Jeremiah 29:1-7
God’s Not Finished
Outline:
I. \\#Jer 1:1-19\\ Jeremiah’s Calling
II. \\#2:1-37\\ God’s Case Against Judah
III. \\#3:1-25\\ Israel’s Three Time Zones
IV. \\#4:1-6:30\\ Sins and Judgments
V. \\#7:1-\\ Some Specific Messages
A. \\#Jer 7:1-34\\ A Message to the Religious
B. \\#Jer 8:1-22\\ A Message to the Continuous Backslider
C. \\#Jer 9:1-10:25\\ A Message to the Believer
D. \\#Jer 11:1-12:6\\ A Message About Jeremiah
E. \\#Jer 12:7-17\\ A Message to the Pastors
1. \\#Jer 12:7-9\\ An Astonishing Statement
2. \\#Jer 12:10-13\\ A Horrendous Failure
3. \\#Jer 12:14-17\\ A Strange Invitation
F. \\#Jer 13:1-7\\ A Message of Ruin
G. \\#Jer 15:15-21\\ Message to Self - Feet of Clay
H. \\#Jer 21:1-7\\ A Message to Zedekiah - The News
I. \\#Jer 22:1-2, Jer 24:1-3\\ A Message to the People -
Don’t Miss the Ride Out
J. \\#Jeremiah 25:1-3\\ A Message about Nebuchadnezzer -
The King Is Coming
H. \\#Jer 27:1-7\\ A Message to the Nations - Bad to Worse
I. \\#Jer 29:1-7\\ A Message of the Future - God's Not
Finished
Jeremiah had been giving out bad news and more bad news. God did not
want to leave the people with the thought that He was finished with
Israel so in the next three chapters God shared with the people their
future. This is a passage like the prophecies of Daniel, Ezekiel, and
Revelation—except it is before all of those. It is one of the first
passages to give such details of the tribulation and millennial reign.
The time and occasion of this message is the reign of Zedekiah
\\#3\\, the last king of Judah. He is mentioned as sending an
ambassador, Elasah, to Babylon. Jeremiah gave a copy of this message
to Elasah to deliver to the captives in Babylon. Remember by the time
of Zedekiah, Neb had humbled Judah on two occasions, once to remove
Jehoiakim and again to remove Jehoiachin. This chapter along with
chapters 30 and 31 give God’s plan for Israel, a plan which goes well
into the future. Let’s consider it.
I. The captives are stuck in Babylon.
A. This is not new.
1. Jeremiah had told them that they would be in Babylon
for seventy years \\#Jer 25:11, 12\\.
2. \\#Jer 29:10\\ He tells them that again.
B. Among all the bad news these Jews had been receiving, the
captives are being told to get used to it and to adjust
to it.
Jer 29:5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them;
and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
6 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.
7 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.
1. This is indeed a sad state of affairs for Israel.
2. For the Jews to be out of the land meant that they
were away from their God.
(a) They could offer no sacrifices or make
atonement while in Babylon.
(b) They could not properly remember their days
of victory or celebrate their holy days in
Babylon.
(c) In short, they could give no worship in Babylon.
3. Why would God do this? Because those things that
we do not use for God’s glory, we lose.
(a) Israel was not going to do any of those
things if they stayed in the land so God
removed them!
Luke 12:48 …to whomsoever much is given, of him
shall be much required….
(b) We have Bibles. Do we read them?
(c) We have churches. Do we attend them?
(c) We have opportunities. Do we avail ourselves
of them?
C. What is to happen to the Jews still in Judah?
1. Judgment
Jer 29:16 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;
17 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.
18 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:
19 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.
2. Again, nothing new there.
3. Jeremiah keeps repeating the same message because
people keep refusing to hear it! Sin brings
judgment!
II. The captives will be delivered.
Jer 29:10 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.
11 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.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go
and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye
shall search for me with all your heart.
14 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.
A. This is not an allegorical prophecy or even an end time
prophecy.
1. God fulfilled it all as recorded in the historical
books of Ezra & Nehemiah and the prophetical books of
Haggai and Zechariah.
2. I have noticed that this return to the land does
not have all of the mightily miracles as their first
entrance into the land, but God was with the people
and give them back their place.
B. For a short time, the people did have a heart to serve
God.
1. Unfortunately, that godly spirit did not last long.
2. Read about it in the book of Malachi.
3. Then the 400 years of silence and spiritual darkness
set upon Israel and that is the state we find them in
when Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John begin to write
about the birth of Messiah.
4. Yet God did bring His people back from captivity and
His Spirit did rest upon them again.
III. There is a plan - Jeremiah 30.
A. Jeremiah has not given us a lot of end time prophecies.
1. \\#Jer 30:3\\ God commands Jeremiah to write a book.
a. I take it that it is around this time that
Jeremiah began to write his messages, both those
he had preached and those he would preach.
b. This gives us an idea of what the Bible is all
about.
(1) Inspiration - God gave to Jeremiah the words
he was to speak and to write. I think God
used Jeremiah’s vocabulary and style to
write the words but the words were from God.
(2) Purpose - God wanted the message to abide and
to reach the people. The Bible may be the
Word OF God but it is the Word FOR the
people.
2. \\#Jer 30:7\\ "Jacob’s trouble"
a. This is the only time it is used in the Bible but
it is a definite reference to the tribulation.
b. Jeremiah does not spend as much time recording
the suffering that will come during the
tribulation as he does describing Israel’s
deliverance from it.
c. The suffering and scattering of the Babylonian
conquest would be similar to what will happen in
the future.
B. This message gives us three major thoughts.
1. There will be another time of great affliction.
a. These are mostly promises of deliverance but look
at what the people will have to be delivered
from…
b. \\#Jer 30:8\\ They will be harnessed with another
yoke.
(1) That is, another nation or power and ruler
will rule over them.
(2) That will be the anti-Christ.
c. \\#Jer 30:10\\ Their seed will be scattered and
captive.
(1) Many of our generation have seen God give
the land of Israel back to the Jews and we
have been watching them regather in Israel.
(2) I do not believe that is the fulfillment of
these prophecies.
(a) What happened in 70 AD was a church age
scattering and what happened in 1948
was a church age regathering.
(b) When the rapture occurs and the Jewish
clock resumes, I believe Israel will be
in the land as they were when they
rejected their Messiah.
(c) So in essence, I don’t believe anything
that happened to Israel during the
church age effects the prophecies given
to Israel.
(d) Israel will be scattered out of their
land and taken captive again when the
tribulation starts.
d. \\#Jer 30:16\\ They will have been devoured by
other nations.
(1) My understanding was that last month John
Kerry produced his own peace accord for
Israel and the Palestinians and was a heart-
beat away from forcing it upon Israel, no
doubt with the threat that if Israel did not
comply the US would cut off certain
benefits.
(2) The only thing that stopped him was President
Obama would did not give the final consent.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Our-World-Kerry-forces-
Israels-moment-of-decision-335208
2. All of these judgments will come upon them because of
their sin.
a. Why will all of this happen?
(1) \\#Jer 30:11\\ God is giving them a
"measured" correction.
(2) \\#Jer 30:12-14\\ Israel has been inflected
with the incurable wound of sin.
b. All sin is an evil but the sin that Israel will
suffer and be corrected for in this time period
is the sin of rejecting their Messiah.
(1) All of the rebellion that Israel has ever
committed pales in view of the great sin of
all sins!
(2) For the last 2,000 years, Israel has suffered
from this disease but the pain will continue
to get worse and worse.
(3) The only thing that will ever stop the
disease is to accept Jesus. He is the Cure.
3. God’s purpose here is to comfort the people by telling
them of future blessing, a time when they will have
accepted the Cure and be healed.
a. This is end time.
b. \\#Jer 30:16\\ God will destroy the nations which
destroyed Israel.
c. \\#Jer 30:17\\ God will heal the wounds of sin.
d. \\#Jer 30:18\\ God will bring Israel into the land
give them their land, their joy \\#19\\, their
population\\#20\\, and their rulers \\#21\\.
e. \\#Jer 30:22\\ All of this means the Jews will be
saved.
f. \\#Jer 31:31-34\\ God will give them a new
covenant.
(1) This sounds very much like our covenant of
grace with God, but I think it will be a
bit different.
(2) For example - their reward will be the land
and ours is heaven.
(3) I think they will also continue to offer
sacrifices as a part of their covenant,
not for salvation but for a memorial as to
what God has done.
(4) However, I do believe that the Jews will be
indwelt with the Holy Ghost and He will be
their Teacher \\#Jer 31:34\\.
IV. The plan is confirmed in the New Testament - Romans 11
A. \\#1\\ Has God forsaken Israel?
1. There are some who believe that He has despite what
the Bible says.
a. They believe that the church will inherit—in some
form or another—the blessings and promises of
the church.
(1) Obviously this kind of view came into being
during the 1800 years when there was no
Israel.
(2) Why it still exists today is beyond me.
b. Those who hold this view are Bible critics who
call themselves Christians but refuse to accept
what the Bible says.
c. They think they know more than the Bible.
d. A term often used to describe those who hold to
this view is Replacement Theology.
2. The roots of this false teaching were already present
in Paul’s lifetime.
a. From what we can tell, Romans was written BEFORE
70 AD and the destruction Jerusalem and
scattering of the Jews.
b. Yet some felt then as some feel today, that the
Jews had sinned away the privilege of being used
by God.
B. Notice that Paul answers his own question.
1. "God forbid."
2. That is a negative answer. The strongest that Paul
ever gives.
C. Then Paul goes on to teach us somethings about God and His
people, the Jews.
1. \\#Rom 11:2-5\\ God will always have a few.
a. \\#5\\ That remnant will be the few who will
accept God’s grace during the church age.
b. These will have dual citizenship. They will
belong both to the church and to the nation of
Israel.
2. \\#Rom 11:25-27\\ But there is coming a day when God
will remove the Jew’s blindness and they will be
saved.
This is the future of Israel. It was mapped out over 2500 years ago
and we wait for the last and the greatest pages of the God’s promises
to be fulfilled. We are close and getting closer every day.
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