Untitled Sermon (3)
PROMISE
This is GOD’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.
For thus says the LORD: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.
God’s word to the exiles was to prepare for a long stay in Babylon. They were to build houses and settle down. They were also to plant gardens to sustain them during the period. Life was to go on as normal. The people were exhorted to marry and have sons and daughters. Instead of hoping for Babylon’s quick demise they were encouraged to seek its peace and prosperity. Jeremiah even told them to pray … for Babylon! Those prophets and diviners (cf. 27:9) who were predicting a soon return to Judah were prophesying lies. They were not sent by God.
The restoration of the exiles to Judah would happen only when God’s 70 years of judgment were completed (cf. 25:11–12). Then God would fulfill His gracious promise to restore the exiles to their land. The 70-year Exile was a part of God’s plans to give Judah hope and a future. The judgment prompted the exiles to seek God wholeheartedly (cf. Dan. 9:2–3, 15–19). Once they had turned back to their God He would gather them from all the nations where they had been banished and return them to their land. The larger purpose of the Exile was to force Israel back to her God (cf. Deut. 30:1–10).
(3) The warning against false prophets (29:15–23).