How to find peace when life is hard (Jeremiah 29)
Jer 29:1-32
When my husband and I decided to move to New Zealand, it was originally my suggestion, but by the time the Lord opened the way, I was less than convinced that I could make the adjustments needed. In the first few years after we arrived in Auckland, I desperately wanted to return to the UK and resisted ties that would make our NZ move permanent. As part of this uncertainty, we decided to rent rather than buy a house. When my church asked me if I would serve on the leadership team, I was initially hesitant thinking that we might not stay much longer, and I did not want to commit myself. It took some gentle persuasion to help me accept the role. If we took trips to explore this country, I was almost reluctant to enjoy it because I felt that it would mean letting down roots and making our stay here a lasting one. No matter how illogical this all sounds, for a long time I could not open my heart to the life I was given.
The way to hope in the long-term
Given these experiences, I can well understand why God’s people were reluctant to see the exile as a long-term situation. Not only did it clash with their theology (how could God abandon them to captivity?), but it made hope difficult to maintain. Surely, they had to keep holding on to the dream of an imminent return! Paradoxically, God’s answer through Jeremiah was that they could only find long-term hope if they made peace with their fate and settled down to life in Babylon (Jer 29:4-7). The prophecies about a brief stay were false and Judah needed to accept that generations will grow up before their situation was to change (Jer 29:8-9, 6).[1] Nevertheless, despite the long time, this was not the end for God’s people. He had plans for ‘welfare’ (literally ‘peace’), not for a disastrous and definitive end (Jer 29:11). Few who hold this verse of Scripture dear realise the context of these hopeful words. It is a promise given in the midst of catastrophe, caused by Judah’s own sin. Yet the Lord wants to bring about renewal and restoration, a people who seek Him with all their hearts (Jer 29:12-14).
Those who resist and counsel rebellion
This message and the approach to exile it advocates is so important that the rest of the chapter deals with those who are resistant to God’s Word. The people who remain in Jerusalem and their king (Zedekiah) will be destroyed because they refuse to listen to God (Jer 29:16-20). They are like bad figs that are too rotten to eat (v.17), a reference to Jeremiah’s earlier prophecy (Jer 24:1-10).[2] Likewise, the false prophets, Ahab and Zedekiah will be judged (killed and cursed) not only because of their false prophecies but because of their immoral lifestyles (Jer 29:21-23). Finally, Shemaiah, another false prophet now in exile who sends a complaint to Jerusalem about Jeremiah’s prophecy, is described in terms similar to Hananiah in the previous chapter. He is someone who made people ‘trust in a lie’ and who ‘preached [spoken] rebellion’ (Jer 29:31-32 cf. Jer 28:15-16).
The path to peace
Although our context may be different and not caused by sin, we may find ourselves in circumstances that we would not have chosen or wanted: a medical diagnosis, the loss of a loved one, a relationship on the rocks, unexpected economic hardship. Our instinct may be to fight it, to blame God and be bitter and resentful. Yet, whether it is something that we should try and change or something we have to live with, it is important to remember that God is not absent or oblivious to what is going on. Accepting this from God’s hand is the first step towards peace and such acceptance is not apathy. Rather, it involves trusting the Lord that He has our life in His hands and He will give us the means to cope whether the situation will be remedied later or not. If God could say even to a sinful and rebellious people who experienced His discipline that He had a plan for them that was for a future and a hope, then how much more so in the ordinary sufferings of life?
[1] If counted from the first deportation in 597 BC, the exile lasted 58 years up to 539 BC, when King Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. The seventy years in Jeremiah 29:10 is likely meant symbolically. Both seven and ten indicate completeness, and seventy may also depict a lifetime (Ps 90:10). The letter of the false prophet, Shemaiah, who complained about Jeremiah’s prophecy to the priestly authorities in Jerusalem, quotes Jeremiah saying that the exile will last a long time (Jer 29:28), which again suggests that the number seventy was not meant literally.
[2] The context of the earlier prophecy is that the people who remained in Jerusalem after the first deportation in 597 BC claimed that they were spared exile because they were better than the ones taken to Babylon. God says that on the contrary, the ones who remain are ‘the bad figs’. See my post on Jeremiah 24, How to understand God’s intent through events.
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