Jeremiah 29:1-14.  In yesterday’s reading one of the false prophets in Jerusalem called out Jeremiah about the message he gave using the yoke.  The false prophet took the yoke and broke it and basically contradicted all that Jeremiah had said.    If you remember, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had just raided Judah for a second time taking the young king Jehoiachin and 10000 leaders of the community captive to Babylon.  He had also taken many of the items used to honor Yahweh from the Temple. The false prophets were saying it would only be a short time before the people and the stuff were all back in Jerusalem.  Jeremiah on the other hand told the people in Judah that they needed to submit to the authority of Babylon, it was Yahweh himself who had put him in charge; they needed to quit thinking that they could rebel and they needed to wait it all out.  He had already told them that Babylon would be in charge for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11).  The particular false prophet in yesterday’s reading predicted that it would only be two years.  Jeremiah told the false prophet that he was a liar and would be dead within the year.  He died two months later.

In today’s reading we see that there were false prophets among the exiles in Babylon and that they were saying the same thing as the false prophets in Jerusalem.  Because of the things that they were saying the people were not settling down in Babylon.  Jeremiah heard about the news and sent a letter to the exiles.  In verse one we see that the letter was sent to the priests (religious leaders who should have been encouraging the people to listen to God), the prophets (who should have been delivering messages from God, but clearly were not) and the “remaining elders”.

Elders were political leaders, usually older guys.  It is interesting that Jeremiah says “remaining”.  It is possible that some “elders” had been executed by Nebuchadnezzar to make sure the people got the message that he would not tolerate rebellion or they may have died on the long trip to Babylon.  It is interesting to me that elders are only mentioned three times in Jeremiah, once here, once in chapter 26 and once in chapter 19.  In chapter 26 they were the guys who came to Jeremiah’s rescue during the trial and brought up Micah as an example of a true prophet who had predicted disaster for Jerusalem and the Temple.   Maybe Jeremiah mentions the remaining ones here to show respect for this important and possibly faithful group.

In verse 2 the author (probably Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary, who is recording these events from Jeremiah’s life for us) reminds us that this letter is after the second deportation when Jehoiachin and others were taken captive.  In verse 3 we learn that Zedekiah, the king in Jerusalem who had been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, was sending some representatives to Babylon.  We are not sure why he was sending them but remember that kings under the control of larger empires had to give tribute (money to show honor and respect) to the king of the larger empire, in this case Nebuchadnezzar.  It could have been for that reason or some other that these men were sent to Babylon.  Two of the guys going were Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah.  We have heard about Shapan before, it was one of his sons, Ahikam who protected Jeremiah after his trial.  Shapan had been an advisor to Josiah and may have also served his three sons as they became kings.  Here we have a second son of Shapan going to Babylon for Zedekiah.  In the Old Testament there are several mentions of someone named Hilkiah.  In Jeremiah 1:1 we are told there is a Hilkiah who was Jeremiah’s father.  We are also told that he was a priest.  In the history of Josiah’ in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles’ there is also a priest named Hilkiah who is associated with Shapan.  There are other guys named Hilkiah in Ezra and other places.  We are not sure if the Hilkiah in today’s story is the priest from Josiah’s day, or Jeremiah’s father, or some other, we do know that Jeremiah trusted Hilkiah’s son, Gemariah (along with Elasah), to take an important letter to Babylon and that the Zedekiah had chosen Gemaraiah as a representative to Nebuchadnezzar.

Verses 4-23 are the content of the letter.  There are three important things to notice in verse 4.  First the letter from Jeremiah is to the Jewish people in exile in Babylon.  Second, although Jeremiah is the one who wrote it, it is actually from “the LORD of hosts, god of Israel”.  Remember in many English translations of the Bible the word “LORD” is all capitals is translating a Hebrew word that the Jewish people would never say out loud.  It is the personal name of the one true God, Yahweh.  When a Jewish person would read the Old Testament and come to that word they were in the habit of saying the Hebrew word “adoni”, which is translated as lord, instead.  God never asked them to do that but they started doing it as a sign of respect.  It’s kind of like calling a person “sir” or “Mrs. So and So” instead of using their first name.  Some English translations will use the translation “Jehovah” since that is how early translators thought that the letters might have sounded (remember Jewish people were not in the habit of pronouncing the word).  More modern experts think it was pronounced “Yahweh”.  Since God used his personal name so many times in the Old Testament I wonder if it really isn’t disrespectful not to use it.  His use of Yahweh is to positively identify himself and make sure he is not confused with other (false) gods.      Yahweh makes a very specific identification of himself as the “god of Israel”.   The point is not to say he is not God over all the world but, again, to make sure everyone know exactly who he is”.  That phrase also shows his personal involvement and care for the Jewish people (Israelites).  We also see in his identification of himself that he controls armies (hosts), usually referring to angelic armies but as we saw in an earlier post possibly referring to his power over human armies too.   And that control is by Yahweh, not some local “god”.  All in all we see a God who identifies himself personally with the Jewish people; who is aware of them and their situation, who is God over all of the universe, and who has the power to affect events in history.  Third we see that Yahweh has used his power over the armies of the world and in the recent events of the Jewish people’s history by exiling them to Babylon. Not what they were expecting, but what he did.

In verses 5-7 God tells the people in exile to “settle down”.  Jeremiah had told them before the exile that it would last 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12),  he repeats that face here in verse 10, but the false prophets, both in Jerusalem and in Babylon, were saying otherwise.  God was using this time of exile to teach the Jewish people several lessons and they needed to submit to the punishment.  In Babylon they were to build houses and plant gardens, eat the stuff they had grown (implying time on one place), marry each other and have families, marry off their children and see grand-children born.  I have done all of those things and it takes time (I’ve been married 31 years and counting), I think God wanted the people to get the idea they were going to be there a while. God also tells them to pray for the Babylonian people and to work hard to make their new towns good places to live; after all they live there too, and will be there for quite a while.

In verse 8-10 God reminds them to not listen to the lying false prophets among them.  Those prophets were saying, “Yahweh told us …”, but were making up what they were saying.  In verse 10 God confirmed his earlier message to them that that would be there for 70 years.  At the end of verse 10 he then tells them that at the end of those 70 years he will bring them “back to  this place” (Remember that he is talking to them in a letter from Jeremiah who was in Jerusalem at the time).

That last phrase in verse 10 implies that God has a plan for what is going on; he sent them into exile for a specific amount of time and at the end of it he is going to make sure they come back (or at least have the opportunity to Go back, in Ezra we see many stay behind at the end of the 70 years).  In verses 11-13 God specifically tells them that he has a plan.  When he describes the plan (or at least it’s effects) we get a little hint at some of the reasons behind the exile.  In verse 11 God tells them he has a plan for their “welfare”.  That word is the Hebrew word “shalom”.  It is often translated peace.  We usually think of peace as the opposite of war or fighting, but it is a much bigger word than that.  The idea of “shalom” is the idea of “inner” as well as “outer” peace.  It is the idea of being taken care of.  Our word welfare has that idea and is a pretty good translation.  When some people think of welfare though they might also think of sitting around without a job and getting money from the government to pay their bills.  As we have seen God has given these people a lot to do in exile, their “welfare” included a lot of work.  In fact the second part of verse kind of defines the care God has in mind and it involves both their physical (outer) and spiritual/emotional (inner) lives.  God’s plan is for them to have a future and hope.

In verse 12 we see that one result of the exile is that the people will come to appreciate God and his abilities to provide.  They will call God up and talk to him.  God says he will listen to them.  I think that there conversation isn’t going to be just, “Yo, Yahweah what sup”, with God responding with a fist bump.  The people will call and come and talk.  It sounds pretty deep to me.  And God will answer.  Although it says he will listen tht implies he will do something with our request.  In James 2:14-16 God says that if a person comes and asks for help and we don’t help them that our actions are useless.  He also tells us in James 1:27 that if we really love him we will need the needs of others (See also Matthew 22:34-40).  I think God’s answer to the Israelites definitely won’t be, “So sorry to hear that, see ya.”  God uses his power in our lives for our welfare and that isn’t going to stop.

Verses 13-14 have a lot in them.  First we what to notice that they should give hope.  Remember that this is Yahweh speaking, you know the creator of the universe (Jeremiah 10:16, Genesis 1:1-2:4).  In verse 12 we saw the people calling him up and going to him to talk (pray).  In verse 13 we see that they will find him.  In verse 14 God makes it clear that finding him is more that us walking up to a guard rail and looking out and seeing God, “Hey check it out isn’t that God over there?”  “Yea I’ve been looking for him”.  “Ok let’s go.”  In verse 14 we find him and he acts on our behalf.

It’s pretty encouraging to know that we can call up the creator of the universe and ask him for help and that he will hear us and act on our request.  Of course we need to realize he is not going to give us every thing we ask for, he is going to give us what is best for us.  Every once in a while I’ll be somewhere with one of my grand-kids and my truck will be in the way of something we need to do.  Sometimes I get tired of moving the truck (imagine that getting tire of driving).  I’ll hold out the keys and say, “Here you move it.”  Usually the response is, “Really?” as they grab for the keys.  And my response, as I pull the keys back is, “I don’t think so.”  I know what a mean messed up grand-pa.  Of course I don’t give a 8 or 10 or 12 year old the keys to my truck and let them drive it.  They have no experience and it could be a disaster.  They want it of course but I don’t give it just because they ask or want; I care for them.  Of course I’m messing with them too.  God doesn’t mess with us he just cares for us.

On the other hand it shocked my wife when my when I allowed our children to drive my truck or our van, or even my truck with a trailer on it.  But I only did this after they had learned to drive, there were conditions.  They didn’t have a ton of experience but they had learned and I eventually gave them the keys because they had met certain “conditions”.  In verse 13 we see that finding God (and having him involved in our lives) requires meeting conditions too.  We need to look for him but we also need to really trust him, believe in his abilities, and be dedicated to him.  That is what it means when it says we need to seek him with our whole heart.  God doesn’t want to share us with other gods; sometimes the Bible even describes God as jealous.  That isn’t because God is selfish he wants the best for us.  If we run off to other “gods” we will miss out because those other gods are powerless to care for us (Jeremiah 10:14-15, Isaiah 44:9-20), and we’ve probably spent a lot of time, money and effort uselessly too.

We live in a messed up world, one that we messed up both together and individually.  That should be no news to most of us; a lot of people in our world today like to blame all sorts of things on the activities on mankind.  For many years now we have been hammered by environmentalists with this idea; we are killing species, destroying bio-diversity, causing the ice caps to melt, and on and on the list goes.  They love to point the finger at others but miss their own personal responsibility.  Global warming (or environmental change) isn’t the greatest threat to mankind, spiritual cooling is.  Actually a lot of the mess in our world today isn’t directly because of our individual actions rather it is by the hand of God.  It was God who cursed the world and caused it to start “wearing out like a garment” (Genesis 3:17-18, Isaiah 51:6, Romans 8:20).  He did this because he wanted us to see the consequences of sin (disobedience and rebellion toward him).  It is spiritual cooling prompted God to send the universe into a spin.  But in Revelation 21 we see that God will restore it all (I guess he is the ultimate environmentalist), in the mean time we need to seek him and return to him with a who heart and encourage others to do the same so that they can have a future and hope too (Jeremiah 29:11), so that they can “wait eagerly for their adoption as sons into God’s eternal family where they will be forever safe (Romans 8:23, Isaiah 51:6).

God thank you for exiling us sometimes.  Thank you for giving us weeds to pull.  Thank you for reminding us of the serious consequences of our actions.  Thank you for temporary, here and now, consequences so that we can be reminded that there are long term consequences too.  In the Garden you waned Adam and Eve that disobedience would cause them to die that very day, and die they did when their relationship with you was broken. We have all broken that relationship.  I know the consequences are supposed to be forever; infinite.  Thank you for letting your infinite son pat the price for me.  Help me remember to call you.  Help me remember to approach you.  Thank you for being there, listening, answering.  Help me live where you have put me.  Help me bring you honor when I sit down and when I rise up, when I am eating or drinking, in all that I do.  Help me live each day the life you have given me in the place you have put me.   Thank you for the reality and hope of eternity.

Jeremiah 28:1-17.  In yesterday’s reading Jeremiah acted out or used a prop to get his message across; he placed a wooden yoke on his neck.    The yoke was a symbol of control and his message was that God had put the region under the control of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzer and that the people should not rebel against it.  Jeremiah warned all the kingdoms or nations under Nebuchadnezzar’s control, he warned Judah specifically, and he warned the priests and people of Judah also.  In the warning to the priests and people he got very specific about not listening to the false prophets and even challenged the prophet about their false messages.  He told them to pray about the stuff left in the Temple after the recent raid by Nebuchadnezzar.  He told them that if they were true prophets of Yahweh (the God of Israel, the one true God) that they should pray to him to preserve the stuff that was left.  He said if they were true prophets maybe it would not be take in another raid.  But then he assured the people there would be another raid and all the stuff would be taken.

In today’s reading one of the false prophets sort of takes Jeremiah up on the challenge.  In verse 1 we learn that the (false) prophet’s name is Hananiah.  He is from the town of Gibeon.  Gibeon was in the region of Benjamin the same region of the kingdom that Jeremiah was from.  Hananiah approached Jeremiah in the Temple (house of the LORD (Yahweh)).  There, in front of the priests and people, Hanaiah claimed to be speaking for “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel”.  That was the exact same language Jeremiah had used.  In his message Hananiah twice tells the audience that he is going to “break the yoke of the king of Babylon” (vv. 2,4).  He also says that all of the stuff that was taken will be returned, as well as the captives tht were recently taken, and the young king (Jehoiachin).  He even gave a time table, “within two years”.  In Jeremiah 22:26-27 Jeremiah predicted that Jehoiachin would die in exile.  In Jeremiah 27:21-22 Jeremiah predicted that the rest of the stuff in the temple would be removed and would be there for some time.  That would seem to indicate that the stuff already take would not come back soon.  Hananiah’s predictions were in complete contrast to those of Jeremiah; it was a full on challenge.

In verses 4-9 Jeremiah answers Hananiah’s challenge.  I would been Hananiah’s face if I had been Jeremiah, but instead Jeremiah answers by saying, “Amen, May Yahweh do so!”  Wow.  If Hananiah’s predictions came true that would make Jeremiah’s predictions false, I’m sure the leaders and the people would lose no time retrying and executing Jeremiah.  I’m not sure I would be hoping for an event that would surely lead to my execution.  But Jeremiah was confident that he had honored God; had spoken “all that Yahweh had commanded him”, and he was also devoted to God, His city, His Temple, and to honoring God.  If he was wrong then all of that would come back and he deserved to die anyway.  Wow, that is dedication.

In verses 7-9 though, Jeremiah is very careful to set the ground rules.  Throughout the history of Israel there had been a lot of trouble, lots of times when they had been invaded.  Often these invasions were used by God to make the people see that they were not being faithful to Him.  True prophets would warn and warn and warn the people that if they did not turn back to God an invasion would happen.  At the same time there would be false prophets talking about peace.  Hananiah is like these false prophets, predicting that the current trouble will just go away.  In the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 18:20-22) we find that the test of a prophet is whether or not what they have predicted actually happens.  Anything less than 100% accuracy means you are a false prophet and you are to be executed for making false claims about Yahweh.  Jeremiah reminds them about the ground rules.  It is interesting that he uses situations a lot like the one he is in to lay out the rules, in the past it was usually the “prophets” who were saying “peace” who were false, just like Hananiah.

In verses 10-11 Hananiah responds to Jeremiah’s answer.  He takes the yoke off of Jeremiah’s neck and breaks it.  He then basically accepts the “rules” by repeating his prediction.

At the end of verse 11 Jeremiah simply walks away.  But that is not the end of his communication with Hananiah.  God spoke to Jeremiah again after this event.  There are two parts to the message that God gave to Jeremiah.  The first part is about the control of Nebuchadnezzar over the region.  The yoke that Hananiah broke was the wooden one that Jeremiah had made for himself, it was a symbol of Babylonian control.  Yahweh (LORD) told Jeremiah to tell Hananiah that he had broken a wooden yoke and that now it would be replaced by an iron one.  The idea here is one of strength, wood is strong, iron is stronger.  It seems that God is saying that the control will now become stronger.

Historically we see that is true.  Nebuchadnezzar passed through the area in 605 BC and took some of the top citizens as captives, to use as advisors, that is how Daniel and his friends wound up in Babylon.  In 598-597 he came back to the area in response to rebellion by Jehoiakim.  At that time he took some stuff from the Temple (probably to show that he had power over “Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel” (of course he was mistaken about that)), and he also took 10,000 of the “leading” citizens as captive.  He also took the new king, Jehoiachin, captive and set us his Jehoiachin’s uncle as king.  In 586 Nebuchadnezzar will be back because of more rebellion, at that time he will destroy the Temple, get rid of kings all together, set us a governor, and take everyone else captive.  So the control will increase or get stronger.

The second part of the message to Hananiah is much more serious (at least for Hananiah) and has a much quicker fulfillment.  Remember that the test of a prophet was accuracy, in the history of Israel many predictions took a long time to be fulfilled, Daniel had one that would take 483 years to be partially fulfilled, some predictions are still waiting.  It would be important for the true prophets of God to have at least some that could be checked out in their own time.  In Jeremiah’s case he needed a “hit” at this at bat.  God told Jeremiah that Hananiah was going to die because he was a lying false prophet who was misleading the people, and it would happen  that year.  Hananiah would not even get to see if his two year prediction came true (which it would not).  God does not need to wait to see the outcome he already know what is going to happen and so he passed sentence on this false prophet.  In the seventh month of that year Hananiah died.

Jeremiah was faithful and was batting 100%.  God knows and he communicates to us so that we can know too; know that he is the one true God, know that we have offended Him, know that there are consequences for our disobedience and rebellion, and know of his love and mercy and grace.  It is interesting that Hananiah’s name means “Yahweh is gracious” (see “What’s in a Name?”).  One pastor has said that “grace” is giving someone what they don’t deserve and that mercy is not giving someone what they do deserve.  A lot of people want God to be gracious, always givng us good things, and he does, but they seem to miss the fact god is not giving us what we do deserve, eternal banishment from his kingdom.  If we forget how badly we have offended God and just focus on the good that he has put in our world and lives we will start to become arrogant; we will get ”big heads” and think we actually deserve the good that God gives.  We need to be careful not to forget the “undeserved” part of the definition.  Hananiah seemed to be like a lot of us thinking we deserve only good and even predicting that that would be the case.  God and his prophets are true to the reality of our relationship with God.  There is goodness and hope for more but there is also offense and separation and the reality of that separation becoming permanent.  We have cheated on God and we need to face that.  God will forgive but not unless we admit our cheating and let him help us stop.  We need to listen to the bad news, we need to respond to the message God has given us, we need to stop all the wishful thinking, pretending that the future is what we want it to be.  The up side is that the future will be more that we could ever hope if we put our eternity into the hands of God.  That can be scary, like this encounter between Jeremiah and Hananiah.  I’m sure Jeremiah walked away thinking, “This better be right or I’m dead (literally).”  And then he had to go back and push a little more.  Very hard, very scary.  But God backed him up and he will back us up too.  He already has at the cross.  Jesus said, “Come to me all who are weary and carrying a heavy burden and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon yourself and learn from me, I am gentle and humble and you will find rest for your souls.  My yoke is easy and the load is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)  He was contrasting the burden of trying to reach God on our own verses putting our relationship with God in his hands.  Jesus is the way back to God there is no other (John 14:6).  It is a burden, the burden of submission, the burden of dependence, but it is light and the reward is great.  Be faithful to God to day and let him give you the true undeserved gift of eternity with Him.

God thank you for your mercy.  Thank you for your grace.  Help me not be prideful.  Help me not want to have life my way.  Let me trust your way.  Thank you for taking the burden for me.  Jesus thank you for letting your relationship with the Father be broke so mine could be healed.  Thank you for the Holy Spirit who helps me honor you from day to day.  Let me be faithful even in the face of danger.  Keep me true.