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Good Monday morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I wonder if you are a person who likes to make detailed plans before stepping forward, or are you more of a spontaneous person? And what about God? Do you think God is a plan and purpose God or a spontaneous God? Or is God actually both? What do you think about this verse and how it applies to you and me today as well as all that was happening in the Middle East 2600 years ago:
“The PLANS of the LORD stand firm forever, the PURPOSES of His heart through all generations.” (Psalm 33:11)
I left you yesterday with Jeremiah the prophet in Jerusalem about the year 590bc. Jeremiah was writing a very significant message he was receiving from God. While most of Jeremiah’s messages from God were intended for the final four kings of Israel in Jerusalem and the Jewish people in those last decades before Jerusalem’s destruction, God instructed Jeremiah to send this particular message to the Jewish captives in exile in Babylon!
We’ve already seen that God instructed the exiles NOT to pray for rescue but rather settle down and live full lives there in Babylonian captivity, actually being a blessing to the city and people of Babylon! (Jer. 29:4-9) That’s a challenge to us, no matter where we live in this world or what the political or economic conditions are around us, isn’t that true? Are you and I a blessing to our city today?
Now let’s watch and listen as Jeremiah again picks up his stylus and continues writing the message he is receiving from God through the Holy Spirit. If you listen closely, you’ll probably recognize some of it: “This is what the LORD says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill My good promise to bring you back to this place! For I know the plans I have for you’, declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future...” (Jeremiah 29:10,11) You recognize it, don’t you?!
Now let’s take a closer look. Did you notice God was very specific… Seventy Years? But what is the meaning of those 70 years? Do you notice the phrase “completed for Babylon”? The word ‘completed‘ probably refers to the conquering of the city of Babylon and thus the end of the Babylonian empire in 539bc. (Daniel 5:30) A few days from now we’ll look more closely at that world changing event and Daniel’s firsthand description of it as he recorded it in Daniel 5.
Since all peoples long to live in safety and God had promised to protect His people, this 70 years may be the period of time during which God REMOVED His hand of PROTECTION over His beloved Jerusalem and His Covenant people Israel, and God actually used foreign, enemy kings to accomplish God’s judgment upon His people Israel.
This era could be measured from the time of the first conquering of Jerusalem by Pharaoh Necho in 609bc (2 Kings 23:31-35) and the deportation of Jerusalem Jewish captives; until the first wave of returning Jewish exiles from Babylon in 538bc. (Ezra 1,2) As we’ve seen in our study, God allowed foreign kings to conquer Jerusalem FOUR different times and take Jewish captives each time during those 70 years:
* 609bc Pharaoh Necho of Egypt (2 Kings 23:29-35) King Joshia killed as final God honoring king
* 605bc King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (2 Kings 24:1-7) Daniel taken captive to Babylon
* 597bc King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (2 Kings 24:8-17) Ezekiel taken captive to Babylon
* 586bc King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:11-21) Jerusalem & Temple destroyed.
This 70 years of agony may also be measured from the vantage point of the Jerusalem Jewish captives in exile beginning with Pharaoh Necho’s first wave of captives to Egypt in 609bc all the way to King Cyrus’ amazing edict in 538bc which awakened hope and released all Jewish captives to return and rebuild Jerusalem and their Temple! (2 Chronicles 36:21-23)
This powerful verse near the end of the Chronicles’ record gives us another perspective on these 70 years: “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the 70 years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.” (2 Chronicles 36:21)
From the time of the Babylonian destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 586bc until the time of the rebuilding & dedication of the second Jewish Temple on the very same location in 515bc was almost exactly 70 years. (Ezra 6:14,15) During those 70 years there was no Jewish Temple, no Ark of the Covenant, no Altar of Incense or Most Holy Place. Decimated Jerusalem was in ruins and slowly became inhabited by people of other nations who moved in and claimed the abandoned land for themselves.
The term “70 sabbath rests” probably refers to the fact that Israel had largely failed to observe God’s instructions to let the LAND of Israel REST from all cultivation and farming every seven years as a ‘sabbath rest’ for the land. (Lev. 25:1-7) In that seventh year the farmers were to glean whatever naturally grew up from the land by God’s grace without any cultivation. It was a further, very practical embrace of the unique Sabbath concept God had given to His people at Mount Sinai. (Ex. 20:8-11; 23:10-12; 31:12-17)
The next line in this remarkable statement from God must have been shocking as Jeremiah wrote it and the people heard it read to them in exile wherever they were, but especially in Babylon: “I will come to you and fulfill My good promise to bring you back to this place!” (Jer. 29:10) The words “this place” could be none other than the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding land of Israel. God Himself was promising to lead His people back to Jerusalem, as He had led them from Jerusalem into captivity.
Oh my, what a glorious promise and what hope those words must have awakened in the hearts of those who heard them! May I ask, do you find God’s Word awakens hope and optimism and celebration in your heart when you read or memorize it? Oh, it should my friends!
In closing today, consider this with me: I imagine the older Jewish captives sitting with their kids and grandkids around them discussing these powerful words from Jeremiah 29:10? Of course, 70 years would mean only the youngest children-captives would possibly be alive when this promise of God, to lead them back from captivity to Jerusalem, would occur.
The adults quickly reasoned their primary role would be keeping this hope alive in the hearts of the young ones and making sure as new babies were born in captivity, they would be taught Jeremiah 29:10 and own it as God’s promise to them.
Does that seem very much like your role and mine with our grandchildren as we consider the possible soon return of Jesus to gather up His people, as promised in 1 Thess. 4:13-18?
Let’s think about that, my friends, as we worship with this song, and tomorrow I’ll meet you right back here in Jeremiah 29:11.
Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 29:10.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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