A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson on Jeremiah 29:4-14, for Sunday, July 16, 2023, with the title, “Present.”

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO: You might talk about a time when someone told you what you might have wanted to hear, instead of what you needed to ear.  FOR EXAMPLE: when I got sick in 2012 and I had to leave the ministry for a couple of years, the future was uncertain, and we had to sell our house and many of our possessions and move to a little condo in Norman, OK. It was Cheryl’s “dream house” and she was taking it hard. As people from our church were telling us goodbye, one woman told Cheryl: “Don’t worry; I know God’s going to give you a bigger, better house!” I think that person meant well, but I don’t think that was the message God had for us. Our hope was not in “a bigger better house,” but that God was with us and would see us through.

You can share that story if you’d like, or your own story of how often people tell you what they think you want to hear, instead of what you really need to hear. Then I would say that was the case in Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day, which we’ll see in today’s lesson in Jeremiah 29.

OR: you could ask your class if anyone wants to share their favorite Bible verse. Then you say that in today’s passage we will look at one of many people’s favorite verses: Jeremiah 29:11, and God’s Promises to His people. 

CONTEXT:

Jeremiah and other prophets of God had been prophesying that Judah would be judged for their sins — and finally they were. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon invaded the Holy Land and destroyed Jerusalem, ransacked the Temple, and took thousands of the Jews into captivity into Babylon. So Chapter 29 opens in :1 with Jeremiah writing a letter to those who were taken captive to Babylon. (These exiles would include people like Daniel, and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who would be thrown into the fiery furnace. This Babylonian captivity is the context of the Book of Daniel. And you might have a map to show your class where Jerusalem is, and how far Babylon was where they were taken.) The Jews would live in Babylon in captivity for 70 years and then miraculously be brought BACK to Jerusalem again. But at this point, Jeremiah is writing those in exile in Babylon a letter. Jeremiah 29:4 begins the letter, and his message is for them — and for us today!

OUTLINE:

I.   GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY in their situation (:4, 7, 14)

II.  GOD’S MESSAGE TO THE EXILES (:4-7)

III.  NOT GOD’S MESSAGE! (:8-9)

IV.  GOD’S PLAN  (:10-14)

I. GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY in their situation (:4)

:4 We shouldn’t be surprised how it begins: “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel …”. We have seen this every week, haven’t we — these are not just “Jeremiah’s words” or his opinion; these are the words of GOD. So as we read this letter today in the Book of Jeremiah, we need to know this is God’s word!

Then look at what He said in :4, “Thus says YHWH the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I HAVE SENT into exile …”.

??? Who does He say sent them into exile? 

(HE did! Not “Nebuchadnezzar,” not “the Babylonian army,” etc. But GOD! HE did it. He is in charge.

— We see this again in :7, “Seek the welfare of the city where I HAVE SENT YOU into exile …”

— We see it again in :14, “I will restore your fortunes and will gather you … from all the places where I have driven you … and I will bring you back.”

All this just makes it very clear that GOD is in charge of the events of our world. 

We just celebrated Independence Day a couple of weeks ago. During the British attack on New York in 1776, the British defeated the American troops under George Washington on Long Island. The American army fell back to the East River, hoping to retreat across it to Manhattan. But the British Navy, which dominated the seas, could have cut them off, allowing the Army to destroy them, capture General Washington, and end the war. 

But a strong wind blew from the north, preventing any movement of British warships up the East River to cut off escape by the Americans. Then, a ‘peculiar providential’ fog set in, so that the British could not see Washington’s surprise retreat and escape. When daylight came and the fog began to thin, the British discovered that the Americans had vanished.” (David McCullough, John Adams, p. 152)

There “just so happened” to be a strong wind that kept the British navy from cutting off the American retreat across the river; there came a “providential fog” that kept the British Army from seeing that the Americans were retreating. No wonder Benjamin Franklin wrote, after seeing all the Providences of the American Revolution:  “If I had ever before been an atheist, I should now have been convinced of the Being and government of a Deity!”

(Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, p. 467)

This is just what God says here in Jeremiah: GOD IS SOVEREIGN. God is on the throne. HE is in charge of events. 

And we need to apply this to our own personal lives too. God is sovereign in the things that happen to US, too. We need to accept some things that happen in our lives as God’s will — we may or may not understand all that He is doing, but the Bible is clear: He is sovereign. He is on the throne. He is in charge. 

??? What are some things that we may need to learn to accept as God’s will under His sovereignty???

(EX: — Our health/how long we live/when we die

— Our physical characteristics that we were born with …

— Whether we get rain or not! God is in charge of that!

— Whether we get a certain job or not. He sovereign over that!

You/your group can think of many others. We need to understand and accept God’s sovereign control over these things in our lives. 

HE sent them — HE was sovereign over them — and He is sovereign over our lives today too.

II. GOD’S MESSAGE TO HIS PEOPLE  (:4-7)

??? You might ask your group: How do you think you would feel, if you were one of these exiles, 500 miles from home, in captivity in Babylon. What might some of your thoughts be?

(I think one of your thoughts might be: how long will we be here? What should I do next? Will we ever go home again? Things like that. There would be so much uncertainty.)

So it is in that context of all the uncertainty, that God’s word in :5+ came to them:  “Build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce. (:6) Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your son and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. (:7) 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 have welfare.”

??? You might ask your group: did you ever live somewhere temporarily, when you knew you would not be there long???

How did that feel?

(You probably did a lot of “temporary” things; didn’t make a lot of “home improvements,” etc. — because you knew you’d only be there a short time.

THAT is how these Jews may have felt. We may only be here for a short time; “don’t get used to it. Don’t settle down,” etc.

But God said, NO, “Build houses, plant gardens, get married and have your kids married. Seek good things for this city.

The word “welfare” here is the Hebrew word “shalom,” often translated “peace.” It means “peace, completeness, soundness, welfare,” etc. The point God is making is: don’t think you’re about to leave. Settle in and seek to bless the city where I have sovereignly placed you. 

NOW: this was a specific word from God to the exiles from Jerusalem at this point in history. That doesn’t mean that He is telling any of us today through this word that He is going to keep you where you are for 70 years! That may not be His plan for you. 

BUT, what we SHOULD all take out of this, is that we should seek to be a blessing to the place where God in His sovereign will has us. 

Benjamin Franklin was a very practical man. He was always seeking to improve things. While he was in Philadelphia, he began a lending library, he started a firefighting association, a hospital, and a college. And his lightning rods were in many homes, schools, and businesses, protecting them from lightning. His stoves were in many homes, helping them cook and keep warm. The community’s well-being was greatly improved, because Ben Franklin lived there. 

We should all ask ourselves: How is this city/town/place better off, because of my presence? What am I doing to improve the “shalom,” the “welfare,” the well-being, especially the Kingdom of God in this place? Can I say that it is better off, because I am here?  

You could talk about, or brainstorm with your group:  

??? What are some ways that we could be involved and be a blessing to OUR community? In general, and for the Kingdom of God. 

(Some EX: volunteer at a hospital or school, or firefighting organization; reach out with the gospel; visit elderly and homebound; meals on wheels, coach sports team. Myriads of ways!)  

God wants us as His people, like the Jews here, to be a blessing in the place where He has put us.  That is His message to His people. 

III. NOT GOD’S MESSAGE: the false prophets  (:8-9)

In :8 God says to them: “For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel” (there it is again!) “Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream.”

NOTICE: what are the three sources of false messages here:

— prophets

— diviners

— dreams

This is a good warning to us: to be skeptical of these things.  We have the word of God! Especially now, with the full revelation of His word. Jeremiah said in 23:28, “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord. 29 “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?’”

He says, let them have their “vision and dreams,” YOU listen to My word, and not these false prophets!  

What was the message of the false prophets here? It doesn’t really say right here. But we DO see it later in the chapter:  

— :27 says they opposed Jeremiah, saying they shouldn’t believe him, and :28 implies that they did NOT think that they would be in Babylon for very long. So they were probably preaching a “false hope”: don’t worry, you won’t be there in Babylon for very long. Get ready to come home!

And of course that message might SOUND good to the people, but it was a FALSE message. God was telling them: do not let these false prophets deceive you. This sounds good but it is not going to happen. Settle in for the long haul. 

??? Is there any application here for US today?  Are there any false prophets telling people what they want to hear today???

(Absolutely!

— There are the “prosperity preachers” who proclaim that it is God’s will for everyone to be healthy and rich. Just keep saying you aren’t sick and you won’t be; just “claim it” and you will have God’s blessing. Just say, “I am successful” in the mirror and you will be, and so on.

— Then there are those false prophets who condone sin. These are on the increase in our land, saying that same-sex marriages and relationships are blessed by God, and that you can be whatever gender makes you happy. This sounds good; this is what some people want to hear, but it is not the truth.

God says DO NOT listen to the false prophets, of ANY kind. 

??? How can you know if someone is a false prophet???

(He will teach things that are in contradiction to God’s revealed word, the Bible. This is a challenge to us, to be Biblically literate enough to know error when we hear it!) We need to give more time, and pay more attention to HIS WORD. 

We also need to be aware that not even just “false prophets,” but sometimes well-meaning friends, tend to tell us what they think we WANT to hear, instead of what we NEED to hear. A true friend will tell us what we need to hear. And again, spending time in God’s word will help us see His truth, and what we need to hear. 

IV.  GOD’S PLAN (:10-14)

Of course, one of the most famous verses in the word of God is in this section, Jeremiah 29:11. I have a story about that which you can share if you’d like:

When our son Michael was little, I would work with him to memorize scriptures at night before he went to bed. I’d read it to him a few times, then explain it, and read it again, then over time he would memorize it — and he memorized a LOT of scriptures that way (a good thing to do with kids by the way! And good for YOU too!)  So one week the scripture I was teaching him was from this passage: Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans that I have for you, says the LORD.” So I read that, and started explaining it a little bit to him: I said, “Michael, God has special plans for you, for exactly what He wants you to do with your life!” And he sat up in his bed with the most excited look on his face, and asked:  “What is it, what is it?!!” 

That is how we SHOULD respond to this verse! It is exciting! God DOES have plans, for us, for good. In fact notice several important truths about this verse:

— These are GOD’S plans, not ours. This is big. Christianity is NOT “pick out your plans and let God bless them.” No, we follow HIS plans. Men’s plans can and will fail; God’s plans cannot fail!

— God has plans for US. He says “I know the plans I have for YOU.” He had special plans for the Jews here. And He has special plans for US too! And you can make that personal. We saw in Jeremiah 1 that God knew the plans He had for Jeremiah before He was born, and He has plans for YOU personally too!

— And His plans are for GOOD: “for welfare, for a future and a hope.” Just like Romans 8:28 says, He is causing all things to work together for GOOD to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.  This is NOT a “prosperity gospel” promise that nothing bad or painful will ever happen in your life; but that God is working it all for good, and your ultimate future will be good! 

You could almost spend the whole lesson just on this one verse, Jeremiah 29:11! It certainly is a great promise that God has for us. And YES, He was speaking it originally to the Jews who were in exile in Babylon — but it is true for each of us as well, IF we are God’s people through Jesus Christ. He has plans for us, and they are good!  We DO need to make sure that we are His children, however — so you may want to review/share the gospel at this point.  

God also tells them some of the specific good plans He had for them:

— First of all, in their relationship with Him, in :12-13. He said in :12, “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” God says PRAY to Me; I will listen! What a great promise! 

And notice both the promise and the challenge of :13, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” That’s a great word! If you will really seek God with all your heart, God says you WILL find Me. 

But what’s the big challenge here??? 

(To seek Him with “all our heart”! God doesn’t promise to bless a trite, surface “seeking” of Him. He promises we’ll find Him if we seek with “all our heart.”

??? What do you think it means, specifically, to “seek Him with all our heart”???

(To really put effort into it; to not just be a “routine” thing; To pray hard, often, to really seek in His word; to fast and pray!; to set aside sin from our life so we are consecrated and not missing anything from Him. 

When I graduated from seminary in 1985, Cheryl & I had just had our first son, Paul. We thought it was going to time out well: we were going to graduate in May, then get our church, and have a baby in June. But it didn’t work out that way. No church called me. Month after month went by, and we weren’t hearing anything. So I was very careful to spend time with God every day; I tried to be sure to avoid every sin; I would stay up late at night studying the Bible, seeking insights in God’s word to share for when He’d call me to a church. And God DID show me some things in that time that have been a blessing to me for the last 40 years in ministry. I can truly say I sought Him with all my heart during that time, and He DID reward it. And at the end of a difficult, challenging, but spiritually very rewarding year, God called us to our first church, that loved us, and grew the 5 years that we were there.  

You/your group could share times when you/others really sought God with all your heart — and some of the specific things you did when you were serious about seeking Him.

Then I might share, that if the things you/your group suggested are what it means to seek Him “with all your heart,” can you say you are really “seeking Him with all your heart”? God doesn’t promise to bless a “lackadaisical,” half-hearted “seeking” of Him; but He promises to bless if we will seek Him with “all of our heart.” That challenges us to do that! 

And then, notice the specific promise He makes to them in verses 10 & 14, 

:10, “For thus says the LORD, ‘when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.”
:14 “And I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you … and I will bring you BACK to the place from where I sent you into exile.” 

So TWICE here He makes this specific promise to them, that although He had allowed Babylon to take them captive, and they would be there for a good amount of time — enough to settle in and do all the things He talked about — but they would eventually go BACK to Jerusalem again. And in one of the most amazing stories of history, 70 years later, they DID go back — and that is what we find in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the story of when the Jews went back to Jerusalem again. 

So God’s promise to them came true. And we can be confident that His word to US will come true as well. Our challenge is to believe what He says by faith, and to do the specific things this passage talks about: to trust that He is sovereign and in charge of our life circumstances, to seek to be a blessing right where He has us, to NOT listen to the false messages that are constantly bombarding us in our world today, but to seek HIM with all our heart, believing He will reward us in the end if we do. 

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