians. We'd also heard about the time He divided the Jordan River for the Israelites as they ventured into the Promised Land for the first time. 

We however, had never witnessed such an event until now. As Elijah's coat hit the water, the river divided leaving dry ground for the two men to cross. They spoke for a short time on the other bank then walked out of our sight.

Not long after, Elisha came back to the river bank wearing Elijah's coat. He hit the water with the coat, like Elijah had, and walked across dry ground. We ran down to the river eager to learn what happened to Elijah.

At the shore we all bowed to the ground before Elisha. He told us Elijah had been taken in a chariot up in a whirlwind sent by God.

One of the prophets spoke, "We have fifty men. Let us go and look for Elijah. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley."

Elisha shook his head, "No. Don't send them."

Maybe he was in shock over Elijah leaving. We didn't know why he said that. We continued to offer to go search for Elijah.

Elijah had a twinkle in his eye and he raised his had to quiet us. "Okay, Go ahead and send them."

We worked our way across the river and set out to search the countryside for Elijah. We journeyed to the mountains and valleys, calling his name and never found him. After a thorough search, we gave up and sadly returned to Jericho and found Elisha. 

We bowed before him and lowered our heads. "We did not find Elijah."

He shrugged. "Didn't I tell you not to go? I knew you wouldn't find him. The Lord has taken him to the heavens, as I said and saw Him do."

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photo courtesy of visualbiblealive.com

1. Where were the prophets from?
2. Why did they follow Elijah and Elisha.
3. When Elisha came back alone, the prophets asked him if they could _______
4. Why did Elisha say yes?
5. What did the prophets find?
6. They went back to Elisha to report their findings. What did Elisha say?
7. Where did Elijah go?