Day 220: Jeremiah 26–29 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Hey, Bible Nerds, this is Dr. Manny Arango. Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. Family, welcome to day 220. Today, we are talking about Jeremiah chapters 26, 27, 28, and 29. We're gonna deal with the famous passage of scripture, the famous verse, Jeremiah chapter 29, 11, that says, I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you a hope and a future, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. That is a verse that we put on coffee mugs and it's the bio on a lot of people's Instagram handles. But we are actually gonna put it into context today. I'm really, really excited about that. Like always, we're gonna give you context clues, nerdy nuggets, and we're gonna leave off with a timeless truth because we're not just studying history. We're studying history so that we can get to know God. We're studying context so that we can know what God had to say to his people then, so that we can ultimately figure out what he has to say to us today. So we'll always leave off with a timeless truth because God is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. All right, if you've done the reading, you're gonna have all the context that you need

to understand this breakdown. If you have not done the reading, stop the video now, pause the audio, go do the reading. We're in Jeremiah chapters 26 to 29 today. And if you do the reading, I promise that what I've got to say will actually be all that more powerful. All right, chapter 26 has a different context than chapters 27 to 29. So I figured I'd give you both contexts right up at the front, and then we'll get into some nerdy nuggets. And actually, I'll probably try to give you a nerdy nugget for each chapter that we're gonna look at today, and then we'll get into our timeless truth. So, context. For chapter 26, the context is right around 605 or maybe 604 BC. So again, this would be just after Nebuchadnezzar had become the suzerain of Judah. Remember, Josiah wanted the Babylonians to defeat the Assyrians in 609. That does not happen. The Assyrians are able to defend themselves against the Babylonians in 609, but they are not able to defeat the Babylonians or defend themselves against the Babylonians in 605. And so Judah goes from being a vassal state to Assyria to being a vassal state to Babylon. And that is the context for chapter 25,

which we looked at yesterday, but also chapter 26, which we're gonna look at today. Then when we hit chapter 27, everything is going to shift as we hit chapter 27. Chapter 27, 28, and 29 jump forward again to Zedekiah's reign. Chapter 27 gives us the vague in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. That's 27 verse one. But then chapter 28 actually gives a more precise date. It says, in the fifth month of the fourth year. And we are told that this was the same year as chapter 27. This would put it a few years later than the prophecies in chapter 24 in around 593 BC. So remember, Jeremiah is jumping around chronologically a lot. Well, I guess the easiest way to say that would be the prophecies are not in chronological order, but more in thematic order. So chapters 27, 28, 29 would put us about four years into the exile to Babylon, which started when King Jehoiachin and much of the royal court and thousands of Judeans were taken into captivity. All right, so that's the context for chapter 26 and the context for chapter 27, 28, and 29. And with all that context, now let's dive into some nerdy nuggets. Chapter 26, we're gonna get a temple sermon. And if you've been walking with us

through the book of Jeremiah for any solid length of time, you're gonna realize that there was a temple sermon in Jeremiah chapter seven. And it's really, really, really similar. So there's a massive debate. Since chapter 26 is so similar to chapter seven and they are both temple sermons, there's debate among scholars and just readers of scripture who are wondering, okay, did Jeremiah give this sermon two times? That's option number one. Did he give the sermon one time? And we are kind of retelling it because Jehoiachin's context is similar to Josiah's context. Did he give it in chapter seven? and it really was for Josiah's context, or did he only give it in Jehoiakim's context and it's just gotten placed in chapter 7 because there are similarities in Josiah's context as Jehoiakim's context. Either way, you get the point, right? Was the sermon given one time and then used multiple times, or was it actually given two times? And honestly, it could go either way, okay? Perhaps Jeremiah gave it in Josiah's time, but the good influence of the king kept Jeremiah safe from any reprisals, okay? When he was asked to repeat the sermon in Jehoiakim's reign, however, he was not protected by the king, and so the priests, prophets, and people and officials were free to try and silence him for his heresy. Because guess what? The results in chapter 26 are very different than the results in chapter 7. By the time we get to chapter 26, the people are absolutely irate. And actually, you're gonna see this in chapter 26, verse 20 to 24, Uriah the son of Shemaiah also brought the words of Yahweh against Jerusalem in Jehoiakim's reign, but unfortunately was not protected like Jeremiah, and Jehoiakim had him killed. So, what protected

Jeremiah in chapter 26? It's actually the words of Micah, the prophet! This is wild, okay? The sermon that Jeremiah gives, this temple sermon, whether he gave it twice or once, we don't know, but what we do know is that when he gives this sermon in chapter 26, it is very, very, very unpopular. He compares Jerusalem to Shiloh. We've actually talked about this before when we were in chapter 7, which means that Jerusalem could fall, and the people were not as safe as they thought they were. Jeremiah's words were heretical to them. They 100% label Jeremiah as unpatriotic and as a heretic, as they suggested that the Davidic covenant and the associated presence to the temple was not a guarantee of Yahweh's protection. Such heresy had to be silenced, and Jeremiah's life was in danger. But an unnamed hero amongst the elders of the city defended Jeremiah and reminded everyone of the words of Micah, because in Micah chapter 3, verses 11 and 12, Micah had also prophesied the fall of Jerusalem and the temple. Micah was a recognized prophet, and so his words carried weight. Hezekiah had not punished Micah for his words, but instead sought the favor of Yahweh. The elder, okay, in Jeremiah's context, counseled that they should do the same. And so the words of Micah, remembered by an unknown elder of Jerusalem, saved Jeremiah's life. Okay, so that's chapter 26. Now let's roll into chapter 27. Chapter 27, we're gonna have another sign act. Now remember, these sign acts, like Isaiah's nakedness or Jeremiah's underwear, the acts are just as important as words. Okay, that's almost a timeless truth right there. Okay, that the prophets are not just heard, but they're observed. So it's not just their words that prophesy, but their life prophesies. The names of their children, whether or not they even have children, who they marry, like Hosea, going around naked, laying on one side versus the other. Okay, because for God, it's not just words that transform, but lifestyles. This is why there's a higher standard for leaders than for your average everyday Christian. Doesn't mean that a leader's better, it just means that our lifestyle and our words have to be in harmony with one another if we are actually going to be ministers of the gospel and teachers of God's Word. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and

available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble, or you can go to a Books A Million, or Amazon, or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy if you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective. If you understand that the beauty of Scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. Alright, back to the episode. Okay, so chapter 27, Jeremiah and the yoke. One time I was teaching about the yoke, don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. I was teaching that at a youth group and a girl came up to me and she confusingly said, what in the world does egg yolks have to do with dating? And I said, oh, sweetheart, I'm sorry. I should have explained that I did not mean Y-O-L-K but Y-O-K-E, that what you would put onto oxen would be a yoke, that a yoke would bind them together. And what happened is that if you put a strong ox with a weak ox, the strong ox would pull the weak ox and instead of getting straight rows for plowing, you would end up with circles, you'd end up with cycles, which means that your life has been going in cycles. It may be that you are yoked with someone who you shouldn't be. That means you're attached to someone that you shouldn't be. So when the Bible talks about a yoke, a Y-O-K-E,

a yoke of bondage or a yoke of slavery, it means that you have been yoked together with something that's sinful, harmful, something that's detrimental and that it's keeping your life operating in cycles. And so this is why Jesus says, take my yoke upon you, learn from me. And if someone who is dysfunctional has the power to pull you into their dysfunction, then Jesus has the power to pull you into his grace, into his mercy. So Jeremiah wears a yoke, okay? He puts a yoke on and he says in the same way that oxen are submitted to the farmer and they've chosen or they're submitting to being burden bearing beasts, that you're gonna put on a yoke of bondage and you're gonna submit to the King of Nebuchadnezzar and you are gonna get brought off into Babylonian captivity and that it's not going to go well for you. So Jeremiah chapter 27, okay? The message was one of submission, just like oxen submitted to be beasts of burden to their masters, Judah would submit to Babylon. Another indication that these prophecies are less repent or I will send the Babylonians, but more like repent because I have sent the Babylonians. Okay, very different. By the time we get to Jeremiah's time, Jeremiah's message is not repent

or God will send the Babylonians. It is repent because God has sent the Babylonians. Big, big, big difference. The exile had already begun. Some of the holy vessels of the temple were already in Babylon. For those left in Jerusalem, the only hope was to submit to Yahweh's judgment. And I know this is a hard message. It was a hard message then, it's a hard message even here. Are you saying surrender? Just surrender to the Babylonians? Yeah, don't put up a fight. Do not fight them back. Surrender to the Babylonians. Yahweh has raised up Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians as a rod of correction. Do not try to protect yourself. Submit to the Babylonians. Let's go all the way to chapter 29 because chapter 29 is low-key famous. So that was, in chapter 28, there's a prophet by the name of Hananiah. Hananiah responded to Jeremiah's prophetic act by both contradicting it with Yahweh's words and then doing a prophetic act himself by breaking the yoke, okay? So Hananiah decides, let me do a little prophetic act. Let me break the yoke that Jeremiah is wearing. His words and actions were simple.

The exile will be short. Babylon's rule over them would end. The vessels and the people would come home soon. Jeremiah's response is amen, as he wishes that were true. But it is also to tell Hananiah that he was putting lying words in Yahweh's mouth and so he would soon die. And then we get the famous letter, okay? You may not even realize that Jeremiah chapter 29 is a letter, but that's what you are watching these episodes for, to learn little facts like that. So nerdy nugget, Jeremiah chapter 29 is a letter. So let's start reading in verse four. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. So Jeremiah writes a letter to all the Babylonian, to all the exiles, the Jewish exiles living in Babylon, okay? This would be, if this is post 605 BC, this would definitely be Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, okay? This is a letter that's getting sent to the Babylonian captives, okay? Verse five, build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat what's left of it. they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there. Do not decrease. Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it. Pray to the Lord for Babylon. Yeah, because if it prospers,

you too will prosper. Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says. Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I've not sent them, declares the Lord. Well, one of these prophets is Hananiah, who we read about in Jeremiah chapter 28. And what is Hananiah saying? He's saying, you're not going to be in exile long. It's just going to be a couple of years. God's going to bring you right back. Isn't that a good thing to prophesy? He's prophesying things that people want to hear. I love this. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. Do not listen to the dreams that you encourage them to have. You're encouraging these prophets to have dreams that aren't from God. They're just things you want to hear. And what does Jeremiah say? Nope, it's going to be 70 years. It's going to be 70 years. You're not coming back quick. It's going to be 70 years. So go ahead, build houses, settle down, plant gardens, eat what they produce. Marry, have sons and daughters. Seek the prosperity of Babylon. Because if Babylon prospers, so will you. And this is the exact same attitude every Christian should have. I don't belong in Texas. I belong in the new earth. I'm a citizen of the kingdom. So I'm in exile. Every Christian should feel like I'm in exile. I'm an alien here. I'm an immigrant. I'm a foreigner. Okay. I'm American, but really, I'm a part of the kingdom of God. But if this place prospers, I'll prosper. And it'll prosper because I'm here. And I'm here to be a lamp. I'm here to be a city on a hill. I'm here to be a salt of the earth. I'm here to be salt and light. That is my job. But man, I'm looking forward to the new Jerusalem. Just like God brought these exiles out of Babylon back to Jerusalem. One day, every Christian is going to get brought out of this old creation, out of the kingdoms of the earth that we have been scattered to, and we'll get brought into the new Jerusalem. So what is my job? I can hear Jeremiah's words as true for me today. I should build a house. I should settle down. I should plant a garden. I should eat what that garden produces. I should marry. I should have sons and daughters. It's ridiculous to think it's, oh, 70 years, we'll just ride it out. We'll just suck it up for the next 70 years. No, God says, no, no, no, no, no. Build houses, settle down. I want my people to be the kind of people that can flourish wherever they are. Don't wait 70 years to come back to flourish. No, no, no. Don't prolong flourishing for 70 years. Flourish in Babylon. Flourish in Babylon. There should be Babylonians who fall in love

with the God of Yahweh, with the God of Israel, with Yahweh, the God of Israel. Why? Because you were there. Because you're salt. Because you're light. Because you got mixed in. Because you know how to infiltrate the world's systems to turn the world's systems towards me. This gets us immediately into our timeless truth, okay? But it's our timeless truth, and we got to put the verse in context. So verse 11, well, let's read verse 10. So I stopped off at verse 9. Now verse 10. This is what the Lord says. When 70 years have been pleaded 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 a hope and a future. So what is God saying? I could understand why Jeremiah needs to write this letter, because it doesn't seem like God has good plans. Well, God's good plans in this context is to keep them in exile. They would rather Hananiah's good plans be true. Hananiah is saying, oh, you're going to be back in a couple years. Jeremiah is saying, nope, it's going to be 70 years. It's going to be 70 years. But it's God's good plan that you stay in exile. It's God's good plan that you be removed from the ability to worship for seven straight decades. It's God's good plan that Nebuchadnezzar came and besieged Babylon and took you off as slaves. That's God's good plan. And here's our timeless truth. What happens when God's good plan is not the plan? I want it for myself. So the reason that Jeremiah writes to them and says you have to trust in God's plan is because this plan is terrible, according to human standards. This plan is not good. Yahweh needs to reassure them that the plan is not evil, but it is for their benefit. Yahweh plans for them to spend 70 years in exile in a foreign land, where they are not familiar with anything. God, Yahweh's plan was that for most of them, that they would die there and never see their home again. Yahweh's plan was to deprive them of worship for the next 70 years. Yahweh's plan was to destroy almost everything

that their identity was built on. That was Yahweh's plan. So before we go throwing this verse on coffee mugs, like God, and for I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you. They were in the middle of the plan to prosper and not harm, to bring a hope and a future, and they weren't happy about it. So what happens when God's plan to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future, is uncomfortable? That one that includes bondage and slavery and discomfort and a plan that includes none of the things that you plan for yourself. Man, what about that? Will you still accept God's plan to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future, even when it goes against the plan you had for yourself? Even when on the outside, looking in, it looks like a crazy plan. It looks like death. It looks like sabotage. It looks like destruction. What about Jesus? Well, I've got plans for you. Do your plans include me dying on a cross, being crucified, being betrayed by Judas and denied by Peter? That's the plan? Well, yet not my will be done, but your will be done.

That was God's plan. God's plan was that Jesus would die on the cross. And sometimes in church, we make it seem like God's plan doesn't include any suffering. God's plan doesn't include any persecution. God's plan never includes any discomfort. Well, newsflash, here's our Thomas truth. Sometimes God's plan does include suffering. It does include persecution. It does include discomfort. It does include pain. God's plan does include things that we would exclude. What is the word that we have to get into our minds? Acceptance and surrender. That God, I trust that even though I can't see how this is a good plan, I trust that you have plans to prosper me, not to harm me, to give me a hope and to give me a future. I believe that those are the kinds of plans you have. Even when all of my senses are telling me that this plan is terrible. And even when there are words from you, from other prophets whose plans seem better than this, I will choose that even though you have me in a difficult season, it's your plan for me to be in that difficult season. Instead of rescuing me out of a difficult scenario, that you are gonna sustain me while I go through it. And that is our Thomas truth for the day. Tomorrow we'll be back for day 221,

and we're gonna study Jeremiah chapter 30, 31, 32, and 33. We got four chapters to go through tomorrow. It's gonna be incredible. I'm falling in love with the book of Jeremiah. I hope you are too. I'm proud of you, especially if you're on a streak. Love you so much. I'll see you right here tomorrow as we continue our trek through the book of Jeremiah. See you then, peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department Podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.