Life in Babylon and the Promise of Return

[Read Jeremiah 29:4-14]

How do you respond when you’ve lost everything? Or maybe a less dramatic question is: How do you respond when things continually keep going wrong? There are a variety of ways people respond in these types of situations. Some people immediately enter into despair, and basically curl up into a ball and quit. Some people do the opposite, they ramp everything up a notch, try to pull themselves and everything else up by the bootstraps, and try to pull themselves out of the mess on their own strength. Others immediately fall into more of a victim mindset—which is another form of despair really, although quitting looks a lot more like complaining about the situation. Yet, most of the time, complaining is just another form of quitting, but it feels like you’re not quitting. Others will do everything in their power to try to summon up some form of positivity and hope in the situation—often grabbing hold of false forms of hope that will eventually let them down. 

Setting the context of this morning’s passage, God’s people are experiencing all of these various temptations. They are definitely in a situation where it seems like things keep going wrong continually, but it’s much worse than that. They could pretty honestly say that they’ve lost everything. One commentator says this, “The exiles had lost everything but their lives and what few possessions they could carry with them to Babylon. They’d lost their freedom and were now captives. They’d been taken from their homes and had lost their means of making a living. They were separated from relatives and friends, some of whom may have perished in the long march from Jerusalem to Babylon. No matter how they looked at it, the situation seemed hopeless.” (Wiersbe). So, how did they respond in this situation? What were they doing?

We get a glimpse into the reaction of some people in the middle of this morning's passage. We read, “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, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 29:8–9, ESV). So, in this midst of all of this turmoil, loss, and hopelessness some false prophets rise up and begin lying. They begin claiming that they are speaking on behalf of God, when God has not sent them. They claim that they are having dreams and revelations about things that God has not given them. It’s pretty bad stuff. 

Here’s the question: What are these prophets telling the people? We get a glimpse of their message in various parts throughout Jeremiah. Earlier in the book we read, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14, ESV). Before I dive into that one, let me share one more passage with you. It says, “So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’” (Jeremiah 27:9, ESV). From these two passages, you get a pretty clear understanding of the message of these false prophets. They’re basically saying, “It’s fine. Don’t worry about this exile. It’s not going to be that long. You’re not actually going to have to serve the king of Babylon.” You could almost say that their message would be considered “uplifting and encouraging.” And to that message, in this situation, God says, “Don’t listen to them. I didn’t send them.” 

I think this is a really important reminder/word for all of us. I think these prophets thought they were doing a good thing. These prophets looked out at the people of God, saw their despair, saw their hopelessness and wanted to give them some hope. They wanted to lift their spirits. They wanted to encourage them. But what they were actually doing is dealing out a false hope that would eventually let them down and leave them in a much more difficult situation. God says, “Don’t listen to them!” 

This is an important lesson to us because we’re tempted to do this on a regular basis. We love people. We hate to see them hurting. We hate to see them struggling and in hopeless, difficult situations. We want to help. And often, we want to come to them and heal the wound lightly. We want to say “Peace, Peace” when there is no peace. We want to tell them, “Don’t worry, this struggle, this suffering, this difficulty isn’t going to last long. It’s going to go away soon. So just hold on.” We don’t know that. We have no idea how long it’s going to last. And if we deal out false hope to someone, we’re actually not helping them out. What we’re doing is setting them up for failure and even greater disappointment in the long run. It is not loving to give someone false hope. That’s why God says, “Don’t listen to these false prophets who are lying to you and giving you false hope. I didn’t send them.” 

Instead, God says, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon…For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon…” (Jeremiah 29:4, 10; ESV). This is God’s way of telling them that he’s the one who sent them into exile and that it’s going to be a long time. We all know that the number seventy has lots of symbolic meaning attached to it with it being a multiple of seven and ten. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be exactly seventy years, but could simply mean that it’s going to be a long time and it’s going to be a complete amount of time (it won’t end early). So, in the midst of the false prophets dealing out a false hope, saying “It’s alright. Don’t worry. It’s not going to be that long,” God says, “Nope. It’s not alright. You really messed up. It’s going to be a long time. You’re going to be in this situation for a long time.” He’s not saying that because he’s being mean. He’s not saying that because he wants to steal their comfort and hope. He’s saying that because it’s true AND he wants them to find their comfort and hope in the truth—not in a lie. This also has some reminiscence to last week’s sermon which reminded us that God’s timing is not our timing. 

God also tells them how he wants them to live in the midst of this reality—as they wait in exile. How are they to live knowing that they will continue in this difficult, seemingly hopeless situation that is going to last a long time? They are not to play the role of the despairing person. They are not to play the role of the activist. They are not to play the role of the complainer. So, what does he tell them to do? He says, “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 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.” (Jeremiah 29:5–6, ESV). In many ways God is simply telling them to be faithful. You don’t quit and complain, just build houses, plant gardens, raise your family. Be faithful in doing what he has called you to do. You don’t start a campaign to overthrow Babylon, but build houses, plant gardens, and raise your family. Be faithful. That’s what God’s people are called to do in exile—and when it seems like they’ve lost everything. 

Again, this is an important reminder because there are some specific temptations that come when you’ve lost everything. The temptation is to try to adopt the strategies and tactics of the world to get your stuff back. There’s a temptation to say, “Well, following God didn’t help me out, so why not try something different?” Or a temptation to say, “Well, I wouldn’t normally do this or act this way, but in this situation I’m being forced to do this thing or act this way.” Or to use another analogy, we quickly become like the gambler who has lost all of his money, but keeps trying to win it all back in one hand. We want to fix the problem and we want to fix it now. We don’t have to wait.  God’s response to all of that is, “Don’t fall into that temptation. Don’t try to fix it all with a shortcut. You’re going to be here for a while. Accept that. Trust me. And do the basic things that I’ve told you to do. Be faithful.” 

If you think about it, much of what God tells them to do in Babylon is what God has told them to do from the beginning. What was the command that he gave to Adam and Eve in the garden? “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:28, ESV). Doesn’t that sound a lot like the command to build houses, plant gardens, and raise a family? Pretty close. What about God’s promise to Abraham that we looked at a couple weeks ago? “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2, ESV). How is Abraham going to become a great nation? Well, he’s going to build houses, plant gardens, and raise a family. Even to harken back to last week’s sermon. What did God’s people do while in Egypt? Figuratively, they built houses, planted gardens, and raised families. Really, it's all summed up with that last phrase in this morning’s passage: “…multiply there, and do not decrease.” (Jeremiah 29:6, ESV). This is how God’s people live in exile and how they live in the midst of trials and difficulties and situations that seem absolutely hopeless—they remain faithful and keep doing what God has called them to do. 

But there is more to this. It’s about faithfully building and multiplying in the place God has given us. It doesn’t matter if we’re in a foreign land, if we’re sitting on cloud nine, or if we’ve lost everything. We take what God has given us and remain faithful with what we have. Actually, we take what God has given us and we use that to build and multiply where we’re at. If God has put us in a place and situation where we feel like we’ve lost everything, we take what we have left—however little—and we start building and multiplying with that to the glory of God. 

This is a very practical example of what I was talking about a couple weeks ago with Abraham in the Promised Land. Remember how I talked about the way that Abraham walked through the Promised Land slowly building altars and claiming every square inch of that land for God? This is how we do that same thing today in whatever form of exile we find ourselves. We begin to claim every square inch of creation for God by simply being faithful with what God has given us and using that to build and multiply to the Glory of God. And as we do that, and continue to do that, it continues to multiply and spreads like leaven through a batch of dough. This is what they do while they wait in exile. 

Notice something else very significant in these instructions from God to his people in exile. He says, “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.” (Jeremiah 29:7, ESV). Not only are they to build and multiply and remain faithful to God in the midst of exile, but they are to do these things in such a way that it blesses the city they are in. 

In some ways, there’s something fairly unusual in this passage. God tells his people that they will find their welfare in the city. Does that catch you off guard at all? It catches me off guard a little because I would have expected God to say something like, “Find your welfare in me while in exile,” but that’s not what he says. He says that if things are good in the city, things will be good in their life. On a practical level, that makes sense, right? It’s much easier for us to live in a place where there is religious freedom and prosperity. These are good things AND God tells us to work toward these things in the place he has given us. We talked about this a little bit a few months ago when we talked about the role of government in society, that one of the roles of government is to create a society that allows for the gospel to spread easily. This passage tells us that we also have a role in that. We’re to work and serve—build and multiply—in such a way that it’s not just about us, not just about our church, and not even just about the Christians in our community. We are to build and multiply in such a way that it causes the city itself to be blessed. Does that sound familiar to you? Remember God’s promise to Abraham? “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing…and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”” (Genesis 12:2–3, ESV).

There’s one more aspect of life that God calls us to pursue while in exile—or while in a hopeless situation. This comes under the portion of the passage that is more of a promise, but it’s worded in such a way that it’s a reminder to the people of how they are to live in the midst of that promise. God 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.” (Jeremiah 29:12–13, ESV). They got into this difficult situation by NOT doing these things. They had not sought God, they had not been praying to him, they had been doing whatever was right in their own eyes. That’s what got them into exile in the first place. God tells them that eventually they will call upon him, pray to him, and seek him with all their heart—and they will find him. 

Yet, this is more than just a promise to God’s people, it’s a reminder of how we are to live wherever we are. It doesn’t matter if we’re in the Promised Land or if we’re in exile, God calls us to seek him—and not just to go through the motions, and not to seek him half-heartedly (only on the weekends). God calls us to seek him with all of our heart—with every fiber in our being, in every aspect of our life. In times of exile, that means keeping our eyes on him as we build our houses, as we plant our gardens, and we raise our families. Always keeping our eyes on him, seeking him, seeking his will, seeking to be led and guided by him in everything we do. In many ways, it’s seeking God’s guidance on how best to build and multiply with what he has given us—whether it be much or little. 

I can also tell you that seeking God in this way is completely incompatible with all of the other possible responses I talked about earlier in the sermon. You cannot live and act like a victim and seek God with all your heart. You cannot live and act like an activist who relies on yourself and seek God with all your heart. You cannot live and act like someone who is hopeless and in despair and seek God with all your heart. To seek God with all of your heart means to trust him with all of your heart. One commentator had this great line, “One of the first steps in turning tragedy into triumph is to accept the situation courageously and put ourselves into the hands of a loving God, who makes no mistakes.” (Wiersbe).

Now, in this season of Advent, it’s important to remember that there is more in store for us beyond the exile of this life—beyond the trials and difficulties and sorrow we experience here. This is the true hope that we have in the midst of our exile—not some fake hope that will let us down. The true hope we have is in the God we seek with our whole heart. This is the message he gave his people in exile. He told them to stop listening to the false prophets who were telling them that it was alright and that it wasn’t going to be long, but then he says, “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. 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. 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.” (Jeremiah 29:10–14, ESV). You’re going to be there a long time, but eventually I will come for you. I will come for you and I will deliver you from this place and I will bring you into the land that I have promised you. THAT is a true and lasting hope that we can hold onto. 

That promise becomes very real to us this time of year as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ—who is the ultimate fulfillment of that promise. Jesus is the one who ultimately came for us in the midst of our exile—in the midst of our suffering and difficulty and shame—to rescue us and deliver us from our sin and shame. It’s also Jesus who has promised that even in the midst of the trials and struggles of this world, that we have a true hope in him because he has overcome the world. And we have a hope that Jesus’ first coming to bring salvation and deliverance was only the beginning, and that he has promised that he will come again to bring a total and complete deliverance to all of creation and to all of his people. 

Until that day, we continue to build houses in hope, plant gardens in hope, raise families in hope, and seek him with all our heart.