Jeremiah 29 & Daniel Jeremiah 29:1-14

Historical Context

“The essential meaning of exile is that we are where we don’t want to be. We are separated from home . . . It is an experience of dislocation—everything is out of joint; nothing fits together.” - Eugene Peterson

- Daniel in Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar (597 BC) conquers Jerusalem and exiles the best and the brightest. - False prophets predict the fall of Babylon (Jer 28:2) early in the reign of Zedekiah (595-ish BC) - Jeremiah’s prophecy of 70 years comes to the Jews in Babylon sometime before the fall of Zedekiah (590-ish BC) - King Zedekiah / Jerusalem falls (586/7 BC) - temple destroyed - and second exile occurs - The fall of Babylon (539 BC)

Illustration: This was a death sentence for pretty much anyone who was hearing these words ​ already exiled to Babylon. Hebrews began to return to Jerusalem around 535 BC. Ezra recounts that a few returned - “But many of the older priest and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.” - Ezra 3:12

Application: We all have seasons where we want to go ‘home’, nostalgic for by-gone days ​ when life was carefree, safety and security were more predictable, health was infused by youthfulness, etc. (“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” - 2 Tim 4:3) This seems to be more true today than ever with an epidemic of fake news, which we have all fallen for, retweeted, etc. This makes Biblical application more important than ever...

Jeremiah’s command to the exiles and its roots in Pentateuch

“The welfare or prosperity of Babylon is a means to an end of preserving God’s people. We see this even more clearly when we read Jeremiah from beginning to end, rather than just jumping in at this chapter out of context. Back in chapter 16, God had said to Jeremiah in Jerusalem, “Don’t get married, and don’t have children, because they’re all just going to die. My judgement is coming.” But now God is saying, “Get married, and have children again, because there is a future for them. And that future is in Jerusalem, not Babylon.””1

Houses (Deut 20:5) and First Fruits (Deut 26:2)2 Offspring (1:28, 8:17, 9:1, 9:7, 35:11, Ex 1:9, Lev 26:9) - the Hebrews need to flourish, both numerically, but also culturally, so that they are ready for the return from exile. A warning - not ​ to assimilate into the dominant culture Seek “Enemy” welfare (Prv 25:21-22, Mt 5:44, Luke 23:34, 1 Peter 2:13-17) - Looking toward the New Testament - The prayer for ‘Shalom’ was traditionally spoken over Israel in the priestly blessing - Numb 6:23-26 - “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” ​ ​ - Contrast the idea of praying for peace with Jeremiah’s accusation of the false prophecy on Hananiah in Jer 28:9.

Illustration & Application: Here we see a contrast being drawn between false prophets calling ​ for a post-exilic peace that doesn't’ exist, and Jeremiah calling for an extended period of exile, but living with a holy discontent. Is it possible we see this today with folks overly focused on end-times prophecy conjecture while the hard work of heaven’s citizenship is being compromised?

Have we traded prophetic popularity (Left Behind series has sold over 80 million copies) for prophetic clarity - the less popular work of understanding our role as Christians called to be sojourners and exiles?

Said a different way - “There are dangers to end-times obsessions: a disinclination to work toward long-term solutions, a propensity to focus on prophetic fulfillment at the expense of ethical concerns (something Israel's prophets were never accused of), and a perverse satisfaction in cultural decay.” - Michael Maudlin, Obsessing with the End Times - Christianity Today (1998)3

Why Israel’s Exile is Important for Today’s Christian

1 Peter 2:11 / 1 Peter 1:17 / Phil 3:20

What Greg Foster has to say on the topic... ​

Exile is our permanent state in the New Testament church because we have now been commissioned – sent on a mission – to the nations. Jeremiah sent the Israelites out to a

1 https://gotherefor.com/offer.php?intid=29593&changestore=true 2 Hat-tip to sermonwriter.com for some of these verse cross-references 3 https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1998/october5/8tb006.html long period of exile in Babylon, but they were always looking forward to the promised return. Jesus sent the church out to permanent exile everywhere.

The church’s new mission reorients the exilic challenge. The New Testament church is not a cultural lifeboat for a specific civilization, as the Israelites in exile were... We must keep alive God’s message and ways, but we cannot think of ourselves as a separate civilization. Because the church has a mission within every human civilization, we must build godly lives within our home civilization rather than trying to cultivate a separate one. That means working hard to contribute to the well-being and flourishing of our civilization. Otherwise, we’re not loving our neighbors.

However, because the church is in exile, we cannot simply identify the church with our host civilization. We cannot reduce the church’s work merely to the flourishing of civilization...Inevitably, this will mean resisting the dominant culture in some ways. Maintaining balance between mission and exile is one of the central challenges of sustaining the church’s identity. - Greg Foster, Joy To the World4

What Russell More has to say on the topic...

The Scriptures call on all Christians everywhere to be “strangers and exiles” in whatever culture we inhabit...The kind of exiles we are to be is not a bitter, resentful people, harkening back to better days, when we had more power and influence. We are to be instead those who know that the culture around us, whatever culture that is, is temporary. We are to pattern our lives not after nostalgia for the past but hope for the future. This means a discontent. We pray for the kingdom to come (Matt. 6:10). We groan with the creation around us for the end of the wreckage of the curse (Rom. 8:23).

The political and cultural climate of America does not make us exiles. It can, however, remind us that we are exiles and strangers, just as our ancestors were. American Christians can wake up from the hypnosis of an illusory “Christian America,” and learn to seek first the kingdom of God. We can stop counting on the culture to do pre-evangelism and moral catechesis.5 - Russell Moore

What N.T. Wright has to say on the topic…specifically Philippians 3:20 where Paul says that ​ “we are citizens of heaven.”

“This is what the verse says and means. But once again we misunderstand what is going on. The logic of citizenship in the ancient world, certainly the Roman citizenship of which many in Philippi would be proud possessors, didn’t work the way we imagine. We hear, ‘We are citizens of heaven,’ and think, ‘Yes, heaven is where we really belong, and that’s where we will go when we die.’ But that isn’t what Paul says, and it isn’t how citizenship

4 https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/our-mission-in-exile/ 5 https://www.russellmoore.com/2015/07/14/are-we-exiles/ worked in his world. The whole reason for having colonies like Philippi in the first place was that there were too many old soldiers who had fought in the civil wars. Rome was overcrowded and needed to import food. The last thing Rome wanted was thousands more hungry mouths coming home—especially when the mouths belonged to trained killers, used to getting things done through violence. The point about Philippi being a colony of Rome was not that the citizens would go back to Rome one day, but that (so it was hoped) they would bring the benefits of Roman citizenship to Philippi.”

“That after all, is how Paul expands the image, ‘We are citizens of heaven, you see,’ he writes, ‘and we’re eagerly waiting for the savior, the Lord, King Jesus, who is going to come from there’ (Phil. 3:20). It isn’t that we are going off to the capital city to join the ​ ​ king; he is going to come from there to transform our lives here. ‘He’s going to do this by ​ ​ ​ ​ the power which makes him able to bring everything into line under his authority,’ Paul concludes (3:32). Jesus will come from heaven to transform the whole of creation—and ​ ​ to transform us at the same time. ‘Our present body is a shabby old thing, but he’s going to transform it so that it’s just like his glorious body’ (3:21). This is the hope. Not that we leave this world but that Jesus returns and transforms it, and us with it.” (pp. 94-95) - N.T. Wright from Simply Good News.6

Final Thoughts - Hope is KEY in understanding both Jeremiah and Daniel’s ‘bleak’ prophecies.

Into all this we have the second most popular verse in the Bible - second actually - Jeremiah 29:11.7 A verse that wa given in a specific context, to the nation of Israel, living in exile - to be viewed as the hope that they were to look forward too… what can we take away from this?

6 https://bbhchurchconnection.wordpress.com/2015/02/10/what-does-it-mean-to-say-we-are-citizens-of-hea ven/ 7 https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2009/05/the-100-most-read-bible-verses-at-biblegatewaycom/