Jeremiah 28 & 29

 CHAPTER 28

A false prophet named Hananiah told the people that God broke the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, and within two years all of the captives of Judah will return. Jeremiah told Hananiah that if a prophet prophesies of peace, and the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the LORD has truly sent. 

Then the LORD spoke to Jeremiah and told him to tell Hananiah that he lied and rebelled against God, and for this he shall die. Therefore, that same year, Hananiah died. 

COMMENTARY

You would think the people would have moved over to Jeremiah's column by now because his prophecies continued to prove true; but they were still willing to believe the lies of the false prophets -- likely because their hearts were also in rebellion toward God. 

CHAPTER 29

Jeremiah sent a long letter to the all the people who were carried away to Babylon telling them to build homes, plant gardens, and get married while in captivity, that they may increase in number, and not listen or believe the false diviners because the LORD had not sent them. 

He also told them that after seventy years, the LORD will visit them and "perform My good word...and cause you to return..." 

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you...thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 

I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. 

But if they continued following those prophets in Babylon, they will be met with the sword (among other things) and be a reproach to the nations. 

COMMENTARY

God told the captives to settle down in Babylon because they were going to be there a while. He encouraged them to live peaceably and be good law-abiding citizens. God was going to return them to their homeland after seventy years.  

Unfortunately, there were false prophets in Babylon, too, and they refused to accept Jeremiah's letter. But there was a message for them as well, and it was not encouraging. 

God demonstrated His loving kindness on a people who had rebelled against Him over and over again and sinned in the most egregious ways. While He must and will always judge sin, which was exactly why they were in captivity, one day He will collect them and restore them to their home in Judah.