Hope and a Future - Jeremiah 29

False prophets falsely informed the exiles that their stay in Babylon would be short. Hananiah said two years. God inspired Jeremiah to write and tell them the truth.

God is a good communicator. In Exodus 17:14, He asked Moses to write for Him. In Psalm 45:1, He inspired King David to write for Him. In Isaiah 8:1, He asked Isaiah to “take a large scroll and write on it with a man’s pen.” In 1 Corinthians 14:37, Paul wrote, “...The things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.” In Revelation 1:11, Jesus said to John, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches...”

When I was a missionary in China, the Lord led me to write monthly letters to friends and family to share with them what the Lord revealed to me from the Bible, as wells as to testify of what was accomplished among the people by God’s grace.

As buckets are able to hold water and make water portable, so words are to thoughts. Words make thoughts transferable.

John 1:1 refers to Jesus as the Word of God. John 1:18 refers to Jesus as the One who declares (Greek – exegetes) the Father. To exegete is to make understandable. Neither I, nor anyone else can rightly declare the Bible apart from Jesus. Hebrews 4:12 says that His Word is living. It lives because Jesus lives in it and through it.

“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.” Jeremiah 29:1

These people needed a sure word from the Lord. God gave Jeremiah a message. Jeremiah wrote it down. Elasah and Gemariah delivered his letter to the exiles.

Hananiah had prophesied falsely in the Name of the Lord that God would break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar within the space of two years. Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon corrected the false hope spread by Hananiah and others.

“(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.)” Jeremiah 29:2

2 Chronicles 36:9 says, “Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord.”

2 Kings 24:8 says that Jehoiachin’s mother’s name was Nehushta. She likely was a bad influence on him since she is mentioned in connection with his doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

“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...” Jeremiah 29-3

Jeremiah wrote his letter to the captives after King Jeconiah, Nehushta, the eunuchs, the princes, the craftsmen, and the smiths arrived in Babylon.

“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: build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 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.” Jeremiah 29:4-6

The exiles did not want to be exiles, but alas, they would be for 70 years.

Though Romans persecuted Christians, Paul encouraged Christians to marry and have children: “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.” 1 Timothy 5:14

It takes time to adjust to a new culture. If you are always thinking about returning to your homeland, it will delay your ability to adjust to the new culture. There are five identifiable culture shock stages. The honeymoon phase – everything feels exciting. The frustration phase – the differences feel overwhelming. The adjustment phrase – you start adapting. The acceptance phase – You feel at home.

“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.” Jeremiah 29:7

In Luke 2:14-15, the angelic choir praised and glorified God. They proclaimed peace and goodwill toward people on earth. In Luke 10:5-6, Jesus urged us to speak peace to the homes that we enter. Instead of seeing yourself as an exile, see yourself as an ambassador.

The Lord says to seek the peace of the city and to also to pray to the Lord for it. I find that as I pray for people that the Lord makes ways for me to connect with them and help them.

The Lord urged the exiles not to be deceived by the lies of the false prophets.

“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. For they prophesy falsely to you in My Name. I have not sent them, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:8-9

The false prophets had deceived the people prior to the exile. Why should they listen to them now? Jeremiah urged them not to listen to them.

“For thus says the Lord: After 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good Word toward you and cause you to return to this place.” Jeremiah 29:10

Those who listened to false prophets and believed false dreams would live in limbo. Those who believed God’s Word would settle down and make the best of their time in Babylon. When the 70 years were complete, God would bring them back to their homeland.

“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.” Jeremiah 29:11

God gives to us a future and a hope. In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul wrote, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” In Revelation 2-3, Jesus promised wonderful rewards to overcomers. Imagine a happily ever after in paradise with God! No lacks, just love!

Jeremiah’s example was to be a yoke fellow with God. To seek God’s kingdom first and His righteousness and let God take care of the rest.

“Instead of hoping for and desiring a speedy return to Jerusalem, the exiles had every reason to thank God that they were spared the horrors of the last days of Jerusalem. Surely, God had thoughts of good concerning them, and not evil!” [2]

“Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” Jeremiah 29:12

When peace replaced hostility, they began to talk with God. God heard them. Their prayer life developed. Daniel was an exile. Daniel 6:10 says, “Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God.”

The Holy Spirit developed my prayer life as I served Jesus in China. The more I prayed to Him, the more He worked in and through me. After a while, my fellowship with Jesus became more precious to me than my homeland.

“And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 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.” Jeremiah 29:13-14

In 2 Chronicles 15:1-2, Azariah the prophet said to King Asa, “The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”

2 Chronicles 15:8-15 says that Asa “took courage and removed the abominable idols from all the land...” He and his people sought the Lord and “the Lord was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around.”

21 years later, King Asa was no longer leaning on the Lord as he did before. The Spirit of God moved Hanani to say to him in 2 Chronicles 16:9, “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.”

Don’t let your fire for the Lord go out.

“Because you have said, ‘The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon’—therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, concerning all the people who dwell in this city, and concerning your brethren who have not gone out with you into captivity –thus says the Lord of hosts: behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence; and I will deliver them to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth—to be a curse, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, because they have not heeded My words, says the Lord, which I sent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; neither would you heed, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:15-19

Previously, the Lord had said that the wooden yoke which Hananiah broke, would become an iron yoke (Jeremiah 28). An iron yoke symbolized the sword, famine, pestilence and curse that would pursue the rotten figs (people) that remained in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 24). The good figs were they in Babylon. God urged them not to turn back at this time, but to wait.

“Therefore hear the Word of the Lord, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in My Name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall slay them before your eyes. And because of them a curse shall be taken up by all the captivity of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘The Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;’ because they have done disgraceful things in Israel, have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken lying words in My Name, which I have not commanded them. Indeed, I know, and am a witness, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:20-23

Ahab and Zedekiah prophesied lies in the Name of the Lord. They were taken as captives to Babylon and then executed.

Before the exile began, some of Israel’s kings and religious leaders adopted the pagan practice of sacrificing children by fire to idols. Perhaps, these men were a part of that.

The Lord had told Jeremiah that in the place where the people had burned their children they would be burned (Jeremiah 7). Ahab and Zedekiah were roasted in fire.

In Matthew 23:5-15 and Luke 20:27, Jesus said that the religious leaders liked the best places, best titles and best recognitions, but they made their followers fit for hell.

In Romans 16:17-18, Paul wrote, “I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.”

“You shall also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying, thus speaks the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: you have sent letters in your name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying, ‘The Lord has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, so that there should be officers in the house of the Lord over every man who is demented and considers himself a prophet, that you should put him in prison and in the stocks. Now therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who makes himself a prophet to you? For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, this captivity is long; build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit.’ Now Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet.” Jeremiah 29:24-28

Shemaiah wanted Jeremiah silenced and removed from sight. Shemaiah told the priests in Jerusalem that he was now in Jehoiada’s position. Shemaiah wanted demented prophets (namely Jeremiah) arrested, imprisoned and placed in wooden stocks.

Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah the high priest, but to Shemaiah, he was an insurrectionist because he had told the people in Babylon to build houses, plant gardens and eat their fruit.

“Then the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: ‘Send to all those in captivity, saying, thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I have not sent him, and he has caused you to trust in a lie—therefore thus says the Lord: behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his family: he shall not have anyone to dwell among this people, nor shall he see the good that I will do for My people, says the Lord, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord.’” Jeremiah 29:30-32

Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hananiah, Ahab, Zedekiah and Shemaiah were four men who wanted nothing to do with taking God’s Word to foreign nations. They tried to persuade those who did to quit. A big mistake!

When I first spoke of going to China, people tried to dissuade me. Thankfully, a Christian singer named Keith Green wrote a track in 1982 that was entitled, “Why YOU should go to the Mission Field.” Keith said unless God has called you to America, He has already called you to the mission field. He said that Jesus was speaking to all His followers when He said, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.” (Mark 16:15)

I am so thankful that God called me to take the Gospel to China. I look back fondly on those years. I enjoyed serving Jesus there so much that my heart broke to return to America.

God said to the Jews in Babylon that His plans for them were good plans. They would enjoy their service if they settled down and submitted to His will. In due time, they would have peace. In due time, their presence among the Babylonians would make a positive difference.

The Lord greatly used Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Babylon. God moved King Nebuchadnezzar to promote Daniel and his three friends above others in Babylon.

When King Nebuchadnezzar tried to execute Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego for refusing to bow to his idol, the Lord intervened. They walked out of the fire unharmed. Not so, the false prophets Zedekiah and Ahab. They roasted in his fire.

In Daniel 3:29-30, after Nebuchadnezzar saw God’s servants walk out of the fire unharmed, he made a decree saying “that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces...”

Some of God’s people in Babylon might have viewed their time there as unacceptable, but that is not how those who walked with God saw it. God had said, ‘Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have sent you.’ “Nebuchadnezzar did not take them to Babylon. God sent them there. The exiles were not captives – they were missionaries.” [3]

May the Lord Jesus grant to you and me the grace to be like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. May we bloom wherever we are planted by the Lord! In a little while, we will be together with the Father in paradise. Praise the Lord!



[1] Dr. Theo Laetsch, Bible Commentary Jeremiah, Concordia Paperback Edition, 1965, ©, page 231; Bible references: 2 Kings 22:2, 12; 2 Chronicles 34-35; Jeremiah 26:24

[2] Dr. Theo Laetsch, Bible Commentary Jeremiah, Concordia Paperback Edition, 1965, ©, page 234, 236

[3] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 414-415