Letter to Exiles and Restoration Hope

In Jeremiah 29, as we continue down Zedekiah's reign with the prophet Jeremiah: "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, to the prophets, all of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. This happened after Jehoiachin the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. 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. And this is what Jeremiah wrote to the captives of 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.'"

And this is what Jeremiah told the exiles in 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." Build up the Jewish people in Babylon. Build them up in Egypt as well to bring them out. "And seek the peace of the city which I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it. For in its peace you will have peace. 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. For thus says the Lord, 'After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good work toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 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. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with your whole 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 nations and from the places where I have driven you,' says the Lord, 'and I will bring you to the place from which I have caused you to be carried away captive.'"

Okay, let's stop there. So again, amongst the captivity, amongst the exiles, amongst the destruction and all of these horrible things, God still gives hope. He still gives restoration hope. And this is what's beautiful. Most Christians, they might not know the book of Jeremiah, but they do know Jeremiah 29. And that really is towards the Jewish people coming out of Babylon. But if you want to take it personal, then I'm all for that. But just understand what goes into this. It's kind of like 2 Chronicles 7:14. "If My people who are called by My name, will humble themselves and seek My face and all these things, if they will repent." Well, people only read that one section of the scripture. They don't read the curse if you don't do it. And that's the problem that we have is people want to just get, "If My people are called by My name, who will humble themselves," which is great, but if you don't, you're going to be rocked. You're going to be destroyed. That's what our Jewish friends and our Christian friends don't like to hear. They don't like to read because everybody just wants the good stuff. Well, if you take the entire prophecy, it's going to give you a little bit more circumcision of the heart and more obedience, so to speak, to understand the blessing, good, and then the curse if we don't. And that's the way that the Bible works. That's the way the Torah works. That's the way Yeshua works as well. Blessings, curses. And this is one of those restoration blessings that after 70 years, "I know the thoughts that I think of you for good, not of evil, for hope, not destruction." That's the covenants. That's the everlasting covenants that God is speaking through. The Abrahamic, the Davidic, the new covenant. Also, the ordinances, the statutes, the laws, the Torah. All of these things that are out of His mouth. That's what He's speaking of. For the people to return to the righteous ways of Yahweh, and you will have peace.

But look at what He says. He tells the Jewish people to build houses in Babylon, dwell in there, plant gardens, eat their fruit, wives, husbands, give your children wives, husbands, all of these things that He can increase the Jewish people in Babylon because of what's happened with the destruction. "Seek the peace of the city," is what He says. So seek the peace of Babylon is what He said, "where I have caused you to be carried away captive. Pray, pray for Babylon to the Lord, and in its peace you will have peace." Now, that's not saying to go act like a bunch of Babylonians. That's not saying that at all. That's saying to keep the ways of Yahweh amongst Babylon. And that's something that we can get great understanding as well. The world is Babylon, as we all know. So don't take this personal when I say that. The world is Babylon. So is America. So is Israel. So is all of the world. And He wants all of us to live His ways amongst Babylon. Kind of like Daniel did. Kind of like He told the people to here as well. So we've got to understand is yes, the whole world is Babylonian system. Of course it is. And we're called to not be a part of all of that. We're called to live accordingly to the word of God, and that's it. Because no country is going to uphold those values and standards. Not even Israel right now is upholding the Torah and the values and the standards that goes with the promised land. But He expects them to, and He expects all of us who are not living in the promised land to live accordingly to the best of our ability. Whatever pertains to us, not talking about sacrifices, whatever pertains to us amongst the Babylonian captivity that we are all in, if you really think about it, so to speak.

Verse number 10: "For thus says the Lord, 'After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good work toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, O people of Judah,' says the Lord, 'thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek My face and find Me, when you search for Me with your whole heart.' Yeshua says the same thing. Search for Him with your whole heart. Ask and receive, seek, knock, all of these things that we're saying. So look at what He says. He says, 'Then you will,' not 'you maybe,' 'you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.' This is not maybe stuff. This is 'I will,' and 'you will.' Seek My face and find Me when you search for Me with your whole heart, and I'll be found by you, says the Lord."

So even through all of this hardcore language that we read in the prophet Jeremiah, there's always restoration. There's always hope. But for all of my Christian friends, we cannot take chapter 29 out of context and not know what went into chapter 29, with rebellion and with stiff-neckedness and all of these things, and then captivity and exile, and then if you seek Me with all of your heart, then I will return to you. So again, we can't think that God's not going to do these hardcore things. But in the midst of these hardcore things, He's going to show us redemption. He's going to show us restoration if we return to Him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength.

In verse number 15: "Because you have said, 'The Lord has raised us 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 I will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.' Remember what we just discovered with the two different figs, right? That's what He's going back on. 'Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and I will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. I will pursue them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence. I will deliver them to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, an astonishment, a hissing, a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, because they have not heeded My word,' 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. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, all of you in captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab, who prophesied lies 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, have spoken lying words in My name, which I have not commanded them." Indeed, I know, and am a witness,' says the Lord."

"You shall also speak to Shemaiah. Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have sent letters in your name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the priest, and to all the priests, saying, 'The Lord has made you priests 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, '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. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, 'Send to all those in captivity, saying, Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah: Because he 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 him 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.'"

So again, we have another false prophet rising up, telling the people in captivity that they're not going to be there for 70 years, basically, that it's going to be shorter than that. And Jeremiah, through the power of the Lord, told him he was a liar. He was prophesying in falsehood, so to speak. So again, he was teaching rebellion against the Lord, and it goes back to 1 Samuel 15. Rebellion is just like witchcraft. So that's something to really understand what the prophet Samuel has said.

So the theme to the letter to the exiles in chapter 29: Jeremiah writes to those already in Babylon. The major points: He says to build houses, plant gardens, seek the peace of the city, do not listen to false prophets. The captivity will last 70 years. Even in exile, God has not abandoned His covenant people. Again, God is not like a man. He's not a liar. He has put His name in Zion, put His name in Jerusalem. He's put His name on the Abrahamic covenant, and the Davidic covenant, and the new covenant. These are "I will, I will, I will." The Mosaic covenant is, "If you obey, then you can stay in the land. If you do not obey, then you will be exiled from the land." That's the Mosaic covenant. It's a bilateral contract. The Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the new covenant is unilateral. It only depends on God's sovereign righteousness. It does not depend on the Jewish people. It just does not. Staying in the land depends on their behavior with the Mosaic covenant. But He will have a generation that He will bring into the land, and they will obey Him. They will turn to the Jewish Messiah. They will repent. And again, I believe that this generation is that generation. There's going to be a time of trouble, and then they will repent.

So that's Jeremiah 29, a very pivotal chapter to understand with the captivity. Jeremiah was dealing with. He dealt with a lot of false prophets who did not understand what God was trying to do. Jeremiah and the true prophets were the ones that God spoke through. And most of the time, that is not going to be good. But there's always restoration and redemption in this prophet. And that's what we're about to get into now with Jeremiah chapter 30, Time of Jacob's Trouble. And then Jeremiah 31 is the New Covenant. So whenever we read these next two chapters, take out the chapter breaks, because they're really the same. It's really just one long prophecy of what Jeremiah is saying. Jeremiah did not write his book with chapter breaks in it. That's what man did later on. Another whatever. I'm not saying something's wrong with that. I'm just saying he did not write chapter 30, chapter 31. Chapter 30 and chapter 31, as you will see, is a consistent prophecy that goes through the end of the age. This is where Jeremiah bleeds into the end of the age with Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah 30, Jeremiah 31, and 32 and 33. Bleeds into the end of the age. This whole section of those four or five chapters, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, these five chapters are really important to understand with the bleeding into the end of the age. Kind of like with Jeremiah 16, which we went through with Josiah's reign, the fishermen and the hunters. That's never happened before. They were never fished back, and they were never hunted back. Now they are. They're being fished back. 1948, 4 million Jewish people have made Aliyah to the promised land. They've been fished back, wouldn't you say? And now here comes the hunters for the end of the age. Very important.