You probably have heard the cautionary tale of the little boy who cried wolf. In the end, he paid dearly for his misbehavior. In the days leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, there were false prophets who were crying, "Peace!" They, too, paid dearly for their lies.
We read about these misleading scoundrels in both the prophetic books of Ezekiel and Jeremiah. From Ezekiel, we hear, "Because, in truth, because they have misled my people, saying, 'Peace,' when there is no peace; and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear whitewash on it" (vs. 10). In an attempt to give the people "feel-good" news and curry their favor, the false prophets were purporting to deliver messages of peace and safety from the Lord - when weren't really from the Lord at all!
Meanwhile, the prophet Jeremiah put it this way: "They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace" (Jeremiah 6:14). The peace that they were calling for and pretending to foresee would not be realized. War was coming, not peace.
This is a theme picked up in the New Testament by the apostle Paul. Writing to the church in Thessalonica, he notes that the end-times will be very similar. He pictures that there will be people calling for and predicting peace, but it will be nowhere to be found. "For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!" (I Thessalonians 5:2-3)
What's the lesson for us? Resist the temptation to believe pleasing predictions just because they sound good. Check out any prophecy that sounds "too good to be true" because the person sharing it may be doing so without knowledge and just be trying to flatter you. It would be nice if all we could look forward to is peace and safety, but the Bible indicates otherwise.
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