Truth and Consequences:
A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah
Lesson Twenty-nine: Who has the future and the hope? A series of letters
INTRODUCTION
Did you receive a letter recently that really blessed you? Maybe it was a birthday card or a government cheque. I doubt it was a letter from a utility company that blessed you. Maybe you haven’t received a personal letter in years, even decades. I guess the use of email and now even faster-to-use services like Twitter and Tik Tok have changed all that, but I want you to think of a personal letter, sent to you, and only to you, that gave you a moment or perhaps a day or a week of pleasure. You held that letter. You read and re-read that letter, and you found something that gave you hope or assurance or resolution to something you had battled or about which you were worried for a long time. Thus, ease or happiness came to you and that letter was a symbol of that relief.
I get that. And I always like those moments that can last for a long time in my life. Cleaning up at my house is an ongoing project, and I recently found a pile of birthday cards, handwritten or at least signed, for a particular decade and those feelings of gladness re-arose in me. That’s what I’m talking about.
Today we are talking about a letter sent by the prophet Jeremiah, probably the first of his many letters, and it expresses his heart for the Jewish people. His heart included a hope for them to survive. This includes all the people who had rejected his counsel and his predictions previously. Even so, he has a desire for them to survive and to thrive in the wrong land.
You see, the rabbis teach that Judah went into captivity in 586 BCE (just a few years after this letter was sent to the previously captured Judah people), and that our captivity was due to three things: adultery, idolatry and murder. Heavy charges, to be sure. When in jail, and perhaps you have seen movies featuring redemption of prisoners, an incarcerated person is often hopeless and despondent. Often they mope around or get involved in even worse life choices than the ones that got them into jail in the first place.
Let’s listen to this letter and especially see in context the often misquoted text of verse 11, and see what Jeremiah 29 has to say to us as 21st century people.
The passage begins afresh, immediately after the death of the false prophet from last week’s lesson, Hananiah. Remember he had predicted a two-year captivity, but that didn’t happen. He was struck down by God. This passage begins with typical confusion. Verse one says Nebuchadnezzar had taken Judah into captivity, and yet in verse 4, God says He is responsible for the captivity. In verse 14 and again in verse 20, God says he is the one who sent us into exile. So the question has to be asked, “Who is the one who is responsible for the Jewish people living in Babylon for 70 years?” if you say, God, you are right. If you say, Nebuchadnezzar, you are also right. God uses human agencies to accomplish his purposes. God is the ultimate cause; Babylon and its hierarchy the immediate cause. Who is really in command? God. What lesson will Neb and the Babylonians also need to learn after 7 decades? That they are not all-powerful and supreme. And that lesson will evade the Babylonians as well which will result in their losses on that day, but that’s not in our discussion today.
The apparent permanence of the exiles in Babylon according to Christopher Wright works “in two ways. First (he says) such a perspective turns refugees into residents.” (page 291) I like that. Have you ever met people who no matter what happens in their lives, their desire to be elsewhere or with other people or in other circumstances persists and pervades their entire being. They are the ‘never satisfied’ and ever-aching, even belly-aching about their lot in life. If only my dad had not moved to Tamworth…, they complain. If only my boss hadn’t been such a loser and left me behind in my company advancement… If only, and you can fill in the blanks in their lives.
Changing the Jewish people and their mind was a tough ask for Jeremiah, but he called this to us. We will return to Zion, but not too soon, not in the near future, certainly not in the two-years of Hananiah’s prediction. We are stuck. We are not going anywhere, so, Judah, get over it. Verses 8 and 9, “don’t listen to those false prophets who deceive you and don’t listen to the dreams which they dream.” It IS tantalizing for us to use wishful thinking and dreams of our own personal or national conquest, to make the future look like we want it to look. Isn’t that the deep and simple message of “The Secret” after all? But Jeremiah warns, that is not how things are for you. You are not returning to Judah. Jerusalem will be downtrodden. Your homes are gone. Your livelihood and your life as you knew it—gone forever. Sadness about the past will linger. Feel this. Live in it. Learn from it.
So the letter begins in verses 4 and 5. The words include “build, live, plant, eat, marry, seek…” and so much more. All are words of increase. And Wright says that this is the 2nd way the language works for the exiles. He says the language “resonates strongly with Genesis. It is the language both of creation and of Abrahamic promise. For Israel in exile, there was the opportunity of a fresh creational start. And the God who blessed creation with fruitfulness and growth had promised the same to Abraham. (Gen. 12.1-3 17.3-6, 22.17) The language of increase also echoes Exodus 1.7 with the implication that if the people continued to grow after the decimation of 586 BCE even in a foreign land, God’s redemption from this latter-day bondage lay ahead in a new exodus.” (page 291)
In other words, God’s work in creation is the basis for God’s work in redemption. And that work, redemption will fulfil God’s work in creation (we will see reflections of that in later Jeremiah passages: 31.35-37, 33.14-26).
Salvation was coming, to be sure, but the only real hope, AT THAT MOMENT, and for those decades, was to fit in. To live in the land as if you belonged there.
Gerald Keown says this of the acquiescence of the Jewish people to live in and thrive in Babylon.
“Voluntary submission is offered as a way to avoid conquest and death. But how can surrender be a mark of faithfulness? These chapters point to at least four ways to begin to answer these concerns. First, the assignment of authority to Nebuchadnezzar is an exercise of the Creator’s rule, not an abdication. Second, “submit to the king of Babylon” is a historically conditioned command. The explanatory addition of Nebuchadnezzar’s name and the date formulas define the particular circumstances in which the command is in effect. Third, the period of submission is also of limited duration (27:7). No eternal principle of “the divine right of emperors” is at work. One cannot conclude from this command that the LORD sides with the winners. Neither submission nor resistance to the despot is taught as an exclusive, eternal principle. Nebuchadnezzar is victor only because he acts as the LORD’s vassal, supplying troops in service of his suzerain’s purposes. Fourth, the greatest threat to God’s people was not the loss of independent statehood but the decay of national and personal integrity of faith and service to the LORD. It was the ministry of God’s servants the prophets to warn them against their true peril and to invite them to return to the LORD.”
All that from Peter Keown who along with a couple other folks authored the comments and explanations in the 2nd half of Jeremiah in the Word Biblical Commentary series.
Think of those who were contemporaneous with Jeremiah, like Daniel and the three who went into the lion’s den. They complied where they could, but refused when they had to do so. That’s probably what Keown is referencing.
Verse 7, Jeremiah says to ‘seek the shalom of the city and pray on its behalf.” This is an outrage. Now, see if you can understand this from the people of Judah captive, prisoners of war, if you will, and their dreaded enemies have now incarcerated them. God wants you to not only make peace with them, but to pray for them. Pray for them? What! This is ridiculous. It’s bad enough we are in a foreign land. Now God wants us to pray for them? Not on your life. We are (Psalm 122) to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, not Babylon, not Oslo, not Melbourne, but Jerusalem. Who came up with this notion? Surely not the Lord.
In fact, this sounds like the people of Assyria and the prophet Jonah. He was sent to preach to our dreaded Northern enemy and told to proclaim God’s mercy, which caused the king (read: mayor) of Nineveh to proclaim a fast and cry out for that mercy. The whole town got saved and thus spared the wrath of the Lord.
This action of God through Jeremiah carries that same valence. Praying for the enemies of the Jews, who have taken us captive, and praying for their shalom… that’s downright… Abrahamic! Yes, the mission of the Jewish people was to affect the world, even the Gentiles surrounding them. Our mission was to represent God and to bring his good name to the nations of the world. Is that what He is trying to do in this circumstance?
Apparently.
Four conclusions are able to be drawn:
1) God can answer prayer anywhere on earth, not only in Jerusalem
2) God can answer prayer on behalf of pagans
3) God will answer prayers we pray for others
4) Our lives are not over if we are displaced
Wright says that “prayer is a missional responsibility—always.” (page 294)
Next we come to a troublesome passage, and one more often misquoted than most others in the whole of Tenach, even the whole of the Bible. I know you have heard it spoken like this, “God has a future for you, and a hope” which is another way of saying, “Hakuna matata” or “No worries, mate.” She’ll be right. No dramas. Everything’s going to be all right.
Now it’s entirely possible that at times, that is a good rendering of the promise of verse 11. BUT we have to read this in the context of this first letter to the Captives. It could be titled in the NT as “First Babylonians.”
What’s Jeremiah saying, in context? He’s telling Judah that their sin has led them away from Jerusalem. He has told them that nothing they can do will override the judgment which has and will come on them. Their plight is fixed and will last into the 3rd generation. They are deservedly punished by being in this country about 1600 km from home. They are not at home. They are judged and displaced. Does that sound like a future and a hope to you?
God is saying, remember from where you have fallen.
He’s saying your sin got you there and only repentance and the kindness of God our Saviour will overcome this. And HE WILL. But for whom?
Note this in verse 10. You. It’s a plural word here. And in verse 11. And throughout this prophetic word. What God is saying to captive Judah is that the hope and the future is not for those listening just now, but for their future, that is, their children and grandchildren. That 3rd generation will enjoy returning with the exilic nation. Only then will hope be renewed. Only then will ‘the future’ make sense. Our nechedim will live in the Land again. If we show them the way, the right way, even though we are excluded, God will have his way in them, and isn’t this what you as parents want?
All that to say, I’m pretty sure God has some times in mind for you. And he also has some tribulation in mind for you. Times for everything, a time for rejoicing and a time for mourning. A time to tear down and a time to build up. There’s a time for everything under heaven. In this case, a misread of Jeremiah 29.11 will lead to a misstatement and thus a misappropriation of hope, when there is no real hope. There is ONE WAY to have hope with God, in those days, and dare I say, in these days. That is in acknowledgment of his Lordship, and his authority, his holiness and our need to repent, to get to know him and to love him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might. Repentance and surrender—those are the keys to a future and a hope.
Then verse 12, then you will seek and then you will find. This is not due to the serious seeking by the Jewish people, but this finding is due to the kindness of the findable God! Look, this is seen in Daniel 9 as Daniel alludes to the prophecy of the duration of the 70 years and that those decades are about to end. He then calls Judah to pray and seek God in forgiveness.
The point I’m making is that the future and the hope is not the ‘just now’ or the ‘now now’ of the false prophets. It’s not two years later; it’s 70 years later. And yet, it is sure…God is sure. You can be sure.
The rest of the chapter is not less significant. There is however a bit of repetition to it all. Verses 15-19 repeat much of the Two baskets of figs parable of chapter 24. The key in that section and in this one (verse 19) is would we appeal to God for grace then, and later?
Then verses 20-23 showcase the new false prophets who again are hoping to shorten the 70 to a more manageable number. These two newbies are named Ahab and Zedekiah. They are not previously known people, although the names are not entirely unfamiliar. Like Joe and Susan in our day, I guess. But this notion of shortening the pain is one I understand; even so, it was fake news.
Finally, the end of the chapter 24-32 has three further letters mentioned.
First Shemaiah wanted the priest in charge in Jerusalem who was named Zephaniah (not the prophet of the Tenach) to stop Jeremiah. That wouldn’t help. (.26-28)
Second a letter from Jeremiah to Shemaiah after that first letter was shown around, at least to Jeremiah. Yikes, Shemaiah was caught behind. (.25-29)
Finally, the third letter was from Jeremiah to all the Judeans there in exile. Reminding people not only about fake news, but naming and shaming the one Shemaiah who like the others will be without a future and a hope. (.29-32)
Dear friends, do you have such a promise, for you and your loved ones? Are you in exile and living out God’s plans for the people and the city in which you reside? We need to be good citizens, seeking God’s glory and the good of our mayor and our Councilpeople. We should be helpers at school boards and delivering packages of products to people in need. There is no end to civic humanism in the best sense of that word.
And why is that? So that we can represent the One who cares for all nations. We can be Abrahamic in our missional orientation. God loves the world and he wants to use us to help them know him.
If you don’t know the Lord, then in a moment Jimmy is going to invite you to pray with him, to meet Jesus and to receive mercy and grace to help in your time of need. That will be the greatest thing you can do today.
Jimmy, over to you.
CONCLUSION
God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life.
PRAYER
Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up.
We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 27. Until then, Shabbat shalom!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barnes, Albert, Albert Barnes’ Commentary on the Old Testament.
Henry, Matthew, Commentary.
Keown, Gerald, Scalise, Pamela, Smothers, Thomas, Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah (Part 2). 1995.
McConnville, Gordon, Jeremiah, New Bible Commentary.
Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.
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ACTUAL TEXT
Jer. 29:1 Now these are the words of the aletter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 (This was after King aJeconiah and the bqueen mother, the court officials, 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 aHilkiah, 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 the exiles whom I have asent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5 ‘aBuild houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their 1produce. 6 ‘Take awives and 1become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 7 ‘aSeek the 1welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and bpray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its 1welfare you will have 1welfare.’ 8 “For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your aprophets who are in your midst and your diviners bdeceive you, and do not listen to 1cthe dreams which 2they dream. 9 ‘For they aprophesy falsely to you in My name; bI have not sent them,’ declares the LORD.
Jer. 29:10 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 ‘For I know the plans that I 1have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your 1fortunes and will cgather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will dbring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’
Jer. 29:15 “Because you have said, ‘The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon’ — 16 for thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did anot go with you into exile — 17 thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Behold, I am sending upon them the asword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like bsplit-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness. 18 ‘I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence; and I will amake them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a bcurse and a horror and a chissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19 because they have anot listened to My words,’ declares the LORD, ‘which I sent to them again and again by bMy servants the prophets; but you did not listen,’ declares the LORD. 20 “You, therefore, hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles, whom I have asent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Jer. 29:21 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are aprophesying to you falsely in My name, ‘Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will slay them before your eyes. 22 ‘Because of them a acurse will be 1used by all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon, saying, “May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon broasted in the fire, 23 because they have aacted foolishly in Israel, and bhave committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have cspoken words in My name falsely, which I did not command them; and I am He who dknows and am a witness,” declares the LORD.’”
Jer. 29:24 To aShemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying, 25 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have sent aletters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to bZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying, 26 “The LORD has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, to be the 1aoverseer in the house of the LORD over every bmadman who cprophesies, to dput him in the stocks and in the iron collar, 27 now then, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of aAnathoth who prophesies to you? 28 “For he has asent to us in Babylon, saying, ‘The exile will be blong; cbuild houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their 1produce.’”’”
Jer. 29:29 aZephaniah the priest read this letter 1to Jeremiah the prophet. 30 Then came the word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying, 31 “Send to aall the exiles, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD concerning bShemaiah the Nehelamite, “Because Shemaiah has cprophesied to you, although I did not send him, and he has dmade you trust in a lie,” 32 therefore thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am about to apunish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his 1descendants; he will bnot have anyone living among this people, cand he will not see the good that I am about to do to My people,” declares the LORD, “because he has 2dpreached rebellion against the LORD.”’”
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