Jeremiah 29

CHAPTER 29THEME: Message of hope to first delegation of captives

Jeremiah 29:1

JEREMIAH’S LETTER OF ENCOURAGEMENTChapter 29 records Jeremiah’s letter to the people who had been taken into captivity when Jehoiachin was king (see 2Ki_24:10-16). The complete captivity of Judah came eleven years later (2Ki_25:1-7). This is God’s instruction to them:

Jeremiah 29:4

That is, settle down in Babylon. Don’t think you will be released any moment. Go ahead and plan for your futureget married and establish homes, because you are going to be there a long time.

Jeremiah 29:7

“Seek the peace of the city” in which you are living, and pray for it. They were not to rebel or instigate revolt. They were to settle down and be law-abiding citizens.

Jeremiah 29:10

God tells them the exact number of years they will be in captivity, then assures them that He has not forsaken them but will restore them to their homeland.

Jeremiah 29:30

LIES OF THE FALSE PROPHETSThere were false prophets in Babylon who refused to accept Jeremiah’s letter as a message from God. They wrote letters to Jerusalem claiming that God had appointed a new priest and that Jeremiah was to be silenced. Of course, God pronounces a judgment against these false prophets. God speaks very impressively in history. He has told Judah that what is happening to them is happening because of their sin. He will always judge sin. God has not changed. Many people would like to think that the God of the New Testament is different from the God of the Old Testament. He is the same person; He hasn’t changed one bit. He hasn’t grown old. He hasn’t even learned anything new. He is the same God. Not only has God spoken in history, but He has spoken in His Word. Listen to Simon Peter: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation” (2Pe_1:20). “Knowing this first"this is primary stuff, something we should learn in the first grade. There are two ways this verse has been understood which are incorrect. One is that when you study prophecy, you need to consider the whole of prophecy; you cannot take one prophecy by itself and study it to the exclusion of others. That is a true statement, but it is not what this passage is teaching. Then there are those who say you have no right to interpret prophecy on your own.

Well, that not only takes away the freedom of the first amendment from me, but it also removes the free will that God gave to me. This is not what Peter is saying. He is not speaking at all about the end result of God’s revelation; what he is talking about is the origin of it. No writing of Scripture was of private interpretation at its origin. The prophets who wrote and spoke in olden times are not giving you the result of their observations. They are speaking what God told them to speak. When you and I approach the Word of God, we must come to the place where we are ready to lie in the dust. I do not mean to simply acknowledge that we are nothing, that we are sinners; but we must be willing to lay into the dust our opinions, our self-will, and our own viewpointsto put it all down and listen to what God has to say. This was the problem with the priests and prophets and princes in Jeremiah’s day. It is our problem today. Every man has his own little viewpoint, is doing his own little thing, carrying his own little placard of protestand he’s doing it out of limited knowledge. God has all knowledgeHe has all the facts, knows all the background. It is unbelievable that some people presume to sit in judgment of Him. Little man stands up and says, “Lord, if You’re up thereand I’m not sure You are; I’m pretty hard to convince because I have a giant intellect, and my intellect says You may not even be up therebut if You’re up there, I just want to say that You are wrong.” Oh, my friend, what arrogance! If a little, old ant were to crawl into my house and onto my chair and look at me and say, “Look, I don’t like the way you built this house; I don’t like the way you plant flowers and trees around here; and I don’t like what you eat,” do you know what I would do to that ant? I would flick him off my chair and step on him. That would be the end of that little ant!

But God is so gracious to man. He doesn’t step on us. He has given us a second chance.