Jeremiah's Letter to the Exiles
Chapter 29, Part I
God´s word directed to those in a difficult situation
1. Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive—to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.
2. (This happened after Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.)
3. The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying,
4. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
This chapter is a letter, written by Jeremiah to the captivity in Babylon (1). A good many years ago, our son, Dave, referred to this chapter and gave some important counsel in a sermon, which I do not want to be forgotten. He began with the question, “How do you handle life’s minuses?”
We do well to go back briefly
over the entire cause, for which the book is written, God’s purpose for His
people in having Jeremiah pen it, and also see the attitude of the prophet, as
he writes. We know that judgment began to fall upon them, because of their sin,
after He sent many warnings their way. It is severe discipline to be sure, but
we find wonderful hope here and great instruction for a situation, which could
be duplicated in our lives. Jeremiah wrote it to elders, priests, prophets, and
the common people, who were carried into Babylon, along with King Jeconiah and
his mother (2). They ranged from middle class laborers, including craftsmen and
smiths, along with the eunuchs, who served in government, all the way up the
ranks to princes. These people had lost everything and had to carry on in a
strange, foreign land.
Let’s have Dave help us understand the plight of all these Israelites, which we might be surprised to find not too different from one we may face in the future or someone may be experiencing now (4). What happens when life takes a wrong turn and you are left with a situation that cannot be fixed?
He said, “We enter this planet with nothing in our hands. As time goes on, we accumulate possessions, relationships and knowledge. We are not to hold these with a tight grip, but loosely, as a loan from God, because when we exit this earth, our hands will be empty again. The death shroud has no pockets!”
“Sometimes we are separated from earthly possessions before death. If we hold on unrelentingly, we will grumble and complain, because we feel we were cheated from what was rightly ours. After Job lost everything, he blessed God and said, ‘The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.’ How do I handle life’s minuses?”
“Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, lived in a critical time in Israel’s history. There was not ‘one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth’ (Jer. 5:1). Israel had become worse than the nations who had lived before in the land of Canaan. They had false hopes because, although they worshipped in God’s temple (Jer. 7:10), judgment and discipline were lying at the door.”
“There was also a New Testament weeping Prophet (Lk. 13:33), who wept over Jerusalem (Lk. 19:41). Things were hard for the Israelites in Jesus’ day with the Roman yoke upon them. They looked for the Messiah, but when He came, He was not what they expected. The temple, God’s house of prayer, no longer represented His interests. Jesus said, ‘Your house is left to you desolate’ (Luke 13:35).”
Build in adversity
5. Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.
6. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished.
7. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
8. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.
9. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the LORD.
Leading up to their deportation, they were listening to prophets, who were giving them bad advice. They were desperately looking for hope and relief from their situation. They continue to look to false prophets, but now, pagan soothsayers, diviners, are even getting involved. With the same purposes in mind, the people themselves are delving into the realm of dreams (8). They were unwilling to look deeply into the source of their problems. It was sin, to be sure, but sin comes deceptively and blinds its victims.
Dave continues: “Here is how Israel’s leaders treated the situation in Jeremiah’s day. ‘They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace’ (Jer. 6:14). Sin is serious, but they didn’t treat it seriously. They thought that nothing could change, even if the Babylonians came. God protected the city many times before and it still existed… however, now they had taken one step too many in the wrong direction.”
“Our faults are obvious to others, but not to ourselves. In the Catholic mass, the priest says, ‘The Lord be with you’ and the people answer, ‘And also with you.’ One Sunday, the priest was having trouble with his microphone and the faithful couldn’t hear well, when he muttered, ‘There’s something wrong with this thing.’ They responded, ‘And also with you.’ We do well to take God’s side against ourselves, when His finger is pointed in our direction.”
“Is God’s discipline good for us? Jeremiah tells the story of the potter (Jer.18:1-6). The good news is that He can make something beautiful out of the same clay that didn’t turn out right at first. It is in God’s heart to do something about Israel. He will not leave them as they are.”
“However, not all those taken to Babylon were doing wrong. It wasn’t Shadrac, Meshak and Abednego’s fault that they were there. What did Joseph do wrong, to be sold as a slave and taken to Egypt? Away from home, friends and all that was familiar, the goals and plans of these young men were demolished. What happens when you are getting a raw deal, because of someone else's sin? Maybe you know no reason for a situation that you detest, but you just find yourself there. Things have gotten out of your control.”
“God works with us with what we have, not with what we think we need. Don't dote on what you once had. God will work with what you have now. Miracles start with little things. David defeated a giant with his sling. He didn’t have a chance to learn to use Saul’s armor. Sampson grabbed the first thing he could find, a donkey’s jawbone, and killed 1,000 Philistines. He didn’t have time for a course in self-defense. God asked Moses what he had in his hand. He did not send him to take a course in leadership and public speaking. The disciples had no clue as to what to do with the 5,000 men before them, but the account tells us that Jesus knew what He would do. He asked them, ‘What do you have?’ In God’s economy, five loaves and two fishes were enough.”
It is to the Jews’ benefit to pray for their captors. I think of the little slave girl, captured by the Syrians and serving in the house of General Naaman. She shared the healing power that there was in Israel’s God and her Syrian master was healed of leprosy. The Jews are to pray the blessings of their mighty God’s peace upon the Chaldean cities, giving the Israelites an ambiance of peace as a result (7). They only must be sure to tune into truth and reject the deceit of the false prophets (9), and they will increase in Babylon, as they did in Egypt.
“The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable”
10. For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.
11. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
14. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
Dave shows the secret in not losing faith, in spite of great difficulty: “How do you react, when you have to reach up to touch bottom? Some give up. Some complain and become bitter. If I can get you to lift your eyes momentarily, I want you to see that God has something to say. Thank God, He spoke to those in Babylon! The loss and despondency of these suffering people is the context of the oft-quoted Old Testament verse found in this chapter, ‘I know the plans that I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ (11). God hasn’t forsaken even those who are in bondage because of disobedience.”
“Your reaction will make you or break you. In the U. S., there is a mountain chain called The Great Divide. Water that falls upon it, can either eventually empty into the Pacific in the far west or into the Atlantic far to the east. Depending on your reaction, your destiny can be miles apart. God brought Israel to a crisis and this was His counsel: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths’ (Jer.6:16). Choose God’s old way. Many in today's chrome-plated society live for self and refuse the way of the old rugged cross and the kingship of the Ancient of Days. People say that the Bible is old-fashioned. An old preacher, Vance Havner, said, ‘Air is old-fashioned; water is old-fashioned, but we can’t live long without them.’ The path that has stood the test of time works in the Christian’s life. It is the one that God has cleared. The people said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Jesus longed to gather Jerusalem’s children as a hen her chicks, but ‘You would not!’ (Luke 13:34).”
Some lines from two great songs come to mind and I’ll quote a little from each:
The God on the mountain, is still God in the valley,
When things go wrong, He’ll make them right;
And the God of the good times, is still God in the bad times,
The God of the day, is still God in the night.
We know the second verse of “Because He Lives” very well, don’t we?:
How sweet to hold a new born baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance,
This child can face uncertain days, because He lives
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know, He holds the future,
And life is worth the living, just because He lives.
That is the lesson that the Lord teaches His people in that wonderful verse 11. He will come to Babylon to take His people out after 70 years (10). In earlier lessons, we have noticed the marvelous future that the apostle Paul gave the Jews in Romans 11. The gospel is to the Jew first, then we, the gentiles, have been grafted into the Jews’ olive tree, and life flows from the same root into our unworthy gentile branches. It should make us more secure, when we see that God will never abandon the Jew. It is a contradiction, when some Christians say that God elects His own for eternity, and then to hear them say, that He has abandoned His chosen people, the Jews, and has replaced them with the church. In two chapters, the Lord will say to them, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel” (Jer.31:3,4).
Whenever I read of the Lord gathering His people from all nations, I tend to believe that the prophecy has a duel fulfillment (14). It refers to the end of the Babylonian captivity, when the Jew returned to his homeland from Babylon and to a few nations surrounding Babylon, but that it also refers to the end times.
After the Roman invasion in 70 a.d., the Jews were scattered to the ends of the earth. From the four corners of the world, the Lord began to draw the Jew back to his native land. The movement began shortly before the 20th Century and continues to this day. The God of prophecy has already spoken through Isaiah (55:6), of a wholehearted response to His call: “Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”
Dave
concludes: “If life has dealt you minuses, first examine your heart to see
where you stand before God. Are you suffering for your sin? Then don’t deceive
yourself, but deal seriously with it and God, in His time, will restore you. If
your heart is clean before God and you cannot find a cause for your situation,
then make a decision to react properly and take the right course in the matter.
Choose God’s ancient paths. Don’t wait for the situation to change, but make
the most of it and grow. Let God bless what you have now in hand and above all
remember this: God has plans to give you hope and a future.
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