August 14: Jeremiah 26-29

August 14, Jeremiah 26-29

Jeremiah 26 Repentance and turning to God equals God’s favor. God wanted Jeremiah to go to his people and plead with them again to repent. Jeremiah was to give word for word what God said and hold back absolutely nothing… God was willing to relent on His judgement if they would repent. If they chose not to, which is what they chose, they would be exiled and cursed. You can imagine how the priests and religious leaders felt about all of this - they were quite upset and wanted to kill him.  Jeremiah was incredibly bold for God - he knew what he was called to. The officials decided not to kill him. It was not worthy of death first of all, but they would have brought certain disaster upon themselves had they killed an innocent man.

Jeremiah 27 Remember how God keeps having Jeremiah display God’s words through visible illustrations? Well, now Jeremiah has to put on a yoke (picture an old fashioned carriage that is tied up to a horse. The yoke is what is around its neck). Jeremiah put the yoke around his neck and declared that God’s power made the earth and God does what seems best to Him. God has chosen Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to be his servant for the time being. All the nations would serve him and his grandson until God says otherwise. The warning is that if they need to all come under Nebuchadnezzar’s bondage for a season. That is what God wants. Jeremiah also warns to not listen to the lying false prophets saying that they do not need to come under Babylon and that peace is coming. Those false prophets will be kicked out by God. Judah will be restored in the future - but for now, they are under exile and judgment.

Jeremiah 28 Hananiah was a false prophet who claimed divine authority and he was going around saying that God broke the yoke of Babylon & other lies about the return after exile. Jeremiah points out that you cannot have peace without repentance. Hananiah took the yoke around Jeremiah’s neck and broke it. Jeremiah walked away… “Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke-bars from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Go, tell Hananiah, ‘Thus says the Lord: You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to him even the beasts of the field.” So… God will not be mocked or fooled. Jeremiah prophesied that Hananiah would die within the year because of his sin of falsely prophesying and Hananiah died 7 months later.

Jeremiah 29 Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles. God was telling them to build houses and gardens and plant their roots where they are at - God had them where He wanted them. This was not to be a quick exile if God was telling them to plant Gardens and build houses… He also warned them to not be deceived by the false prophets because God did not send them…

Then we have a word of encouragement for God’s people that are in exile. It is used quite a bit in Christian circles “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God had them exiled for their disobedience but still had a plan for them and how to work it out. God doesn't stop there… He says, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” God knew they would return and that God would save the and hear them! 

In the meantime because they did not obey and were adulterous and idolaters, they needed to be punished. Then Shemaiah was a prophet who falsely prophecy but Jeremiah corrected him

To sum it all up: 

• Are you bold with your faith? Do you know what you are called to? If you are confident in God and care more about Him than others, you will be intentionally missional wherever God puts you.
• Jeremiah did a fantastic job of declaring God’s truths and they were not received by most. We should do the same