Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 28-30.

In today’s passage, Jeremiah addresses false prophets in both Jerusalem and among those already exiled to Babylon.  Apparently, these “prophets” were telling their audiences that Babylon would fall in a short time; the prophet in Jerusalem whose prophecies were, at least partially, recorded here said that the power of Babylon would be broken within two years time.  Jeremiah responded that historically, the prophets whom God had sent prophesied war, disaster, and plague.  Therefore, he said, those who prophesy peace must be held suspect until their prophecies were fulfilled.  A corollary to the false prophecies of peace for Jerusalem was that those already exiled would soon return.

However, Jeremiah prophesied that those already exiled should reconcile themselves with remaining in exile because God was not going to bring them back until seventy years had passed.  Further Jeremiah told the exiles to seek the peace and prosperity of the city in which they found themselves, even though they were living in exile.  They were foreigners living in a land which was not their own, but God told them to seek the peace and prosperity of the land to which He had sent them.  In the same way, we who serve Christ are foreigners in a land which is not our own.  Yet we also should seek its peace and prosperity.

The final point I want to make is that the people in Jerusalem, and even the exiles themselves, thought that the exiles were abandoned by God.  But the message God gave them through Jeremiah said that nothing could be farther from the truth.  God had plans for them, plans for them to prosper and have a future.  God has similar plans for us.  He told the exiles that they would seek Him, and that when they did so with all of their heart, they would find Him.  So, God has plans to prosper us.  Seek Him, seek Him with all of your heart.  No matter how far you think you are from Him.  He is closer than you can imagine.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.