Letter to the Exiles (Jer. 29:1-23)

Pre-Introduction

Please turn to Jeremiah 29f.

Great singing

Let’s pray.

Introduction

Imagine the scene: It’s March of 597 BC in Jerusalem, and a deep sense of dread hangs in the air. The streets are quiet, save for the shuffle of soldiers’ boots and the murmurs of terrified citizens. The unthinkable has happened—King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, and the royal court stand helpless as Babylonian soldiers surround the city like an iron grip. This once-great city of David is on the brink of collapse, its walls trembling under the might of Nebuchadnezzar’s armies.

Jehoiachin, just a young man of eighteen, who ruled for just three months, steps forward, dressed in royal robes that now seem like a mockery of his powerless state. He’s not leading a victorious procession, but a parade of defeat. The gates creak open, and he, his mother, his officials, and the craftsmen and warriors of Judah file out, heads low, hearts heavy. The people of Jerusalem watch in silence, some weeping, as their king and the hope of their nation is carried away—marched in chains to Babylon, a foreign land with foreign gods. The city that once stood as a beacon of God’s blessing and protection now echoes with the sound of exile.

This isn’t just the fall of a king; it’s the unraveling of a nation. Thousands of people are carried away as prisoners, including the prophet Ezekiel, especially the nobles and artisans and craftsmen and smiths, leaving the poorest of the people to stay behind to work the land. The temple remains standing, and would not be destroyed for another 10 years, but it’s hollow—a shell of the glory that once filled it. The treasures of the palace and the gold vessels in the temple are being carted off to Babylon as tribute, the pride of Judah stripped bare.

And there stands Jeremiah, the prophet of the LORD, who had been commissioned by God some 30 years earlier to warn the Southern Kingdom of Judah that if they didn’t turn from their wickedness and idolatry, they would be severely judged, just as God had judged the Northern Kingdom of Israel one hundred years earlier at the hands of the Assyrians.

God had told Jeremiah that the people wouldn’t listen and would resist him at every turn. So far, that’s what’s happened. 8 years previously, Daniel and other prisoners were captured and taken to Babylon for a re-education program.

And now, right before his eyes, Jeremiah is seeing this next installment of God’s promised judgment come true again, as the King and his royal entourage, along with thousands of others, are marched off as captives in Babylon.

And still, even after this, for the next 10 years, the people would continue to resist God’s Word, eventually leading to the destruction of the temple in 587.

Judah is in trouble. The judgment of a Holy God has begun. Is there any hope? Would the seed of Abraham bring blessing to all nations as God had pledged so many years ago or would seed of Abraham be destroyed in a foreign land? Would God’s mercies come to an end? Was the story over?

What now?

Post-Introduction

Most of us haven’t been forcibly removed from our homes or our families. Most of us haven’t witnessed or experienced the horror of violence and war.

Yet most of us know what it means to experience dark days that shake us to our core. We know what it means to be disoriented.

We don’t know what to make of where we are. We don’t know where to go or what to do or how to move forward.

But as we look at our passage this morning, we’re going to see how God speaks to His people in their exile and in their confusion and disorientation, giving hope in the middle of their darkness.

Follow along with me as I read from Jeremiah 29, starting in verse 1.

Jeremiah 29:1–14 (ESV)

1 These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

2 This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem.

3 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. It said:

4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.

6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.

7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,

9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

11 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.

12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

14 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.

Three Approaches to Living as Exiles

During the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, the City of Babylon was restored and enlarged, becoming the largest city in the world up to that time. For a brief time, Babylon was at the top of her influence.

We get a sense of Babylon’s splendor when we hear Nebuchadnezzar’s words in Daniel 4:29-30

Daniel 4:29–30 (ESV)

29 . . . [King Nebuchadnezzar] was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon,

30 and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”

There was no needing to convince the Jewish people that Babylon was opposed to the God of Israel.

In the Babylonian religion, as with most ancient cultures, they worshipped many different deities.

Their Creation story was built on the idea that the world as we know it was the result of a violent struggle between the gods, with the chief Babylonian god Marduk coming out on top.

The God of Israel, however, had revealed Himself to be profoundly different.

Some 800 years earlier, God had commanded His people to worship him by confessing: “Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”

There was not a pantheon of rival deities; God stood alone as the singular sovereign God over all. There is one God.

And this God wasn’t like all the other gods of the nations. He didn’t create the world out of a violent struggle, but out of the overflow of His love and joy, when he simply spoke the world into existence, and it was very good.

But now, two waves of Exiles — the first wave with Daniel, and the second wave with Ezekiel, thousands and thousands of Jewish prisoners — have been captured from their homeland in Judah and thrust into a wicked and pagan culture.

How were God’s people supposed to respond? What were they supposed to do?

In the context of these chapters in the Book of Jeremiah, we read that there were a number of prophets who were claiming to have heard God speak to them.

In Jeremiah 28, a prophet named Hananiah claimed God spoke to him saying the exiles would be in Babylon for 2 years, and then God would bring them back. He wasn’t in exile, he was still in Jerusalem with Jeremiah. But apparently, this prophecy was shared with three others, prophets named Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shemaiah, as we read in the rest of Chapter 29. In short order, they tell the exiles in Babylon that God has spoken to them, too. The message is we’ll be here for 2 years, and then we’ll go back home.

(God ends up putting all four of these false prophets to die, since they falsely claimed they were speaking for God, even though God hadn’t sent them)

You can imagine the conversations among the exiles in Babylon. What would they do? If they had 2 years to wait before they could go home to Judah, what would they do?

As we learn from later Jewish history in a very different context, one option was armed resistance: They could fight.

(1) Fight

They could fight.

If Babylon was going to worship false gods and subject God’s people into slavery, maybe the right answer is to organize an armed resistance movement in Babylon.

After all, there were thousands of the Jewish people who had been captured in two waves. Maybe they could go underground and work up a military operation.

The Jewish people had long seen great success against their enemies in the days of Abraham, in the days of Moses, and of course, gloriously in the Days of King David.

And there was no question as to whether or not Babylon should be considered friend or foe. They didn’t worship and serve the God of Israel, and they actively enslaved the Jewish people.

The first option that you can imagine was available to them was to (1) Fight.

(2) Flight

The second option would have been the other extreme: (2) Flight.

They could just run away or retreat from interacting at all with Babylon and anyone in Babylon. They could huddle together in a holy enclave and just ignore the world around them.

After all, if God has said they just need to hold out for 2 years, what’s the point in trying to organize a resistance to Babylon? People could get hurt, and if God’s going to show up and judge Babylon in a big fire ball—like He did with Sodom and Gomorrah all those years ago— we might as well just wait for that to happen and stay as far away from them as we can.

This is pure counter-culture. As much as possible, they’ll be over there, we’ll be over here, and we’re just going to make sure we’re ok, because they’re the bad guys.

Babylon is going to be judged by God anyway, and it’ll happen here in a couple years, so while we wait, we’re just going to try to avoid Babylon them as much as possible.

I’m exaggerating a bit, but those are really two live options on the table. (1) Fight and (2) Flight.

But notice how God speaks to the Exiles through this letter from the Prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 29:4–7 (ESV)

4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.

6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.

7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Notice what God says. Let me paraphrase and use some more Biblical language:

He says that the answer isn’t fight or flight; the answer is salt and light.

(3) Salt and Light

He says the Exiles should settle in and settle down.

Build houses and live in them.

Plant gardens and eat from them.

Get married and have kids.

And notice, not just get married and have kids, but live to see your kids get married and have kids.

God is saying, this isn’t going to be a 2-year thing - this is going to last 3 generations.

As he says in verse 10, restating a prophecy given to Jeremiah a few chapters earlier, their exile would last a total of 70 years.

And then he says don’t cloister yourself off as a disconnected counter-culture, instead

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile — seek the welfare of Babylon! That word “welfare” is the Hebrew word “shalom,” which means “peace.” Not just the absence of hostility, but the presence of wholeness. Seek the peace, the shalom, the well-being, the wholeness of Babylon.

And Pray to the LORD on Babylon’s behalf. Because if things are going well in Babylon, then things will go well for you.

Notice, these instructions cut diagonally across the other two options.

The temptation is, because Babylon is God’s enemy, the answer must be: Fight!

Or, because Babylon is God’s enemy, the answer is: Flight! Or, Avoid.

But God gives a better way: Faithful Presence. Salt and Light.

God says, “This is where I have you. You’re going to be here for 70 years. Your job isn’t to destroy Babylon. Your job isn’t to transform Babylon. Your job is to live faithfully in Babylon.”

And notice what God says, as soon as He reiterates the reality that their exile isn’t going to be quick and easy, like a 2 year thing, but a 3 generation thing, He speaks a word of comfort and grace and hope, in one of the most precious promises in the Bible:

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

11 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.

I’m going to look at the New Testament, and then talk about Application, and then we’ll sing a song and go home.

New Testament

By the time of the New Testament, hundreds of years later, the Exile has become a theme, a melody, and template for understanding the experience of God’s people.

And amazingly, this is a major theme of the New Testament’s description of the life and mission and ministry of the Church.

In 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter fills his letter with references to the Exile as the primary metaphor to help the new church that is made up of Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus. In other words, just like the Jewish people were called to be Salt and Light in Babylon, so you too need to be Salt and Light in the midst of a world that is opposed to Jesus.

1 Peter 1:1 (ESV)

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

1 Peter 2:11 (ESV)

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

1 Peter 3:14–15 (ESV)

14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,

15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

And he even closes his letter by referring to Rome, where Peter when he is writing this letter, as Babylon, a common way of referring to Rome in the early Christian movement.

1 Peter 5:13 (ESV)

13 She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.

Just as Babylon represented an earthly kingdom that was opposed to God and God’s people, so in the first century Rome represented the pinnacle of human accomplishment in opposition to God and God’s people.

But despite that, God’s people were still called to be salt and light, just as Jesus had commanded.

Matthew 5:13–15 (ESV)

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

And the ultimate reason why God’s people should be Salt and Light is that the ultimate fulfillment to the theme of the Exile isn’t about this present world at all, the but the next world.

Hebrews 11:13–16 (ESV)

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Or as the Apostle Paul says about our true citizenship and our true homeland:

Philippians 3:20 (ESV)

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Big Idea (Poem):

"When darkness falls and blinds our sight, When all we feel is fight or flight, God, by His Son, speaks in our night: 'A better way is salt and light.'"

Application

(1) This is a game-changing paradigm.

(Gospel Call)

(2) How do we apply this?

As a paradigm, I think this is a healthy and balanced way of thinking about how Christians should interact with our world today.

The United States is less like Jerusalem and more like Babylon.

We may be citizens of the United States, but our ultimate allegiance is to King Jesus.

We are in Exile. We are Citizens of Heaven who are living as Citizens of Babylon.

And in that way, we have more in common with our brothers and sisters in Christ — other Citizens of Heaven — who live in China and India and Uruguay and Singapore and Nigeria then we do with our next door neighbor who is not a Christian.

Exile in Babylon is a way of thinking about what it means to live in this present age. And our true and final home isn’t here. It’s in Heaven. It’s in the New Creation.

And yet, God has sovereignly placed you and me here in this place at this time, even as He has sovereignly placed our brothers and sisters in other places all around the globe.

And God is calling us as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven who are in Exile in a pagan land serving pagan gods — This great command still stands, refracted through the lens of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the promise of His Return:

Jeremiah 29:7 (ESV)

7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

While we wait for our exile to end, we have work to do.

We’re to be in the world, but not of the world. We live in Babylon serving a different King. Caesar is not Lord, Jesus is Lord. But while we’re here, we seek the welfare of our city, for the glory of God and the good of others.

That’s an all-encompassing approach to living in this world.

Work and Leisure

Family and Education

Art and Science

Poetry and Sports

Philosophy and Construction

Politics and History

Engineering and Ecology

The way we live in the world should be viewed through our distinctive way of living as children of God, as citizens of Heaven.

And we know that the kingdom of this world will not become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ until Jesus returns to make every wrong right.

But in the space between Exile and Going Home, our job is faithful presence.

(3) What does this mean for politics?

This is an election year (shocker)

My job as a pastor is to lay out what the Bible says clearly and straightforwardly, and then allow individual Christians to apply Biblical principles to specific decisions.

I’m extremely hesitant to talk about politics in the pulpit. And we can talk about that some other time if you want.

I’m not going to comment on the nature of political parties and political candidates. I’m very happy to punch Right and punch Left in different and not morally equivalent ways.

But one of the practical ways I think this “seek the welfare of the city” principle works out is when we have a practical, tangible way to promote human flourishing, we take that opportunity to do so.

If I said it would be right to enshrine a fundamental right to lynching in our state Constitution, what would you say?

If I told you that it would be good for human flourishing and the wholeness and the shalom and the well-being of human community to enshrine a fundamental right to child abuse in our state Constitution, what would you say?

I’ve preached on this issue before — not as a political issue but as a biblical justice issue — the Bible is crystal clear — from the Creation of humanity in the image of God in Genesis 1, to the protection of human life in Genesis 9, to the wonder and value of unborn life in Psalm 139, with the joyful chorus, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” calling for a fundamental right to abortion —as AZ Proposition 139 does — is more egregious than if we were to call for a fundamental right to lynching or child abuse. The moral and legal reasoning is the same. A society in which the most vulnerable of human beings— little baby boys and girls—can be killed with state sanction is a society that celebrates death.

And I believe one way that we can seek the welfare of the city in which we find ourselves in Exile is by pushing back against the culture of death.

You know what, in this day and this age, our fellow citizens might decide to approve Prop 139 and enshrine a fundamental right to abortion. If that happens, our job won’t change.

But right now, while we have the opportunity to speak into that question, I believe we have a s

Big Idea (Poem):

"When darkness falls and blinds our sight, When all we feel is fight or flight, God, by His Son, speaks in our night: 'A better way is salt and light.'"

“It is not strength that overcomes darkness, but light. Armies may rise, hearts may fail, yet still light endures. And it is mightier than strength. For in its presence, all darkness must flee.”