Jeremiah 29:1-14. \u00a0In yesterday\u2019s reading one of the false prophets in Jerusalem called out Jeremiah about the message he gave using the yoke.\u00a0 The false prophet took the yoke and broke it and basically contradicted all that Jeremiah had said.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0If 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He had already told them that Babylon would be in charge for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11).\u00a0 The particular false prophet in yesterday\u2019s reading predicted that it would only be two years.\u00a0 Jeremiah told the false prophet that he was a liar and would be dead within the year.\u00a0 He died two months later.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Because of the things that they were saying the people were not settling down in Babylon.\u00a0 Jeremiah heard about the news and sent a letter to the exiles.\u00a0 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 \u201cremaining elders\u201d.<\/p>\n
Elders were political leaders, usually older guys.\u00a0 It is interesting that Jeremiah says \u201cremaining\u201d.\u00a0 It is possible that some \u201celders\u201d 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In chapter 26 they were the guys who came to Jeremiah\u2019s rescue during the trial and brought up Micah as an example of a true prophet who had predicted disaster for Jerusalem and the Temple.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe Jeremiah mentions the remaining ones here to show respect for this important and possibly faithful group.<\/p>\n
In verse 2 the author (probably Baruch, Jeremiah\u2019s secretary, who is recording these events from Jeremiah\u2019s life for us) reminds us that this letter is after the second deportation when Jehoiachin and others were taken captive.\u00a0 In verse 3 we learn that Zedekiah, the king in Jerusalem who had been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, was sending some representatives to Babylon.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It could have been for that reason or some other that these men were sent to Babylon.\u00a0 Two of the guys going were Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah.\u00a0 We have heard about Shapan before, it was one of his sons, Ahikam who protected Jeremiah after his trial.\u00a0 Shapan had been an advisor to Josiah and may have also served his three sons as they became kings.\u00a0 Here we have a second son of Shapan going to Babylon for Zedekiah.\u00a0 In the Old Testament there are several mentions of someone named Hilkiah.\u00a0 In Jeremiah 1:1 we are told there is a Hilkiah who was Jeremiah\u2019s father.\u00a0 We are also told that he was a priest.\u00a0 In the history of Josiah\u2019 in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles\u2019 there is also a priest named Hilkiah who is associated with Shapan.\u00a0 There are other guys named Hilkiah in Ezra and other places.\u00a0 We are not sure if the Hilkiah in today\u2019s story is the priest from Josiah\u2019s day, or Jeremiah\u2019s father, or some other, we do know that Jeremiah trusted Hilkiah\u2019s son, Gemariah (along with Elasah), to take an important letter to Babylon and that the Zedekiah had chosen Gemaraiah as a representative to Nebuchadnezzar.<\/p>\n
Verses 4-23 are the content of the letter.\u00a0 There are three important things to notice in verse 4.\u00a0 First the letter from Jeremiah is to the Jewish people in exile in Babylon.\u00a0 Second, although Jeremiah is the one who wrote it, it is actually from \u201cthe LORD of hosts, god of Israel\u201d.\u00a0 Remember in many English translations of the Bible the word \u201cLORD\u201d is all capitals is translating a Hebrew word that the Jewish people would never say out loud.\u00a0 It is the personal name of the one true God, Yahweh.\u00a0 When a Jewish person would read the Old Testament and come to that word they were in the habit of saying the Hebrew word \u201cadoni\u201d, which is translated as lord, instead.\u00a0 God never asked them to do that but they started doing it as a sign of respect.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like calling a person \u201csir\u201d or \u201cMrs. So and So\u201d instead of using their first name.\u00a0 Some English translations will use the translation \u201cJehovah\u201d 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).\u00a0 More modern experts think it was pronounced \u201cYahweh\u201d.\u00a0 Since God used his personal name so many times in the Old Testament I wonder if it really isn\u2019t disrespectful not to use it.\u00a0 His use of Yahweh is to positively identify himself and make sure he is not confused with other (false) gods.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yahweh makes a very specific identification of himself as the \u201cgod of Israel\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 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\u201d.\u00a0 That phrase also shows his personal involvement and care for the Jewish people (Israelites).\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 And that control is by Yahweh, not some local \u201cgod\u201d.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Third we see that Yahweh has used his power over the armies of the world and in the recent events of the Jewish people\u2019s history by exiling them to Babylon. Not what they were expecting, but what he did.<\/p>\n
In verses 5-7 God tells the people in exile to \u201csettle down\u201d.\u00a0 Jeremiah had told them before the exile that it would last 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12),\u00a0 he repeats that face here in verse 10, but the false prophets, both in Jerusalem and in Babylon, were saying otherwise.\u00a0 God was using this time of exile to teach the Jewish people several lessons and they needed to submit to the punishment.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I have done all of those things and it takes time (I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n
In verse 8-10 God reminds them to not listen to the lying false prophets among them.\u00a0 Those prophets were saying, \u201cYahweh told us \u2026\u201d, but were making up what they were saying.\u00a0 In verse 10 God confirmed his earlier message to them that that would be there for 70 years.\u00a0 At the end of verse 10 he then tells them that at the end of those 70 years he will bring them \u201cback to\u00a0 this place\u201d (Remember that he is talking to them in a letter from Jeremiah who was in Jerusalem at the time).<\/p>\n
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).\u00a0 In verses 11-13 God specifically tells them that he has a plan.\u00a0 When he describes the plan (or at least it\u2019s effects) we get a little hint at some of the reasons behind the exile.\u00a0 In verse 11 God tells them he has a plan for their \u201cwelfare\u201d.\u00a0 That word is the Hebrew word \u201cshalom\u201d.\u00a0 It is often translated peace.\u00a0 We usually think of peace as the opposite of war or fighting, but it is a much bigger word than that.\u00a0 The idea of \u201cshalom\u201d is the idea of \u201cinner\u201d as well as \u201couter\u201d peace.\u00a0 It is the idea of being taken care of.\u00a0 Our word welfare has that idea and is a pretty good translation.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 As we have seen God has given these people a lot to do in exile, their \u201cwelfare\u201d included a lot of work.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 God\u2019s plan is for them to have a future and hope.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 They will call God up and talk to him.\u00a0 God says he will listen to them.\u00a0 I think that there conversation isn\u2019t going to be just, \u201cYo, Yahweah what sup\u201d, with God responding with a fist bump.\u00a0 The people will call and come and talk.\u00a0 It sounds pretty deep to me.\u00a0 And God will answer.\u00a0 Although it says he will listen tht implies he will do something with our request.\u00a0 In James 2:14-16 God says that if a person comes and asks for help and we don\u2019t help them that our actions are useless.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 I think God\u2019s answer to the Israelites definitely won\u2019t be, \u201cSo sorry to hear that, see ya.\u201d\u00a0 God uses his power in our lives for our welfare and that isn\u2019t going to stop.<\/p>\n
Verses 13-14 have a lot in them. \u00a0First we what to notice that they should give hope.\u00a0 Remember that this is Yahweh speaking, you know the creator of the universe (Jeremiah 10:16, Genesis 1:1-2:4).\u00a0 In verse 12 we saw the people calling him up and going to him to talk (pray).\u00a0 In verse 13 we see that they will find him.\u00a0 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, \u201cHey check it out isn\u2019t that God over there?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYea I\u2019ve been looking for him\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cOk let\u2019s go.\u201d\u00a0 In verse 14 we find him and he acts on our behalf.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Every once in a while I\u2019ll be somewhere with one of my grand-kids and my truck will be in the way of something we need to do.\u00a0 Sometimes I get tired of moving the truck (imagine that getting tire of driving).\u00a0 I\u2019ll hold out the keys and say, \u201cHere you move it.\u201d\u00a0 Usually the response is, \u201cReally?\u201d as they grab for the keys.\u00a0 And my response, as I pull the keys back is, \u201cI don\u2019t think so.\u201d\u00a0 I know what a mean messed up grand-pa.\u00a0 Of course I don\u2019t give a 8 or 10 or 12 year old the keys to my truck and let them drive it.\u00a0 They have no experience and it could be a disaster.\u00a0 They want it of course but I don\u2019t give it just because they ask or want; I care for them.\u00a0 Of course I\u2019m messing with them too.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t mess with us he just cares for us.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 But I only did this after they had learned to drive, there were conditions.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t have a ton of experience but they had learned and I eventually gave them the keys because they had met certain \u201cconditions\u201d.\u00a0 In verse 13 we see that finding God (and having him involved in our lives) requires meeting conditions too.\u00a0 We need to look for him but we also need to really trust him, believe in his abilities, and be dedicated to him.\u00a0 That is what it means when it says we need to seek him with our whole heart.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t want to share us with other gods; sometimes the Bible even describes God as jealous.\u00a0 That isn\u2019t because God is selfish he wants the best for us.\u00a0 If we run off to other \u201cgods\u201d we will miss out because those other gods are powerless to care for us (Jeremiah 10:14-15, Isaiah 44:9-20), and we\u2019ve probably spent a lot of time, money and effort uselessly too.<\/p>\n
We live in a messed up world, one that we messed up both together and individually.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They love to point the finger at others but miss their own personal responsibility.\u00a0 Global warming (or environmental change) isn\u2019t the greatest threat to mankind, spiritual cooling is.\u00a0 Actually a lot of the mess in our world today isn\u2019t directly because of our individual actions rather it is by the hand of God.\u00a0 It was God who cursed the world and caused it to start \u201cwearing out like a garment\u201d (Genesis 3:17-18, Isaiah 51:6, Romans 8:20).\u00a0 He did this because he wanted us to see the consequences of sin (disobedience and rebellion toward him).\u00a0 It is spiritual cooling prompted God to send the universe into a spin.\u00a0 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 \u201cwait eagerly for their adoption as sons into God\u2019s eternal family where they will be forever safe (Romans 8:23, Isaiah 51:6).<\/p>\n
God thank you for exiling us sometimes.\u00a0 Thank you for giving us weeds to pull.\u00a0 Thank you for reminding us of the serious consequences of our actions.\u00a0 Thank you for temporary, here and now, consequences so that we can be reminded that there are long term consequences too.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I know the consequences are supposed to be forever; infinite.\u00a0 Thank you for letting your infinite son pat the price for me.\u00a0 Help me remember to call you.\u00a0 Help me remember to approach you.\u00a0 Thank you for being there, listening, answering.\u00a0 Help me live where you have put me.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Help me live each day the life you have given me in the place you have put me.\u00a0 \u00a0Thank you for the reality and hope of eternity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jeremiah 29:1-14. \u00a0In yesterday\u2019s reading one of the false prophets in Jerusalem called out Jeremiah about the message he gave using the yoke.\u00a0 The false prophet took the yoke and broke it and basically contradicted all that Jeremiah had said.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0If you remember, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had just raided Judah for a second time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1766"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1772,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions\/1772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}