Time and again Jeremiah boldly confronted both leaders and the people but they would not listen to him.  In chapter eleven it is recorded that even his neighbours and relatives plotted against his life, and God had to warn him of the plot, given Jeremiah's naïveté and blindness. Jeremiah faced a difficult situation and he had to cry to God to get answers to the troubling questions in his mind, namely, why the wicked were prospering and the treacherous thriving. 

In that well known passage in chapter 12:5, God did not lift the burden on Jeremiah and neither did He promise to work out his problems so that he would have less stress. Instead, God sent Jeremiah right back to work and told him that worse would happen in the future.  Yet we complain about our pain and talk about pain!  This was really pain. 

So in a passage which should give pause to all men who work diligently and truthfully for God, let us remember God's statement to us through Jeremiah as we face the bleak future prophesied in Matthew twenty-four: “if you have raced with men on foot and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you fall down, how will you do in the jungle of the Jordan? (RSV). 

As we read this lesson in Jeremiah twenty-nine let us be mindful that the roaring of the waves, the earthquakes, the famines, the environmental disasters, the wars, the nations rising up against nations, that we see around us is for us, merely the “beginning of sorrows”. 

So the questions asked by God and the warning to Jeremiah has great relevance for us today.  Note that Jeremiah was told that if the betrayal of his friends and neighbours who plotted against his life and the refusal of his countrymen to listen to him had so disturbed and shocked him, when things got a lot worse what would he do! 

God simply pointed out the ‘facts of life’ to Jeremiah and reiterated that the judgment for the nation was inevitable. Our world will also be judged. God again reminded Jeremiah of the nature of the judgment, a judgment that given the extent of iniquity of the people was inevitable.  God had stated:“ I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest she has lifted up her voice against me; therefore I hate her.” 

Jeremiah was shown clearly what happens to the people of God when they get corrupted and turn away from God.  They were good for nothing! Several times God told Jeremiah not to pray for the nation, nor to cry to him on their behalf, for He had determined that when the people called on Him in the time of their trouble, He would not listen to them. 

Political turmoil and instability was the climate of the times. The superpowers of those days were contending and fighting for supremacy and little Judah was caught in the middle, constantly being encouraged to depend on God for survival and warned not to interfere in the machinations of the great powers of the earth. The powerful Egypt was sinking fast and Assyria was quickly losing its power. Babylon was on the rise as one godless nation was succeeded by another. 

In this time of confusion, conflict and uncertainty, Jeremiah was one of the few prophets that stood against the godless government in his own country. 

It was clear that God did not delight in judgment, but wanted repentance.  So we read in

Jeremiah 26:4-6 that God had warned the nation through the prophet: “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, and walk in my law which I have set before you, and heed the words of my servants the prophets whom I sent to you urgently, though you have not heeded, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.” 

We note sadly that a sure sign of the degeneration of the people of God, a sign of a nation falling apart is the appearance of false prophets who rise to the surface and confuse the people of God with seductive words which conflict with the word of God. Whenever there are times of crisis, false prophets inevitably arise.  It is as Jesus said; He warned us that in the last days false teachers and prophets would come to the fore, confront the public and predict lying things which would not come to pass. 

In times of crisis professing believers become more vulnerable to the forces of evil.  When times of trouble come, people who trust in God often become weak, their faith wanes and they begin to do things that they never in their wildest dreams thought they would ever do. The Apostles warn that we should not be like those that sleep in the day.  Eternal vigilance must be maintained.  Constant growth to spiritual maturity must continue, or else we will become cannon fodder for the enemy. 

In chapter twenty-nine we read about a false prophet named Hananiah who directly challenged Jeremiah during the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. Like the false prophets and the false teachers who associate with them, for all these are pretenders, Hananiah had delivered an optimistic message. He told the people exactly what they wanted to hear. 

He claimed that God the Lord had given him a message that God would break the domination of the king of Babylon and within two years He would bring back all the exiles, the leaders and the royal family who had been taken away as captives.  Everyone would return to Judah along with the vessels of the temple of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had looted. This was great news for the people, but note that this news contradicted the prophecies of Jeremiah.  Common sense tells us that if prophets contradict each other, one must be right, and the other must be wrong. They could both be wrong. 

This reminds us of the teaching of Scripture that if we want to know if a man is from God and does not speak with some other voice, his prophecies must be one hundred percent true.  There can be no guesswork, no margin for error, no erroneous predictions, for if there was ever any error that person had proved that he was not a prophet of God.  No matter what promises he might make, he should not be trusted for he is false. 

Jeremiah who had been saying that the people would be in Babylon for seventy years, was faced with someone who said that the people would be there for only two years. Jeremiah’s reaction was interesting.  All he did was to say to the false prophet that he wished that his prophecies were correct, that he was right and that his sayings were true. Jeremiah, obviously speaking through much pain, just told the people to put this man to the test and wait to see what God would do.   

When God finally spoke to Jeremiah about the matter, He told Jeremiah to tell the false prophet that He God had not sent him to speak these lies and to give false comfort to the nation, and accordingly that very year he would die for his rebellion against God.  Jeremiah told the false prophet and the people the words of God and Hananiah did die as Jeremiah predicted. 

This question of false prophecies given to sooth and comfort people is a particularly distressing one for the people of God.  It occurs so often. The people of God seem to like or prefer to hear things that appeal to their fleshly impulses, rather than to accept the word of God, a word which often times is quite unpleasant. The prophet Isaiah had this problem too, for in Isaiah chapter 30: 8-11 we read these extraordinary words: “Now go, right it before them in a table, and note it in a book,

that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, See not, and to the prophets,

Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” 

What an amazing display by the covenant people of God! It was like that then among the people of God and a review of Christian history tells us that it has been like that in the past and it is exactly like that today. 

It must be pointed out that the false prophets were not only in Judah, but they were also among the people that had been sent into exile.  Those in Judah had false hopes simply because they did not listen to the word of God.  They did not want to believe what God was saying.  Those already in Babylon also had false hopes because they did not want to listen to the word of God.  They did not want to believe what God was saying. 

One would have thought that the group in Babylon who had now been living through the time of suffering predicted by the prophets, would have looked at themselves, realized their sins had brought judgment on them and at the least would be inclined to repent.  After all, they had the powerful message of Ezekiel right there among them. 

Unfortunately when people are bent on sinning and do not want to take responsibility for the consequences when they reject the word of God, faithful ministers just have to work harder.  So Jeremiah now had the serious pain of dealing with the exiles in Babylon. There was pain from the people around him, and there was pain from the people that had been sent away from him.

You will recall that Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jeconiah captive, otherwise called Jehoiachin, the queen’s mother Nehushta,, the officers of his household and many of the princes of Judah, along with the skilled tradesmen, the carpenters, the smiths and those men that had been capable of building fortifications for the cities of Judah and constructing weapons of war. He successively stripped away those that were likely to make trouble for him. 

King Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he came to the throne and succeeded his father Jehoiakim who we are told had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood and who in addition had agreed to be the servant of Nebuchadnezzar but had treacherously turned and rebelled against him. So when Jehoiachin came to the throne and did evil in the sight of the Lord, just like his father had done, God allowed the servants of Nebuchadnezzar to come and besiege the city of Jerusalem. When Jehoiachin saw that he could not resist successfully, he surrendered himself, his family, the officers, elders, chief priests and skilled trades-people  to the king of Babylon in order to pacify him. 

Nebuchadnezzar was not satisfied with the surrender alone, but seized the treasures of the House of the Lord and the King's house and cut in pieces some of the vessels of gold that Solomon had made and placed within the temple. He carried away all the princes, all the mighty men of valour, all the craftsmen and the smiths, amounting to ten thousand captives and left only the poorer  kind of people in the land. 2 Kings 24 records the sad tale.   

Scriptures tell us that the king of Babylon then installed the twenty-one year-old Mattaniah, who was Jehoiachin's uncle, on the throne and changed his name to Zedekiah. Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the Lord, just like Jehoiakim.  He would eventually rebel treacherously against the king of Babylon and his actions would bring doom to the nation.  He rebelled against Babylon despite the clear and insistent warnings of Jeremiah that he should yield to the Babylonians . 

It was this exiled King Jehoiachin, otherwise called Coniah, to which the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah twentytwo had pronounced a dreadful prophecy which ruled out any possibility of Jesus being the physical son of Joseph.  The prophet had said: “As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence; And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hands of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return. Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol?  Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure?  Wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they knew not? O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.” 

But this man was in the direct kingly line of David and likewise so was Joseph, the husband of Mary.  Only Joseph could give to Jesus the right to sit on the throne of David, but yet he could not be the father of Jesus, for none physically born in this line could sit on the throne.   

God solved the problem by having Jesus born of Mary, who, though she was a member of the line of David, could not give Jesus the right to sit on the throne of David.  But when she was married to Joseph, Joseph as the stepfather of Jesus and his official father, legally gave to Jesus his heir, the right to sit on the throne of David.  Hence the solution to this problem was that of the Virgin birth, or more precisely the virgin conception of Jesus.

Note carefully however that Jeremiah had made it well known that the evil king Coniah would never return alive to Judah, yet here were prophets that were saying the very opposite, both to the people in Judah and to the people in exile in Babylon. Jeremiah then had the painful task of reiterating the absolute inevitability and certainty of the judgment of God. There was no place for false hopes.  False hopes were from the pit of hell.  These false hopes were and are always designed to confuse the people and turn them away from the express word of God. 

When the false teachers and prophets that always abound in times of crisis preach comfort to those who are in sin and do not impress on believers that the word of God is sure, that God wants holiness, that the people of God will be hated by the world and should never be found participating in the things of mystery Babylon the Great, they are only doing the ancient work of the devil.  They are practicing his deception, for he is a deceiver and a liar.

Verse 3.  The letter from Jeremiah was apparently delivered by trusted men. One is conjectured to have been the son of Shaphan, who was this scribe to whom the newly discovered book of the law was delivered and the other the son of Hilkiah, the high priest who found the book of the law in the Temple during the reign of Josiah. It seems likely that God would have arranged it that these trusted men were given the responsibility to deliver Jeremiah's message, going with a party that the vassal King Zedekiah had used to transmit messages to his lord Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon

Verse 4.  It was important to deliver the message for the people in Babylon were also troubled by false prophets who had been telling them that God was going to release them from captivity and send them back to Judah. These false prophets would certainly have had the ear of the King, the leaders and nobles, who had little interest in obeying the words of the prophet of God, despite his impressive credentials and his perfect success in prophecy. 

Here we have a situation just like the situation many of us might be in today, where we have resisted the will of God in the past and God has placed us in a situation that we certainly do not like and in which we definitely do not want to stay. But whether we like it or not when God judges us and puts us in a specific situation, we are going to stay there until He wants to change it.  So this was the message that Jeremiah brought to these wayward people.  God's word stands sure.  Subject yourself to it, repent and wait patiently.  You have not listened to God before when He called day after day.  Now you simply have to learn patience. James puts it this way: “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing”. This was the lesson that Judah had to learn.  This is often the unfortunate lesson that we have to learn. 

Jeremiah made it clear that he wrote in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. This name for God is a very interesting, for it reflects that this God is the one who controlled the armies of Heaven, whose word was irresistible law and against whom there could be no successful resistance.  Jeremiah was simply being his scribe. 

Note that the God described himself as the God of Israel.  This would tell the people that though they were in captivity, He was still their God, and that He had not completely cast them away, abandoned or disinherited them. He certainly was very displeased with their behaviour and had judged them in order to correct them.  He could have killed all of them, written them off, but instead he chose to give them encouragement while they were in captivity. 

God made it clear that it was He that had sent them into captivity.  The king of Babylon could not have done it if He God had not approved of the actions. They were sensible enough to realize that if God had caused them to be carried away into Babylon, He could cause them to be returned in due time to Judah.  They were there by God's appointment and they should submit themselves to what He wanted. 

Actually, the entire world belongs to God and He has the right to put his people wherever He thinks best for their spiritual growth and correction.

Verse 5-6.  God tells the exiles that contrary to what they were hearing, they were going to be there for a long time.  They should make the best of their situation, enjoy themselves as much as they could and settle down, for that was what God wanted them to do.  They should think about nothing else but settling down. They should not think about a speedy return from captivity, but should plan for a long stay.  If they did not obey Him they would simply be troubling themselves unnecessarily. 

We should understand that the people were hearing many conflicting voices and given their tendency to disobedience they would be asking themselves who they should believe. They needed above everything to know the facts and have them put plainly in front of them.  Then they needed instruction as to what action they should take. 

God was telling them that He knew everything, had their interest at heart and they could trust Him to tell them the best course of action that they should take. As a result they should be practical.  They should:

-build houses

-enjoy the houses

-plant crops

-enjoy the fruit of their planting

-they should get married

-they should have sons and daughters

-in fact they should try to have many children so that their population would increase and not diminish. 

Note what this would do for them.  The rulers of Babylon would not be provoked and keep spying on them for any sign of rebellion and escape.  Their rulers would believe that they accepted their lot in life and intended to live comfortably in Babylon. 

It was clear that from the instruction of God that their captivity was not going to be a terrible one.  They would be treated reasonably well by their captors. Psalm 106 discusses this matter of Israel's continued rebellion and God's continuing mercy in much detail, and in verse 46 it is states: “He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives” 

They would of course shed tears about their homeland, but they should not let this preoccupy them totally.  Those in the covenant would still experience the mercy of God.  God was faithful even when they were not faithful.

Verse 7.   In addition they were to seek the welfare of their adopted country.  They should pray for the land of Babylon.  This was important for if Babylon prospered they would prosper.  As long as Babylon was safe they would be safe.  They were again forbidden to do anything to disturb the peace in Babylon.  They were not to plot against the king of Babylon, but should patiently wait for God to deliver them. 

If they had previously taken the advice of the prophets on this matter of rebellion and seeking allies based on their wisdom, they would not be in this predicament.  Now the command that they behave themselves came again from God. Clearly they were not to regard their captivity in the same way that other people and nations would regard theirs.  They were to remember that because they were the chosen of God they would see better days. All this of course has many lessons for those of us who may have resisted the will of God and are now suffering for it.  We must remember that there is a thing called the government of God, that the earth is the Lord's and that these facts exist wherever we are.  We should not fear but repent and lean on God.

Verses 8-9.  They were not to listen to the false hopes from their pretended prophets among them.  These people were false and preached false optimism.  They were deceivers.  They were prophesying falsely in the name of God and He had not sent them. Notice that these people were “occult diviners” and they specialized in receiving dreams and interpreting dreams.  They were not called or commissioned by the Lord. Sometime dreams are based on the fancies of people and sometimes dreams are given to people by demonic powers. Of course God can speak to people through dreams.  But history has shown us that more often than not when people dream and say that God has given them instruction by way of dreams, these instructions have turned out to be false. 

We should be careful in dealing with this activity, for it is often found that when people dream they slip into the forbidden practice of necromancy. This practice of dealing with the dead and receiving instruction from them is quite common one and is craved by many from different countries who have grown up believing that this type of practice is acceptable.  We often are reminded for example that ancestor worship is still a common practice that many people follow.  Some even periodically visit the graveside of relatives and leave food and other items there for them.  That is all wrong.

This forbidden practice which is called an abomination, and which when practiced in Israel was punishable by death, involved receiving dreams from people who were dead.  Let us just remember when people are dead they are dead and cannot contact us.  Any attempt to communicate with or to receive instruction from those that are dead is forbidden by God.

We should also be mindful that many of the cults have developed doctrines that are based on dreams and visions that their leaders have received, even from beings that they think are angels. So the best advice is to stick to Scripture and its instructions and always seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 10.  God did not stop at condemning the false prophets.  He knew that the people needed something good and strong on which to base their hopes. So God promised them that after seventy years he would visit them, perform good things for them and cause them to return to the land of Judah.  He was God, He executed judgment and He brought about restoration. 

Deliverance would come in His time and they would have to wait patiently.  God would surely visit them in mercy, honour, deliver and bring them home.  It was sufficient for them that God had promised this and they would be sure that God's time was the best time.

Verse 11.   God now revealed his true nature and feelings. He reminded his covenant people that He could not fail to keep his Word. His thoughts to them were of peace, for harmonious relationships with them, for their good, their welfare and to give them a great future and a fabulous hope. His thoughts toward them involved no evil, whatever he did toward them was for their benefit.  He would make their captivity as comfortable as possible, given the fact that he was a gracious God. 

Let us remember that God knows all His thoughts and all His works. As one writer notes:

“His works agree exactly with his thoughts; he does all according to the counsel of his will.

We often do not know our own thoughts, nor know our own mind, but God is never at any uncertainty within himself.”

And then very importantly this writer adds for our instruction:

“We are sometimes ready to fear that God's designs concerning us are all against us; but he knows the contrary concerning his own people, that they are thoughts of good and not of evil; even that which seems evil is designed for good.  His thoughts are all working toward the expected end, which he will give in due time.”

Verse 12.  The expected end is the restoration of the people and a return to their homeland. Their chastisement was so designed as to make them pray to Him and call on Him from a good and genuine heart.  God was stirring them up to pray and we learn that sometimes He brings troubles to his people so that they will call on Him and not keep calling on the other gods. 

God promised that when He gives the spirit of prayer and they call on Him, He will answer. They will pray and they will find Him. This is his rule (Deuteronomy 4:29).

Verse 13.  Since God promised to give them a genuine heart in due course, they would eventually search for him, do the searching with their whole heart and they would not be disappointed. Obviously it makes no sense to search for God in a half hearted way.  They could not be double minded and expect success.  Similarly we cannot pray to God with a double mind, holding onto the world and trying to hold onto God at the same time.  We cannot serve God and mammon, that was a rule for Judah and that is the rule for us today. Those who seek God with a genuine heart, focused fully on him, will find him.  That is His promise as we are told: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 16: 6).

Verse 14.  The exiles were to be comforted because God had guaranteed restoration and a return to their home. Deuteronomy thirty had specifically outlined all of these things, for God had laid out his promises to those that were penitent. 

God had expected that his people would be disobedient, would not heed his voice and as a result be driven all over the earth. He had even in those early years told his people what they should do and what He would do when they came back to Him.  It is important that we read this chapter in Deuteronomy carefully. 

Jeremiah now looked forward to the eventual re-gathering and restoration of Israel.  This prophecy is important both for the near and distant future.

CONCLUSION

All of this had been laid out by God.  Israel had known what to expect, for God had gracefully revealed all these things to them by his servant Moses. Despite knowing all of these things the leaders, the priests and the people all rebelled repeatedly.  Such is human nature.

When we meet people who tell us that they are great and have no sin and will never do anything wrong, we know they are wrong. 

So note carefully that God has made His ways, His will and His truth known. We have no excuse for the wrong that we do. God has never left us without a witness and finally Jesus came to fully explain everything to us because he is the Word of God.  He has spoken and we know in its entirety all that is required of us. 

Let us look at the history of the people of God, for history tells us all the foolishness and errors that both the people of the world and the people of God have made. In addition, the word of God has recorded not only the errors that men will make but the solutions that have been provided by God.

There are new errors being introduced into the world which have not already existed and for which God has not already provided the answers. 

Moreover, when we look at current events we learn that God will bring into full view all the iniquities of men and that God will punish these iniquities.  Nothing will remain hidden; there will be a day of reckoning for people and for nations. 

This lesson calls on us in these days of uncertainty to question the voices to which we are listening.

There are many voices around us.  The world of the occult is increasingly active.  There are many false prophets and teachers who tell us that they have visions and dreams that they claim is the voice of God. There are also many in the secular world which tell us that the Bible is not correct and they encourage us to listen to their voices. 

So which voices are we going to heed, and who are we going to follow? Jeremiah has an answer for us.  He tells you that God rules and that nothing happens without Him. 

So perhaps if we're not already persuaded we should listen to the testimony of the proud and powerful man who took Judah into captivity, for he agrees totally with the prophet Jeremiah.  He stated in Daniel 4:34-37 after he went through his time of punishment:

“And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up my eyes unto Heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doeth thou?

At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.

Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of Heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.” 

Jeremiah had to live with an amazing amount of pain.  He was the workman of God and he constantly did battle with Satan, with his own people and even with his relatives. He constantly brought words of warning and denunciation to his people.  He loved them dearly and it deeply hurt him when God forbade him several times from praying for them. 

Jeremiah had great and vexing questions and he cried out to God, for he did not want to see his people go into exile. His faith in God did not grow cold and he constantly tried to persuade God not to be so tough on His erring people but to show them compassion.   

Jeremiah lived with much pain, and he stands as the supreme example of one who loved.  Just listen to his pleading with God in chapter fourteen when God sent terrible famine on the land and everything, man and beast was dying:

“O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee O thou hope of Israel, the Savior thereof in time of trouble,

Why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.” 

Yet this prophet of love worked through the storm and never left his people alone.  He worked through all the pain, when God did not budge an inch, was immovable, adamant, unyielding, repeating His threats to the nation. 

No wonder Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. May we have that attitude when we see sin in the church, in our community and in our nation. May we never pull back, but going through the pain call the people constantly back to God. 

Let us not be afraid of the sinners.  They might be able to destroy the body but that is all they can do.  Do not be silent and let their blood be upon our head. Preach the word, be constant in season and out of season. Never stop regardless of the pain. The reward of God will be great.