Jeremiah 29:7
Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper."
Sermons
The Best Christians the Best CitizensNaegelsbach.Jeremiah 29:7
The Civil Obligations of Christian PeopleW. Jay.Jeremiah 29:7
The Duties of Christians to Their CountrySamuel Baker, D. D.Jeremiah 29:7
The Letter to the CaptivesD. Young Jeremiah 29:1-7
Duties and Consolations of God's CaptivityA.F. Muir Jeremiah 29:1-14
God's Message to the CaptivesJ. Waite Jeremiah 29:4-7














There is an encouraging tone in this Divine message to the captives in Babylon that must have been strikingly fitted to call forth every better element of thought and feeling within them. They were not, indeed, to dream of deliverance. The appointed time must run its course. The generation then in their prime could not hope ever to see their own land again. But their children should. Their wisdom, therefore, lay in making the best of their condition, and nourishing, as far as possible, the resources and the strength of their family life. Let them build, and plant, and marry, and enjoy the good of that strange land as if it were their own. Let them sow, though it be with many tears, for the better and happier future. Let them so live as to commend themselves to the good will of their conquerors, that even "their enemies may be at peace with them," identifying themselves with the interests of the place of their captivity, seeking by their prayer to bring down blessings upon it from above, seeing that in its well-being and peace they would find their own. This is strictly in harmony with the general Divine purpose as to the relation in which the Jews should stand towards other nations. They were called to be a separate and peculiar people only that they might the better be instruments of blessing to the world. The Captivity was not merely a punishment for their sins, but a part of the method by which God taught them to fulfill their mission. Important lessons are suggested respecting the relation the people of God should always maintain towards the world in which he has placed them. Note -

I. THE FREE USE IT IS PERMITTED THEM TO HAVE OF THIS WORLD'S GOOD. "Build ye houses, and dwell in them," etc. In being carried beyond the bounds of Israel these captives were not passing beyond the domain of Israel's God. He is the "Lord of the whole earth." And whether in Jerusalem or in Babylon, all resources, all materials, all power to labor, and all products of labor, are his. Shall not the children of the heavenly Father make themselves, at home" in their Father's world, free to use and to enjoy whatever good he puts within their reach? Remember St. Paul's counsel to the Corinthians, "Whatsoever is sold in the shambles," etc. (1 Corinthians 10:25, 26). All natural good has the stamp of God's ownership upon it. Whatever, therefore, comes to you in the honorable commerce of life do not shrink from it or refuse it. It is yours to enjoy because he made it; it is yours because it is his. The freedom of the earth is given to his true children. There is a sense in which it may be said of all outward good that they who know best how to use it aright have most right to its use. There is no "possession" of these things like that which springs from spiritual affinity and sympathy with him who gave them, and from the power to discern and appreciate their inner meaning. There is no "right" like that of Divine sonship. "All things are yours," etc. (1 Corinthians 3:21-23). We dishonor our Christian faith when we move about in the world timidly Or gloomily, as if we had no right to live in it, or as if it were a mere "house of bondage;" hedged in on all sides with painful restrictions, bound with fetters of restraint; afraid to share with a free, hearty, childlike gladness any of its innocent delights. If this is "Emmanuel's land," have we not the range of all its delectable mountains? Is it a world that our Father's hand has made and filled with the tokens of his beneficence, and that has been trodden by the feet of the great Redeemer, and shall we throw over it the shadow of our discontent or fear (Nehemiah 8:10; Ecclesiastes 9:7; 1 Timothy 4:4, 5)?

II. THE IDENTITY OF INTEREST SUBSISTING BETWEEN THEE AND THE WORLD. "Seek the peace of the city," etc. Captives and bondmen as these Jews were, they were nevertheless involved in all that affected the welfare of the Babylonian state. The administration of its affairs for good or ill, for peace or war, must needs be a matter of great interest to them, since they would so largely share the consequences. (See illustrations in Joseph and his brethren, Daniel and the three Hebrew youths, Esther and Mordecai, etc.) The citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem have also an earthly citizenship to maintain, the bonds of which are not broken through their being raised spiritually to a higher level than that of the worldly life around them. Rather are those bonds correspondingly raised and made more sacred and binding. Their Christian faith elevates the character of their earthly citizenship, invests it with a new dignity, attaches to it higher and diviner sanctions. "In the peace thereof shall ye have peace." All parts of the social system are so linked together by a law of mutual dependence and influence that the well-being of one is, in a measure, the well-being of all. "The eye cannot say to the hand," etc.; "Whether one member suffer," etc. We are all personally affected for good or ill by the political order and the general tone of the moral life around us. There are deep rankling wounds in the body politic - ignorance, drunkenness, roving beggary, domestic vice and violence, the systematic training of the young in crime, the oppression of the hireling in his wages, etc. - which it is to the interest of us all most earnestly to seek to heal. No class of the community can escape the ill effect of these things, and religion does but bring us into the deeper sympathy with those who most suffer by such forms of wrong.

III. THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO LIVE FOR THE WORLD'S HIGHEST BENEFIT, "Seek the peace of the city... and pray to the Lord for it." Real peace is the fruit of righteousness. There can be none while the Divine order is violated and the Divine will set at naught. The gospel is in every way God's message of peace to the world. The Church is called to be the "light of the world" and the" salt of the earth," as a witness for God's truth and righteousness. The Christian philanthropist alone has in his hands a thorough cure for the diseases and wounds of our humanity; and of all the weapons he can wield in his conflict with them, none so mighty as prayer, inasmuch as that unseals the fount of all blessing, and brings down from heaven the healing, saving power. Well may a Christian apostle enlarge and emphasize the old prophetic message, saying, "I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men," etc. (1 Timothy 2:1-4). - W.

Seek the peace of the city.
1. They know that the prosperity of the whole is their own prosperity. They o not, therefore, selfishly seek their own advantage.

2. They actually labour with all diligence for the furtherance of the common good.

3. They employ for this end the power of Christian prayer.

(Naegelsbach.)

I. WHAT ARE THE THINGS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO THE SECURITY AND PROSPERITY, THE TRUE GLORY AND HAPPINESS, OF OUR COUNTRY?

1. The true honour of a nation, like that of the individual, lies in character.

2. The security and prosperity of our nation are inseparably associated with the advancement of religion among the people.

II. WHAT ARE THE BEST MEANS FOR SECURING THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ESSENTIAL TO OUR COUNTRY'S HIGHEST WELFARE?

1. General diffusion of education. "Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army."

2. Equally essential that the people be virtuous. Knowledge is power, but unsanctified power is power for evil.

3. The general distribution of the Bible — the great instrument for enlightening the conscience and purifying the heart.

4. Preaching the Gospel Our nature is a wreck, a chaos, which the Cross of Christ alone can adjust.

5. Prayer (2 Chronicles 7:13, 14; Psalm 106:23; Exodus 32:10).

III. WHAT ARGUMENTS MAY ENFORCE THE DUTIES OF PERSONAL AND COMBINED ACTIVITY IN SEEKING THE HIGHEST GOOD OF OUR LAND?

1. Because our own individual good is intimately connected with its general happiness and prosperity. "For in the peace thereof ye shall have peace."

2. We shall thereby recommend the religion we profess.

3. The work of supplying our land with the preached Gospel, and with religious institutions, is the most important work to which Christians can devote their energies.

(Samuel Baker, D. D.)

When a man becomes a Christian does he cease to be a member of civil society? Allowing that he be not the owner of the ship, but only a passenger in it, has he nothing to awaken his concern in the voyage? If he be only a traveller towards a better country, is he to be told that because he is at an inn which he is soon to leave, it should not excite any emotion in him, whether it be invaded by robbers, or consumed by flames before the morning? "In the peace thereof ye shall have peace." Is not religion variously affected by public transactions? Can a Christian, for instance, be indifferent to the cause of freedom, even on a pious principle? Does not civil liberty necessarily include religious, and is it not necessary to the spreading of the Gospel?

(W. Jay.)

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
Behalf, Captive, Captives, Carried, Caused, Exile, Peace, Prayer, Prisoners, Prosper, Prosperity, Prospers, Removed, Seek, Thereof, Welfare, Whither, Working
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 29:7

     5219   authority, human institutions
     5495   revenge, and retaliation
     5542   society, positive

Jeremiah 29:1-7

     4468   horticulture

Jeremiah 29:4-7

     6703   peace, divine OT

Jeremiah 29:4-14

     4215   Babylon

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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