Jeremiah 29:3
The letter was entrusted to Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It stated:
Sermons
The Letter to the CaptivesD. Young Jeremiah 29:1-7
Duties and Consolations of God's CaptivityA.F. Muir Jeremiah 29:1-14














I. THEIR DUTIES The imposition of definite lines of conduct and policy upon the exiled, was one proof that they were not cast off; the promise of deliverance was another. Although amongst the heathen, they were not to be as the heathen; neither were they to be wholly given over to despair. As children of God they were to exhibit the virtues of:

1. Industry. (Ver. 5.) Misanthropy and despair are the parents of idleness; Divine faith endues men with energy. The exiles had a testimony to bear before the heathen. It was a present duty to achieve an honest independence.

2. Domestic attachment. (Ver. 6,) The family, with all its joys and responsibilities, is still to be cared for. If the present be forfeited the future is still capable of being redeemed. The new generations would reap the advantages of which the fathers had been deprived.

3. Public spirit. (Ver. 7.) They were not to abstain from the duties of citizenship merely because they were amongst heathen conquerors. Even there they might exert an influence for good. The fundamental law of God's kingdom is to seek the good of all men. Work faithfully rendered to the commonwealth would not be vain or without its reward. Even the heathen and the men of this world can appreciate good citizenship. That a distinctive work and testimony still remained to the Church as a Church, is no reason for neglecting those less direct and more general duties which so powerfully commend the religious profession that inculcates them.

4. Cheerfulness. This is not so much to be classified along with the preceding as to be understood as the spring and governing principle of them all. What more natural than a spirit of resentment under the circumstances? How easy to hang the harp on the willows! But this would only be to misunderstand God and thwart his purposes. He seeks the happiness and prosperity of his people - even here and now, and notwithstanding the discipline to which he may be subjecting them. Not resignation merely, but cheerful acquiescence and Co-operation, are, therefore, to be expected of his people. "I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it."

II. THEIR CONSOLATIONS. These were partly to consist in the natural results of the course of conduct enjoined, or the happiness inseparably associated with the observance of it; but chiefly in the anticipation of the future.

1. A definite term was set to their captivity. (Ver. 10.) It was one that could easily be verified, and was not too far distant to extinguish hope. Some of those who as children were taken to Babylon, might in their old age return to the land of promise. There is measure as well as meaning in all God's discipline. He never imposes upon his people a burden greater than they can bear. The darkest night is illumined by light beyond. When the sorrow, their sorrow is not without hope.

2. The present was linked with the future. They might be comforted in the fulfillment of their daily tasks by the knowledge that everything done in obedience to God and the spirit of true benevolence would have its influence upon the promised deliverance. At the very worst, what was done in this disposition would not retard that event or rob it of its fullness of blessing. In like manner the children of God are assured that this earthly life is but a "sojourning," and that "all things work together for good." This life will have an immense influence upon the complexion of the next. The duties of every day are therefore to be attended to in the full conviction of their absolute worth and avail in the sight of God. They have the promise not only of the life which now is, but of that which is to come.

3. Spiritual blessings were promised. (Vers. 11-14.) The good will and faithfulness of God; the restoration of religious communion; the gathering and reconstitution of the theocracy. - M.

Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent.
I. THE VERY FACT THAT A MESSAGE WAS SENT TO THEM UNDER AN EXPRESS DIVINE APPOINTMENT WAS CONSOLATORY. Wherever God's children are scattered, the written Word is to them a source of permanent encouragement. In the severest ways of justice God does not forget His own children, but has in reserve ample consolations for them, when they lie under the common judgment

II. THE PARTICULAR PROVIDENCE OF GOD, APPEARING ON THEIR BEHALF UNDER ALL THEIR CALAMITIES, WAS A SOURCE OF CONSOLATION.

1. He is the Lord of hosts, of all the armies above and below, and yet is the God of Israel; and though He permits their captivity, He does not break His relation to them — their covenant-God still, though under a cloud.

2. He assumes the active agency in their dispersion. "I have caused them to be carried away." Certainly it must be a great sin which induces a loving father to cast his child out of doors. But sin is a great scatterer, and is always followed by a driving away and a casting out. Yet the fact of God's being the agent in their dispersion is referred to as a ground of consolation; since it reconciles us to our troubles to see the hand of God in them, and to trace an all-gracious and merciful design in them.

III. THE PROMISE OF THE STABILITY AND SECURITY OF THEIR SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC INTERESTS WAS GIVEN.

IV. THE PROSPECT OF A CERTAIN AND FAVOURABLE ISSUE TO THEIR TRIALS (ver. 11).

(S. Thodey.)

People
Ahab, Anathoth, David, Elasah, Eleasah, Gemariah, Hilkiah, Jeconiah, Jehoiada, Jeremiah, Kolaiah, Maaseiah, Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar, Shaphan, Shemaiah, Zedekiah, Zephaniah
Places
Anathoth, Babylon, Jerusalem, Nehelam
Topics
Babylon, Elasah, Ela'sah, Eleasah, Gemariah, Gemari'ah, Hilkiah, Hilki'ah, Hilkijah, Judah, Letter, Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnez'zar, Saying, Shaphan, Zedekiah, Zedeki'ah
Outline
1. Jeremiah sends a letter to the captives in Babylon to be quiet there,
8. and not to believe the dreams of their prophets;
10. and that they shall return with grace after seventy years.
15. He foretells the destruction of the rest for their disobedience.
20. He shows the fearful end of Ahab and Zedekiah, two false prophets.
24. Shemaiah writes a letter against Jeremiah.
30. Jeremiah foretells his doom.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 29:1-7

     4468   horticulture

Library
Finding God
Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.' (Jeremiah xxix. 13.) The words of Jeremiah in their relation to God are very appropriate for men and women in whose hearts there is any longing after personal Holiness. Look at them: 'Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart'. I like this word, because it turns our minds to the true and only source of light and life and power. We speak of seeking and getting the blessing; but,
T. H. Howard—Standards of Life and Service

The Secret of Effectual Prayer
"What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them."--MARK xi. 24. Here we have a summary of the teaching of our Lord Jesus on prayer. Nothing will so much help to convince us of the sin of our remissness in prayer, to discover its causes, and to give us courage to expect entire deliverance, as the careful study and then the believing acceptance of that teaching. The more heartily we enter into the mind of our blessed Lord, and set ourselves simply
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

The Spirit of Prayer.
Text.--Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints, according to the will of God.--Romans viii. 26, 27. My last lecture but one was on the subject of Effectual Prayer; in which I observed that one of the most important attributes of effectual
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion

The Costliness of Prayer
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart."--Jer. xxix. 13. IN his fine book on Benefits, Seneca says that nothing is so costly to us as that is which we purchase by prayer. When we come on that hard-to-be-understood saying of his for the first time, we set it down as another of the well-known paradoxes of the Stoics. For He who is far more to us than all the Stoics taken together has said to us on the subject of prayer,--"Ask,
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

Putting God to Work
"For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God beside thee who worketh for him that waiteth for him."--Isaiah 64:4. The assertion voiced in the title given this chapter is but another way of declaring that God has of His own motion placed Himself under the law of prayer, and has obligated Himself to answer the prayers of men. He has ordained prayer as a means whereby He will do things through men as they pray, which He would not otherwise do. Prayer
Edward M. Bounds—The Weapon of Prayer

The Iranian Conquest
Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving in Coste and Flandin. The vignette, drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a statuette in terra-cotta, found in Southern Russia, represents a young Scythian. The Iranian religions--Cyrus in Lydia and at Babylon: Cambyses in Egypt --Darius and the organisation of the empire. The Median empire is the least known of all those which held sway for a time over the destinies of a portion of Western Asia. The reason of this is not to be ascribed to the shortness of its duration:
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 9

The Seventh Commandment
Thou shalt not commit adultery.' Exod 20: 14. God is a pure, holy spirit, and has an infinite antipathy against all uncleanness. In this commandment he has entered his caution against it; non moechaberis, Thou shalt not commit adultery.' The sum of this commandment is, The preservations of corporal purity. We must take heed of running on the rock of uncleanness, and so making shipwreck of our chastity. In this commandment there is something tacitly implied, and something expressly forbidden. 1. The
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

I Will Pray with the Spirit and with the Understanding Also-
OR, A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER; WHEREIN IS BRIEFLY DISCOVERED, 1. WHAT PRAYER IS. 2. WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT. 3. WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING ALSO. WRITTEN IN PRISON, 1662. PUBLISHED, 1663. "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought:--the Spirit--helpeth our infirmities" (Rom 8:26). ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. There is no subject of more solemn importance to human happiness than prayer. It is the only medium of intercourse with heaven. "It is
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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