Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people: “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed from here and took to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the other exiles from Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”
Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord. He said, “Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the Lord’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.”
Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it, and he said before all the people, “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon off the neck of all the nations within two years.’” At this, the prophet Jeremiah went on his way.
After the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Go and tell Hananiah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but in its place you will get a yoke of iron. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will put an iron yoke on the necks of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will serve him. I will even give him control over the wild animals.’”
Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’”
In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died.

• Jeremiah 28:1-17

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. (This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.) He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said:
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.
This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to 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 will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
You may say, “The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,” but this is what the Lord says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city, your fellow citizens who did not go with you into exile—yes, this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse and an object of horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them. For they have not listened to my words,” declares the Lord, “words that I sent to them again and again by my servants the prophets. And you exiles have not listened either,” declares the Lord.
Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying lies to you in my name: “I will deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will put them to death before your very eyes. Because of them, all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned in the fire.’ For they have done outrageous things in Israel; they have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and in my name they have uttered lies—which I did not authorize. I know it and am a witness to it,” declares the Lord.
Tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You sent letters in your own name to all the people in Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the other priests. You said to Zephaniah, ‘The Lord has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada to be in charge of the house of the Lord; you should put any maniac who acts like a prophet into the stocks and neck-irons. So why have you not reprimanded Jeremiah from Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you? He has sent this message to us in Babylon: It will be a long time. Therefore build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.’”
Zephaniah the priest, however, read the letter to Jeremiah the prophet. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Send this message to all the exiles: ‘This is what the Lord says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I did not send him, and has persuaded you to trust in lies, this is what the Lord says: I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good things I will do for my people, declares the Lord, because he has preached rebellion against me.’”

• Jeremiah 29:1-32

To read Jeremiah 30:1-24, click this link HERE.

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Jeremiah 28:1 ‘reign of Zedekiah’: “Cf. 27:1; … The fourth year would be about 593 B.C. Hananiah. This man was one of several by this name in Scripture; in this case, he was a foe of God’s true prophet, distinct from the loyal Hananiah of Dan. 1:6.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 28:2-3 ‘I have broken the yoke’: “The false prophet, of the kind Jeremiah warned in 27: 14-16, predicted victory over Babylon and the return of the temple vessels within two years. In actuality, Babylon achieved its third and conclusive victory in conquering Judah eleven years later (586 B.C.) as in chapters 39, 40, 52.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 28:4 ‘Bring back … Jeconiah’: “This rash, false claim fell into ignominy. Jeconiah, soon taken to Babylon in 597 B.C., would live out his years there and not return to Jerusalem (52:31-34). Other captives either died in captivity, or didn’t return until sixty-one years later. Cf. 22:24-26.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Jeremiah 28:10 ‘took the yoke off’: “The phony prophet, in foolishness, removed the object lesson from the true spokesman and broke it as a sign of his own prediction coming true (cf. vv. 2-4, 11).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 28:15-17 ‘The Lord has not sent you.’: “Jeremiah told Hananiah that (1) God had not approved his message; (2) he was guilty of encouraging the people to trust in a lie, even rebellion; and (3) God would require his life that very year, 597 B.C. The true prophet’s word was authenticated by Hananiah’s death two months later (cf. v. 17).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Jeremiah 29 ‘Correspondence’: ”Several different letters are included in Jeremiah 29: a letter from Jeremiah to the exiles (vv. 1-14); a letter concerning Jewish false prophets in Babylon to which Jeremiah replied (vv. 15-23); a letter from Shemaiah to the temple priests concerning Jeremiah, which he read (vv. 24-29); and a letter from Jeremiah to the exiles concerning Shemaiah (vv. 50-32). Correspondence like this wasn’t difficult to maintain in those days, for there were regular diplomatic missions between Jerusalem and Babylon (v. 3), and Jeremiah had friends in high places in the government.”

• Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive

Jeremiah 29:4-10 ‘Jeremiah’s letter’: “Jeremiah’s counsel to Israelites in Babylon was to live as colonists, planning to be there for a long time (seventy years, 29:10, as 25:11). Further, they were to seek Babylon’s peace and intercede in prayer for it, their own welfare being bound with it (v. 7; cf. Ezra 6:10; 7:23).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 29:11-14 ‘A Hope for the Future’: “In Jeremiah 29:1-10, for the second time, Jeremiah predicts that the Babylonian captivity would last for 70 years. When he describes the restoration, he goes beyond the return from Babylon to the final restoration as signaled by the phrase ‘to give you a future and a hope’ (verse 11). In that day, he prophesies, there will be a national regeneration of Israel (verses 12-13) that will then bring in the final regathering—-a regathering in faith in preparation for the blessings of the kingdom (verse 14). Jeremiah does not say the people will be brought back from Babylon, but rather, that they will be regathered from all the nations where they have been scattered, which tells us this is more than just a Babylonian return.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Jeremiah 29:11 ‘punishment does not mean abandonment’: “Jeremiah wrote these words in a letter to the captives in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar carried away a considerable part of the people of Israel into a far country. Jeremiah exhorted them to build houses, form families, and abide peaceably in Babylon till the Lord should lead them back at the end of seventy years. At this time there was a general uneasy feeling among the Jews and other subjected nations who did not rest quietly under the iron yoke of Babylon. They were plotting and planning continual rebellions, and certain false prophets in Babylon worked with them, stirring up the spirit of revolt among the exiles. Jeremiah, on the other hand, assured the exiles that God had sent them into the land of the Chaldeans for good, bade them seek the peace of the city wherein they now dwelt, and promised them that, in due time, the Lord would again plant them in their own land.
“A people in such a position as the Jews in Babylon were in danger in two ways—either to be buoyed up with false hopes and so to fall into foolish expectations, or to fall into despair and have no hope at all—and so become a sullen and degraded race who would be unfit for restoration and unable to play the part God ordained for them in the history of humankind. Jeremiah had the double duty of putting down their false hopes and sustaining their right expectations. He, therefore, on the one hand, plainly warned them against expecting more than God had promised, and, on the other hand, he awakened them to look for the fulfillment of what God had promised (read v. 1 0).
‘I know the plans I have for you.’ The point here is that the Lord still had plans for them. The Lord never forgets his own. This truth, although it is easily spoken, is not readily comprehended in the fullness of its joy. Nor is it always believed as it should be. These people in captivity were likely to tear that their God had forgotten them; therefore, the Lord repeated his words in this place and speaks of his plans more than once. His words are repeated, as to seem almost redundant, out of a desire to make his people feel absolutely sure God still had plans for them. All the Lord was to do toward them was carefully planned.
“And then the Lord goes on a step further—the Lord would have us know that his plans for us are settled and definite. This is part of the intent of the words ‘I know the plans I have for you.’ With the Lord there is neither question nor debate. His plan is settled and he adheres to it. Now we are prepared to go even a step further, namely, that God’s plans toward his people are always plans for their well-being. His thoughts are ‘not for disaster.’ Still more, the Lord’s plans are all working toward an expected end, ‘to give you a future and a hope.’ God is working with a motive. All things are working together for one objective—the good of those who love God. God sees not only what he is doing but what will come of what he is doing. As to our present pain and grief, God saw not these, but he saw the future joy and usefulness that will come of them.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 29:13 ‘Wholeheartedness’: “Wholeheartedness is the quality required in every true seeker. This means three things. First, in order to find the Lord, there must be an undivided objective in the seeker‘s mind. The objective is one, and only one. Second, the phrase ‘with all your heart’ indicates ‘with the entire faculties of our being.’ A person must seek after God in Christ Jesus with his or her entire nature, including his memory, his conscience, and his will. Leave not a single part of your nature behind you when you come to God, but seek him with your whole heart, with intense eagerness and strong desire. Third, it signifies awakened energy. It includes the getting out of that dull, sluggish, indifferent spirit that seems so common. Indifference to eternal realities seems to impregnate the air we breathe in this world. We are busy about a thousand things but sluggish about our souls.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 29:13 ‘obedience’: “God being who He is must have obedience from His creatures. Man being who he is must render that obedience. And he owes God complete obedience whether or not he feels for Him the faintest trace of love in his heart. It is a question of the sovereign right of God to require His creatures to obey Him. Man’s first and basic sin was disobedience. When he disobeyed God he violated the claims of divine love with the result that love for God died within him. Now, what can he do to restore that love to his heart again? The answer to that question is given in one word: Repent.
“The heart that mourns its coldness toward God needs only to repent its sins, and a new, warm and satisfying love will flood into it. For the act of repentance will bring a corresponding act of God in self-revelation and intimate communion. Once the seeking heart finds God in personal experience there will be no further problem about loving Him. To know Him is to love Him and to know Him better is to love Him more.“

• A. W. Tozer, Root of the Righteous

Jeremiah 29:15-19 ‘Because you said’: “Still rejecting God’s true message, Jewish captives listened to false prophets among them (cf. vv. 8, 9, 21-23). This was the very sin which would cause God to send a further deportation to those still in Judah (586 B.C.).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 29:21-23 ‘Ahab … Zedekiah’: “Two captive, false Israelite prophets, who had been misleading exiles in Babylon (v. 15), will stir up the wrath of their captor king, who will cast them into a furnace (as in Dan. 3). They aroused not only the Babylonian potentate’s enmity, but God’s also, because of prophecies against His word and physical adultery (cf. 5:7).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Jeremiah 29:24-32 ‘Shemaiah’: “The judgment against Shemaiah, the otherwise unknown prophet, who opposed Jeremiah, was similar to that experienced by Hananiah (cf. 28:15-17).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Jeremiah 30-33 ‘The Book of Consolation’: “The prophetic discourse in Jeremiah 30-33 is called the Book of Consolation because that is its main theme: the consolation of Israel. Through most of his book, Jeremiah has been majoring on judgment and minoring on blessing. In these four chapters, he majors on blessing and minors on judgment.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Jeremiah 30-33 ‘book of consolation’: ”Bible scholars often call these four chapters the ‘Book of Consolation.’ In them, the Lord amplified the wonderful promise He gave to His people in the letter Jeremiah sent the Babylonian exiles: ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jer. 29:11 NIV).”

• Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive

Jeremiah 30:1-31:25 ‘The promised return’: ”Jeremiah received the words recorded in 30:1-31:25 while he was asleep (31:26), for God sometimes spoke to His servants through dreams (Dan. 10:9; Zech. 4:1). God instructed Jeremiah to write His words in a book (scroll) so the nation would have a permanent record of the promises God was giving to His people (see ]er. 36:1-4).
“In His instructions to Jeremiah, God stated the theme of His message: Israel (the northern kingdom, taken by Assyria in 722 BC) and Judah (the southern kingdom) will eventually return to their land as a united people (30:3). While this promise refers ultimately to the regathering of the Jews at the end of the age, it certainly was an encouragement to the exiles in Babylon, for if God can gather His people from all the nations of the world, surely He can deliver Judah from the captivity of one nation.”

• Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive

Jeremiah 30:1-3 ‘The Restoration of Israel and Judah’: “The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah (30:1), and Jeremiah was commanded to write (verse 2). Literally, the Hebrew text reads, ‘Write for yourself.’ In other words, Jeremiah is asked to write for himself and For his own personal benefit ‘all the words which I have spoken to you in a book.’ Instead of receiving a mostly negative message (as in the previous 29 chapters), Jeremiah will now receive a mostly positive message, and he is to put it together in a separate book, or more correctly, a separate scroll. Verse 3 gives a summary of what these four chapters contain: ‘ “For behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord.’ These words point to the prophetic future, in which God ‘will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah’ (NKJV). This is the basic theme throughout the four chapters in general and the first two chapters in particular; God will again bring the Jews—both houses of Israel—back into the Promised Land. God promises a future and then makes three supporting statements affirming that promise: first, ‘I will bring them back’; second, He will give them the land He gave to their fathers; and, third, they will possess it.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Jeremiah 30:2 ‘verbal inspiration’: “Observe that the Lord does not say to Jeremiah, ‘Write all the thought I have given you.’ We believe in verbal inspiration.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 30:4-7 ‘The Time of Jacob’s Distress’: “In Jeremiah 30:4, the prophecy regarding Israel’s restoration begins in earnest. God tells Jeremiah that the words he is about to write are the words of the Lord concerning both Israel and Judah.
“In verses 5-7, Jeremiah mentions the Great Tribulation. He begins with the voice of judgment (verse 5). Behold, it is ‘a voice of trembling, [a voice] of fear, and not of peace’ (NKJV). Rather than peace, there is the pain of childbirth (verse 6). ‘Ask now, and see if a male can give birth.’ The answer is no. If that is the case, then ‘why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, like a woman in labor,’ and all faces turned pale? (NKJV). The answer is that the day of the Lord, the Tribulation, has finally arrived. Concerning the Tribulation Jeremiah states in verse 7, ‘Alas! for that day is great.’ ‘That day’ is equal to what is elsewhere referred to as the ‘day of the LORD,’ the most common biblical name for the Great Tribulation. It is so severe that the verse states, ‘none [is] like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s distress.’ ”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Jeremiah 30:5 ‘first the need, then the blessing’: “‘Why?’ one might say, ‘l thought you began to read words of comfort. Now there is a drop!’ Yes, there always is. Whenever God is going to comfort a person, he first makes him see his need of comfort. There is always stripping before there is clothing! On God’s part there is always emptying before there is filling.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 30:7 ‘light in darkness’: “What a flash of lightning across the black face of the cloud!”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 30:8 ‘taking away our yoke’: “Here is a word for tried ones. God, who sometimes permits his child to wear the yoke of the oppressor, will take that yoke away. He will snap the bands that are around our necks and enable us to rise into the glorious liberty with which Christ makes his people free. Those who are enslaved may be of good comfort and may look for speedy deliverance through the power of the great emancipator.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 30:11 ‘our sorrow, our discipline’: “If we are God’s children, we will have to be brought home with many a tear and many a sigh. But our sorrow is a part of a heavenly discipline by which we will be saved.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 30:12-15 ‘The Healing of Zion’s Wounds’: “Jeremiah 30:12 describes Israel’s sickly state: ‘Your wound is incurable, and your injury is serious.’ In verse 13, ‘There is no one to plead your cause.’ There is no one who can apply bandages to Israel’s wounds; there is no one who can apply ‘healing medicines’ (NKJV). The ‘healing’ here is like that of new skin over a wound. The problem here is that new skin cannot grow. Verses 14-15 reveal that it was God who wounded Israel. He reminds the people that ‘all your lovers’—meaning the foreign gods with whom Israel has committed spiritual adultery—’have forgotten’ them. Those nations provided no healing balm for Israel. The reason Israel has been abandoned this way is that God has done the wounding ‘with the wound of an enemy, with the punishment of a cruel one.’ The reason it was necessary for God to wound Israel is that their ‘iniquity is great and [their] sins are numerous.’ ”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Jeremiah 30:14 ‘when God strikes …’: “God never gave his people permission to sin, and sin in them is worse than sin in any other people, for they sin against more light and more love. Therefore, it grieves the Lord more, and he strikes all the more heavily; and when God strikes, nobody can comfort us.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 30:16-17 ‘Zion’s Future’: “The One who has wounded Zion intends to heal Zion. He will do so in two stages (verses 16-17). In the first stage, God intends to punish the nations who inflicted the wound upon Zion. He promises that ‘all who devour you will be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity.’ Those who have despoiled Israel will become a spoil themselves, and all who prey upon Israel will be given for a prey. This is the principle of Genesis 12:3: ‘The one who curses you I will curse.’ In the second stage, God says, ‘I will restore you to health, and I will heal you of your wounds’ (verse 17). The reason He will do this is because Israel’s enemies ‘have called [Israel] an outcast’; they have called Zion a city that no man seeks. God will punish Israel’s armies, and He will heal Israel by forgiving her of her sins.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Jeremiah 30:16 ‘God’s Justice’: ” How striking is this sentence! And what a surprise it gives us as we read it. We might have thought that after the Lord had spoken as he did, that he would have given his people up to their enemies, but, instead of doing so, he says, ‘All who devoured you will be devoured.’ ”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 30:17 ‘When we are down to our last hope, God …’: “Here is the conclusion that can be drawn from the prophet’s premises. The argument seems to be, ‘Because your disease is incurable, therefore will I restore health unto you. Because no one else can heal your wounds, therefore I will heal them.’ We are blessed to feel that we are incurable, for then God will cure us. When there is an end of us, then we will begin with God. Oh, the sovereignty of divine grace! How it comes in when every hope is gone! A person’s extremity is God’s opportunity. If we are brought so low that we cannot go any lower, God will put his everlasting arms underneath us.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 30:21 ‘Jesus intercedes’: “There is One, whom we call Master and Lord, who approaches the throne of God on our behalf. Our glorious Savior, through his humanity, is one of us, and he appears before God on our his own purposes of love and behalf.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Jeremiah 30:23-24 ‘The Wrath of God’: “In this passage, Jeremiah points out that Israel must suffer the wrath of God before she reaches her national salvation. Verse 23 describes this wrath as ‘the tempest of the LORD,’ which is the ‘wrath [of God that] has gone forth.’ It is a ‘sweeping tempest,’ and ‘it will burst upon the head of the wicked.’ It describes that period of the divine wrath of God, the Great Tribulation. In verse 24, Jeremiah emphasizes the anger of God: ‘The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has performed and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart.’ The anger of God will not subside, will not be appeased, will not settle down, will not be comforted, until God has executed all the judgment that He intends to execute. This divine judgment upon the world in general—and Israel in particular—will bring about Israel’s national salvation.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

 

My Thoughts

The main focus of Jeremiah 28 is a debate, of sorts, between Hananiah, a false prophet, and Jeremiah.  Hananiah declares that King Jeconiah, the other exiles, and the things stolen from the temple will all be restored and returned to Jerusalem.  Jeremiah applauds him, but Jeremiah had already prophesied that anyone making this claim was a false prophet and would meet a bad end.  Jeremiah went home, where God gave him a rebuttal.

Jeremiah returned to the palace.  Hananiah then broke the yoke that Jeremiah had brought as an object lesson.  Hananiah used the object lesson to show how “God” was going to break the yoke of Babylon.  He said that the yoke of Babylon will be an iron yoke. Jeremiah told Hananiah that he would not live to see the new year, and indeed, Hananiah died two months later.

In Jeremiah 29 Jeremiah sends a letter to the exiles.  It stated that they would not be rescued for 70 years.  They were to build houses and marry.  They were to increase in number.  They were to plant crops.  They were to pray to God that the city where they lived would be blessed.  A blessed city meant they would be blessed also.  But he gave a warning that Ahab and Zedekiah, two false prophets among the exiles, were telling lies and Nebuchadnezzar would burn them in a furnace, similar to how Nebuchadnezzar tried to kill Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  And these two false prophets met that end.

Shemaiah sent a letter in return to complain about Jeremiah’s letter.  In Jeremiah’s reply, Shemaiah and his family would be punished for spreading this false prophecy.

Jeremiah 30 begins the Book of Consolation.  The remaining three chapters will be covered next week.  But even in a book of good news that God will be faithful to His people.  Jeremiah starts by asking why men are holding their abdomen.  It clearly states that men cannot bear children, but the context is that in the end times, the Great Tribulation, humanity will suffer, but a new king, from the line of David will emerge and the people would be restored.  In fact, the fortunes of Jacob’s tents will be restored, not just a people returned to their home land.  Even so, God will discipline in due measure.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

“Jeremiah 28: 1. As with alleged prophets for ancient Israel, today’s political advisors also give opposing advice, often to protect the invested interests. How do you know whom to believe? What political opinion have you recently changed? Why?
“2. ‘if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all,’ the saying goes. Do you agree? Why is it often easier to say something good (as did Hananiah) rather than the truth (as did Jeremiah)?
“3. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about future prospects for lasting peace? What shapes your outlook? What role does your faith play in that?
“4. Are you having trouble deciding something important right now? How can the group help out?
“Jeremiah 29: 1. Do you think God uses evil to accomplish good: (a) Never, at least not in my life? (b) Sometimes, as in Jeremiah‘s life? (c) Always, as in ancient Israel and the early Church? What support for your answer do you find in Scripture? In personal observation?
“2. Is there any randomness in life as Jeremiah has experienced it? As you have experienced it? Explain.
“3. Have you ever seen God bring good out of bad situations in your life, as in verses 11-14? What happened? Could there have been an easier way to learn that lesson?
“4. As a ‘wonderful plan for life,’ what do you think of verses 5-7? Do you aspire to something else? What?
“5. Who might think of you in any sense as a ‘madman’? Or do you blend in pretty well?
“6. Is criticism hard to take in writing? What makes it easier? When‘s the last time you gave criticism successfully?
“Jeremiah 30: 1. ls it easy for you to detach yourself emotionally from people who were once important to you? After a falling out, does ‘out of sight, out of mind’ come naturally? Would you like a ‘restoration’ with someone from your past? How could it happen?
“2. What and how could your fortunes be restored: (a) More money, for less work? (b) More friends, for less energy? (c) More knowledge, for less time? (d) Other: ___? Explain how you are truly fortunate.”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Each chapter has one set of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.