The prophet who prophesies peace is recognized as truly sent by the Lord only when his prophetic prediction is fulfilled. In a rare occurrence, we encounter in today’s First Reading a prophet of God who made a false prophecy and by so doing incurred the wrath of God. The prophet Hananiah, seemingly out of pressure and in an attempt to change the “script” (“ From of old, the prophets who were before you and me prophesied war, woe, and pestilence…” cf. Jer. 28:8) or to raise the confidence and hope of the people, preached a message that was not from God. And this became his undoing. Was the Lord happy about Israel’s (and Judah) situation? He was not. Just like Hananiah, Jeremiah too longed to change the script and preach a return of the exiles and the vessels of the house of the Lord. But that had to be done when the time was right. Jeremiah knew that a rush and false prophecy made in an attempt to please his audience would yield undesired results. A true prophet of the Lord defends the truth by his/her very life. 
There are times when we too, like the prophet Hananiah, rebel against the Lord in our attempts to change the script. Our Lord is the God of peace, prosperity, freedom and happiness. We always want that God’s messages to us be those of peace, prosperity, and happiness, and rightly so, for that is what the Lord wishes us. However, sometimes we end up “twisting” God’s message to fit our own agenda. As Jeremiah told the prophet Hananiah, prophecies made in the name of God -whether favorable or not - must be fulfilled, and when they are not, then the one who made them is guilty of using God’s name in vain. And doing that is a sin since the Lord’s name should never be used in vain especially by a prophet of God.