Jeremiah warned the Jews who had been left in Jerusalem that
they should yield to the Babylonians. He
also sent a message to those who had been taken captive telling them the same
thing, in Jeremiah 29:1-7. “Now these are the words of the letter that
Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which
were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all
the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to
Babylon; (After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the
princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were
departed from Jerusalem;) By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and
Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God
of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be
carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; Build ye houses, and dwell in them;
and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and
daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands,
that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not
diminished. And seek the peace of the
city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the
LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.”
If they would simply yield, making a life for themselves in
Babylon and trusting God, they would be at peace even though they were ruled by
the Babylonians. Prophets and political
leaders who tried to impose Jewish customs and laws on the Babylonians were not
from God. God had decreed that they were
to stay in Babylon seventy years as Jeremiah 29:8-11. “For
thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your
diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your
dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For
they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the
LORD. For thus saith the LORD, That
after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my
good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
God had brought them into captivity because of their
rebellion against him. If they would seek
him in their captivity, he would bless them, and enable them to return to their
own land when their time of captivity ended, as he told them in Jeremiah
29:12-14. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go
and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye
shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD:
and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the
nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and
I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away
captive.”
They already had prophets and political leaders encouraging
them to refuse to assimilate and hold protests in hopes the Babylonians would
free them. God warned that following those
leaders would cause racial conflict and
religious persecution, because they were rebelling against his will, in
Jeremiah 29:15-19. “Because ye have said, The LORD hath raised us up prophets in Babylon; Know
that thus saith the LORD of the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and
of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not
gone forth with you into captivity; Thus saith the LORD of hosts; behold, I
will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make
them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. And I will persecute them with the sword, with
the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all
the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing,
and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them: Because they
have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my
servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear,
saith the LORD.”
There is a very important message for Christians today in
this story. God is in charge of
everything that happens in our life.
Sometimes he allows bad things to happen to us, but if we allow him to
have his way, as Romans 8:28 says, “…we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who
are the called according to his purpose.”
When we rebel and try to make it come out the way we want it, we
make things worse for ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment