Far as the Curse Is Found
July 14, 2024
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Scripture Reading
Jeremiah 29:1-14
1 These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said: 4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
We’re going to start in a less typical way. We’re going to have a few minutes where you can discuss a question with those around you. I think it will help us be more ready to hear this passage taught. So, in just a moment, we’re going to bunch up, whether in your pew or leaning to another pew. If you don’t know the person, share your name of course. But then mention what career you’ve done most in your life. Then say where sin is most alive in that field. Don’t just think of your specific workplace, but rather the kinds of sins that tend to show up in your field of work. And you can answer that question as a retired person, as a student, as a person who stays home, or as a whatever. So, again, say where you work and at least one way sin is alive in that career field.
Just to give you an example, my mother- and father-in-law are veterinarians. They once bought a clinic where the culture prior to them owning that clinic was to use expired medicine because it saved the owners money. That had to change when my mother- and father-in-law took over. So, again, don’t tell long stories. But do share. I’ll come back up in about 3-4 minutes.
[Short discussion break.]
Since we’re doing less than typical things this morning, not now but later in the sermon, I’m going to pause and let a couple of our members tell us how they answered.
So, here we are, finally, in Jeremiah 29, specifically 29:11, the most the most well-known verse in the Old Testament, perhaps the Bible. My contention is that it’s not actually that well-known, meaning well-known in what it actually means. But I also contend that when we know Jeremiah 29:11 better, we’ll be comforted by what it actually says and comforted by who our God actually is. As we turn our attention to God’s Word, let’s ask for his help. “Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
I’ve preached this passage in our church before. It was back in the spring of 2016 for a series leading up to Easter we called “More People to Love.” That series might be a bit more familiar to some of us because we took some of those sermons and put them in a short book with that title, a book mostly for our congregation.
Interestingly, the Sunday I preached Jeremiah 29, was also a day when we discussed the goals for the church. We had a few pastors on stage and did a Q&A. The first goal was to plant a church in the city of Harrisburg. And the second goal was to move into a bigger building. We needed to move into a bigger building so that we could have a base wide enough to plant. By God’s grace, both of those happened. We’re in that building, and last fall we planted a church in the city called Midtown Community Church.
While God’s plans for us have been good, I can also say his plans have not been easy. I didn’t expect some of the transitions. I didn’t expect Covid or racial and political turmoil. I didn’t expect a whole lot of good and hard stuff. And in a way that I would have never predicted that theme of “good but hard” maps really well onto Jeremiah 29.
It was hard for God’s people to surrender when they didn’t like God’s plan and they didn’t see the point of God’s plan. It can be hard for us too. Have you ever struggled to follow God? Have you ever struggled to surrender to what seems to be God’s plan? I have. That’s how the first audience felt. But they also received some wonderful, wonderful promises. We’ll talk about this passage in three ways: the context, the command, and the comfort.
Let’s start with the context of Jeremiah 29.
1. The Context
We’ve been teaching through the book all summer. In the opening chapter we read,
9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,
“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.” (Jer. 1:9–10)
God anointed Jeremiah in such a way that his prophetic ministry would be both an instrument to tear down and to build. However, in the first 28 chapters, with only a few small exceptions, God plucks up, breaks down, destroys, and overthrows. Chapter after chapter can be described as pestilence, famine, sword—
Until you come to chapter 29. Finally, after repeated thunderstorms of God’s wrath, the dark clouds begin to part, and rays of comfort shine through. God instructed Jeremiah to write a letter from Jerusalem to the exiles who have been carried away to Babylon. To get more of the context of this letter, let me read a few of the verses.
29 These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. . . . . [Now skip with me to v. 8] 8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD. 10 “For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. (Jer. 29:1, 8–10)
I mentioned the ray of light shining through the dark clouds. We’ll get to the ray of light. But you see the clouds, right? Jeremiah writes a letter to the exiles. That’s ominous. Jeremiah writes to those who werein Jerusalem but have now been taken to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.
Over the course of about twenty years, around 600 BC, there were three waves of exile. The first carried a man named Daniel and many others. The second wave of exile carried a man named Ezekiel and many others. Both men authored books of the Bible and carried out the entirety of their ministry from Babylon. Looking at the context of chapters 27 and 28, it would seem this letter from Jeremiah was written a few years before the third wave of exile, the third wave being the most sweeping and destructive (cf. Jer. 28:1).
But it’s not to say the first two were easy. Note the phrase in v. 1 of “surviving elders.” Not all of them survived. It was devastating. Mothers lost sons. Husbands lost wives. Children lost parents. People lost homes. And in a few years, the people of God would lose their temple. It’s helpful to liken the exile to a rehab clinic—a very expensive one. They were doing so much damage to themselves and others and to the name of God, that God sent them away. And it would be a long stay in rehab.
And it will be a long stay in a city. I think it’s funny that when you search for images or go to an online store to get Jeremiah 29:11 on a painting, it’s almost always a nature scene, perhaps a beautiful snowcapped Rocky Mountains or palm trees and white sand and light blue water in the Caribbean. But the context of the promise has an urban dialect. Think London. Think Beijing. Think Soul. Think New York and Chicago and LA. Think Rio. Think Nairobi. Think, perhaps, Harrisburg.
You’ll notice in v. 8 that God tells the exiles not to listen to those around them who are telling them what they want to hear. The exile was to be seventy years, not two. That was hard to hear. In fact, false prophets were more than willing to tell them what God’s people wanted to hear. Since we’re talking about the context, this is the last comment to make. The famous promise of Jeremiah 29:11 is sandwiched between two dramatic stories of false prophecy.
In chapter 28 a guy named Hananiah says, “No, in two years we’ll be out of Babylon. God will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar.” That’s my paraphrase of 28:3. The false prophets were saying that Babylon is an airport terminal. Don’t unpack your bags. Don’t get too comfy. Just put in your earbuds, scroll through your phone, and wait this out. It won’t be that long until we’re home again. The people wanted to hear this.
In our day, this could look like false teachers saying that God affirms all intimate relationships as morally good and beautiful. It could look a hundred other ways too. Anytime you hear Christian teaching that doesn’t have a place for taking up your cross and self-denial—anytime you hear Christian teaching that says those who follow God won’t suffer—then you’re not listening to Christian teaching. Hananiah told them what they wanted to hear (that their stay would be short), and he put God’s name upon it, beginning his prophecy, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel” (Jer. 28:2).
Do you know what Jeremiah says in return to the claim of a short two years? “Amen! May the Lord do so. May it be only two years. May love be love and may all who follow Christ get rich, but . . . I don’t think so.” That’s my paraphrase of Jeremiah’s response in vv. 5–9. So Hananiah takes the wooden yoke bars from Jeremiah, which Jeremiah had been using as a prop, and Hananiah smashes them.
Jeremiah just walks away. Later God tells Jeremiah to go to Hananiah and say, “You know those wooden yoke-bars? Yeah, now they’ll be made of iron. And you’re going to die for speaking in my name of when I didn’t put words in your mouth” (vv. 13, 17). That’s chapter 28. Something similar happens at the end of Chapter 29. Again, Jeremiah 29:11 is in the context of a false prophet sandwich.
And it’s in this context that God commands them (and us) something hard to hear. In this context of exile not home, in this context of a refugee camp not a beach, and this context of false prophecy not true prophecy, God makes commands to us.
2. The Command
Here in rehab, while they are seething in anger about Babylon, God tells them to pray and care and serve. When they wanted to build tents, God says to lay a foundation with rebar and concrete. When they wanted to temporarily suspend weddings and having children, God says, to have grandkids; be model citizens; love this wicked city Babylon; show them my greatness by the way you love them. In fact, this is a restating of what theologians call God’s creation mandate from Genesis, the command to be fruitful and multiply. In short, the exiles were not mere captives; they were missionaries (cf. Ryken’s comments in his commentary on this.) Let me read vv. 4–7.
4 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jer. 29:4–7)
The language of v. 7 is what I’ll call “all-in” language. God commands them to pray for Babylon. You can’t fake prayer—ordinarily. You might be able to build a house without your heart engaged, but you can’t pray for the blessings of a city while secretly wanting it to burn. They needed a change of heart, what Pastor Tony last week called surrender and repentance.
This message would have been very hard to swallow. In fact, this is why the people of God consider Jeremiah’s preaching treasonous. They can’t even imagine a scenario where they would lose their political and national power. They hate Jeremiah’s preaching because it seems to them to be anti-patriotic.
This command is not naturally what you and I want to hear either. Think of people who have wronged you and how hard it is to pray for their peace and prosperity, to, in the words of Jesus, pray for our enemies (Matt. 5:43–46). Jesus is saying something similar to what Jeremiah is saying. And he not only says it, he lives it by praying it: “Father, forgive them,” he says from the cross.
The word the English Standard Version uses in v. 7 and 11 is “welfare.” We have certain connotations for welfare that probably don’t help us very much. You’ll see a footnote in v. 11 that says another word is peace. You’ve all heard of the Hebrew word, shalom.
How are we to live for the shalom of our city and the shalom of our workplaces? Let’s go back to the question I asked at the start. What is your career field, and what is a particular way sin arises in that field? I gave the example of my mother- and father-in-law who bought a vet clinic and they had to change that culture. Let’s give a few people a chance to speak about this. I’d love it if we could have a few members stand up and say their career and a particular aspect of sin in their field.
[Short discussion break.]
You can see that this conversation could go on for a long time. You’re likely tempted to hate some aspect of the sin in your workplace. That’s not entirely a bad thing. But God is calling you to something more than hate. He’s calling you to be a blessing.
Between now and Monday morning how might God change your heart to give you the desire to see your workplace become more of a place like God’s kingdom? I don’t know the answer, but I know it does mean that you can’t be someone constantly looking over your shoulder for a better place. For sure, God might call you to somewhere different—a different house or city, a different workplace and coworkers, maybe even a different career—but God’s desire is that you would seek to be rooted, to plant deeds of justice and blessing. God is calling us to be blessings wherever the curse is found.
This is a strong command. If we are going to obey it, we’ll need comfort from God that is equally strong. We have it in Jeremiah 29:11. Let’s finish by talking about comfort.
3. The Comfort
Sometimes, those who know the context of Jeremiah 29 and how gritty it is will look down upon those who take the verse out of context. But we can’t stop there, as though taking away the “follow your heart” theology and “God will give you your dreams” theology is the point. The point is not merely to subtract bad theology but to bring good theology close. Let’s read the promise again, starting in v. 4 and skipping to v. 10.
4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: . . .
10 For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jer. 29:4, 10–14)
There are so many comforts in these verses. In vv. 1 and 3 Jeremiah writes that Nebuchadnezzar took them to exile. And he did. But here we read in v. 4 that God did it. “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”
The biblical authors are careful when talking about sin and God’s sovereignty not to say that God ever does evil or that he condones sin. And good theologians are careful when talking about the mysterious connection between evil and God’s sovereignty. I think of how carefully this is discussed in a document like the Westminster Confession of Faith. So I want to be careful too. In a mysterious way, sin was involved when Jesus hung on the cross, and sin is never God’s plan, and yet the cross is his plan. Here, Babylon is full of sin (and the book ends with two giant chapters of judgment on Babylon), yet God is using them. So, again, we must be careful.
But this passage comforts us that life does not merely come from the cruel, impersonal designs of Nebuchadnezzars who have no concern for you. Instead, we can rest in the truth that God will bend circumstances for your good and his glory—in this life and the next. To embrace the comfort of Jeremiah 29:11 means believing that even when Jerusalem falls, God will care for you. When Babylon is at her worst, God can be at his best. That’s comforting.
And notice that these plans that God has for us, the plans to prosper us, don’t begin when seventy years are over. They begin now. (Pastor Jeremy Treat makes this point in one of his sermons on the passage.) God says, “Call upon me now; pray to me now; seek me with all your heart now.” In the pain, in the trial, in the exile, in the hard, he’s near. That’s comforting.
Notice that because the length is seventy years, some would not have lived to see the full outworking of the promise. Some planted pomegranate trees but never drank pomegranate juice. That could be discouraging but look at it in the positive. This means God’s plans are bigger than one person, one church, one generation. You don’t have to listen to all the graduation propaganda that you have to change the world. Just love and serve one family, one church, one workplace, one city. That’s comforting.
And because the exile is only seventy years, we can also note that your exile has an expiration date. That’s comforting. To use the language of v. 14, there is a day coming when God will be found by us, a day coming when God will restore our fortunes and gather us from all the nations and all the places we’ve been driven, a day when God will be our God and we will be his people in the fullest sense. That’s super comforting.
And all of this comes to us through Christ, who himself came through Babylon to purchase our redemption. The gospel of Matthew tells the story of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. It opens with what we call a genealogy, a list of names, a list of one person who was the father of another person and so on. In light of what we are talking about here in Jeremiah 29, there is a beautiful verse at the end of Matthew’s genealogy. Jesus, our savior, our Messiah, our deliverer, came through Babylon. Let me read it to you.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. (Matt. 1:17)
Their stay in Babylon came to an end. And your stay in Babylon, will come to an end because Christ came through Babylon to save those in Babylon. And just as Jesus came out the other side, so will all his people. And his people are all those who surrender to him and him alone. And surrender is something any of us can do and all of us should.
We’re going to close our service with a very non-traditional song for July. We’re going to sing the Christmas hymn by Issac Watts “Joy to the World.” I drew the title of the sermon from the line in the hymn, “far as the curse is found.” The idea is that wherever the curse of sin is alive, whether the sin in our hearts or out there in the world, God means to make his blessings flow. He wants to push back the curse, and he means to do it by saving a people through Jesus who then serve others.
Let’s pray as we invite the music team up to close us in song. “Dear heavenly Father…”
Sermon Discussion Questions
Benjamin opened the sermon with an invitation to discuss ways in which the “curse” is alive in your workplace and vocation. How would you answer that?
By telling those in exile to care for the well-being of the city, was God also condoning the sin of that city? Why was this hard for them to hear? Why is it hard for us? Why was Jeremiah’s message considered treasonous?
Jeremiah 29:11 is probably the best-known verse in the Old Testament. How does seeing it in context bring out more meaning?
Jesus tells Christians to take up their cross daily (Luke 9:23–27). In what ways is God calling you to serve others in your life, particularly people who you don’t agree with or have bumps in your relationship (or outright hatred)?
How does 2 Corinthians 1:20 and the good news story of Jesus relate to Christians embracing Jeremiah 29:11, even when originally it was said to others?
