[10] “For here is what Adonai says: ‘After Bavel’s seventy years are over, I will remember you and fulfill my good promise to you by bringing you back to this place. [11] For I know what plans I have in mind for you’, says Adonai, ‘plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have a hope and a future. [12] When you call to me and pray to me, I will listen to you. [13] When you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek for me wholeheartedly; [14] and I will let you find me’, Says Adonai. ‘Then I will reverse your exile. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have driven you,’ says Adonai, ‘and bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.” Jeremiah 29:10-14
As I began studying these verses, my prayer was to see past the surface of them, to be taken deeper into the words. I prayed not so much about what to write about them, but for the Holy Spirit to teach me what He wanted me to see in them. These are words of promise that stir up our hearts to praise and declare the goodness of the God we serve, without question, but as I meditated and looked up the words in the Hebrew and let it wash over me, I discovered some beautiful revelations. If others have written on what I am about to, please let me know so that I may read or hear what they have shared. Of all the commentaries I looked up, I did not find any of what I am going to share. I am also going to break down these verses in a more unorthodox way than I usually do, from outside to in by looking at the first and last verses before looking at the middle.
“For here is what Adonai says: ‘After Bavel’s seventy years are over, I will remember you and fulfill my good promise to you by bringing you back to this place.” Jeremiah 29:10
Jeremiah starts this section of his letter reminding those in exile that as he stated previously, seventy years, no more, no less was the allotted time that they would spend in the land of Babylon. He then says that He will remember them, which doesn’t mean to just recall to memory. In Hebrew, the word for remember is paqad (paw-kad) and means to “visit graciously”. What a beautiful turn of phrase. When my time in exile (sin) was at its end, and I called out to Yeshua, He visited me with His grace and His love; because of that gracious visit, I have the gift of salvation. He visits me graciously every single day because each day is the day of salvation and new in Him.
He then goes on to tell them that He would fulfill his good promise and bring them back to the land. The word for good, towb (tobe), has a multitude of definitions including pleasant, agreeable, excellent, rich, valuable in estimation, appropriate, becoming, better, glad, happy, prosperous, good understanding, kind, benign, right, benefit, welfare, happiness, and bounty. In the context of this sentence however, it means “the good, kind word(s) spoken in promise”. We see an example of this in Joshua 21:43(45) “Not one good thing that Adonai had spoken of to the household of Isra’el failed to happen; it all took place.” Towb is tied to the next word, which is promise, or dabar (daw-baw). When we look deeper at dabar, we find that its meanings include speech, word, speaking, saying, utterance, and promise. The context of dabar in this verse doesn’t solely mean promise, but “Adonai confirms His word of promise”. Looking throughout the scriptures, we see the consistency of His word. For example, Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass dries up, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever” andIn Psalm 119:89 the continuation of His word is again declared, “Your word continues, forever, Adonai, firmly fixed in heaven.” Yeshua himself spoke of His word being eternal in Matthew 24:35 when He said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” He spoke of remembering His promise in Psalm 105:42, “For he remembered his holy promise to his servant Avaraham.” It was by His word that the heavens and earth were created, it is His Word that is near the hearts and mouths of His people, it is His word that is a lamp and light to our feet and path. Adonai would remember graciously His excellent, rich, happy, prosperous, kind, beneficial, word of promise to His people, and continues to do so to this day.
‘Then I will reverse your exile. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have driven you,’ says Adonai, ‘and bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.” Jeremiah 29:14
The first word that I focused on, when studying these two sentences was the word “driven”. In this verse, the word in Hebrew is nadach (naw-dakh) meaning “to thrust, move, impel, to thrust out, banish, to thrust away, thrust aside”. This sums their being driven into exile, not just to Babylon, but to all the countries and lands they have been expelled to throughout time. If you look at the history of the Jewish people through the annals of time, into modern day, you will find time and time again they were banished, thrust out, and forced to move. When the country of Israel was re-established in 1948, the call and reversal of exile was made manifest for the world to see.
As I was contemplating the idea of being driven out, I immediately went to the place in the Bible that exile first happened, in the garden of Eden. Genesis 3:24 reads, “So he drove the man out, and he placed at the east of the garden of ‘Eden the k’ruvim and a flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” The word for drove in this verse is garash (gaw-rash) and holds a slightly different meaning than nadach. Garash does indeed mean to drive or cast out, but it has a more intimate and personal meaning as well, divorce. One of the greatest pictures of Adonai towards mankind is that of the marriage of the Lamb; He is the bridegroom, and we are the bride. It makes the idea of divorce after the original sin make sense. He had to divorce man as sin cannot dwell in the presence of Adonai. After that initial divorce and driving out, garash, His people would be driven out, nadach, time and time again.
“Then I will reverse your exile.” Exile in Hebrew is the word galah (gaw-law), meaning to uncover, remove, to go into exile, discover or shew oneself, reveal himself. Isn’t it interesting that alongside the words remove and exile, we see the idea of uncovering, of discovery, and of revealing? It has been during the times that I have felt in my own exile, or valley, or the wilderness that I have gone through the experience of uncovering in my life, of discovering things about myself and my Savior, and of revealing of things through the Holy Spirit. I have changed my outlook of being in the desert, meaning that even though I am going through a situation, I am trying to no longer see it as a negative, but as a chance for Adonai to reveal Himself to me, to uncover the hidden and secret things in my heart that I need to get out so that I can draw nearer to Him, and to discover the deeper mysteries within His Word.
[12] When you call to me and pray to me, I will listen to you. [13] When you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek for me wholeheartedly; [14] and I will let you find me’, Says Adonai. Jeremiah 29:12-14a
Jeremiah was not the only prophet during the Babylonian Exile, Ezekiel was one of the exiles carried away, as was another famous prophet, Daniel. As I read the words of these verses, it brought to mind Daniel Chapter 9 when he said, “In the first year of Daryavesh the son of Achashverosh, a Mede by birth, who was made king over the kingdom of the Kasdim – in the first year of his reign, I, Dani’el, was reading the Scriptures and thinking about the number of years which Adonai had told Yirmeyah (Jeremiah) the prophet would be the period of Yerushalayim’s desolation, seventy years.” Daniel 9:1-2 From the time he was carried into exile, Daniel lived a life of holiness to Adonai. He was there when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were cast into the furnace, and he survived his own life and death test when he was thrown into the lion’s den fro praying to Adonai three times a day, against the decree of the king. But nothing speaks of the words Jeremiah wrote in this letter like what we find in this prayer recorded in Daniel 9.
[3] I turned to Adonai, God, to seek an answer, pleading with him in prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. [4] I prayed to Adonai my God and made this confession: Please, Adonai, great and fearsome God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe his mitzvot! [5] We have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from your mitzvot and rulings. [6] We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our leaders, our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. [7] To you, Adonai, belongs righteousness; but to us today belongs shame – to us, the men of Y’hudah, the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and all Isra’el, including those nearby and those far away, throughout all the countries where you have driven them, because they broke faith with you. [8] Yes, Adonai, shame falls on us, our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, because we sinned against you. [9] It is for Adonai our God to show compassion and forgiveness because we rebelled against him. [10] We didn’t listen to the voice of Adonai our God, so that all Isra’el flouted your Torah and turned away, unwilling to listen to your voice. Therefor the curse and oath written in the Torah of Moshe the servant of God was poured out on us, because we sinned against him. [12] He carried out the threats he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us disaster so great that under all of heaven, nothing has been done like what has been done to Yerushalayim. [13] As written in the Torah of Moshe, this whole disaster came upon us. Yet we did not appease Adonai our God by renouncing our wrongdoing and discerning your truth. [14] So Adonai watched for the right moment to bring this disaster upon us, for Adonai our God was just in everything he did, yet we didn’t listen when he spoke. [15] Now, Adonai our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, thereby winning renown for yourself, as is the case today – we sinned, we acted wickedly. [16] Adonai, in keeping with all your justice, please allow your anger and fury to be turned away from your city Yerushalayim, your holy mountain; because it is due to our sins and the wrongdoings of our ancestors that Yerushalayim and your people have become objects of scorn among everyone around us. [17] Therefore, our God listen to the prayer and pleadings of your servant; and cause your face to shine on your desolated sanctuary, for your own sake. [18] My God, turn your ear, and hear; open your eyes and see how desolated we are, as well as the city which bears your name. For we plead with you, not because of our own righteousness, but because of your compassion. [19] Adonai, hear! Adonai, forgive! Adonai, pay attention and don’t delay action – for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people bear your name!” Daniel 9:3-19
What an amazing prayer! Oh, that we, the body of Christ, would pray with such passion of the heart, conviction, and repentance. Daniel cried out with a broken heart, not for his own sake, or the sake of his people, but for Adonai’s sake. The next few verses read, “While I was speaking, praying, confession my own sin and the sin of my people Isra’el, and pleading before Adonai my God for the holy mountain of my God – yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gavri’el (Gabriel), whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning swooped down on me in full flight at about the time of the evening sacrifices, and explained things to me. He said, “I have come now, Dani’el, to enable you to understand this vision clearly. At the beginning of your prayers, an answer was given; and I have come to say what it is, because you are greatly loved.” Daniel 9:20-23
Daniel’s prayer seemed to fulfill the words that Jeremiah had written in the letter, including the phrase, “And I will let you find me”. Matsa (maw-tsaw) to find, attain to, secure, acquire, get, to meet, encounter, to learn. When we pray and seek after Adonai with our whole heart as Jeremiah and Daniel did, we will not just find Him, we will meet Him, we will encounter Him, and our lives will never be the same. The key is coming to Him whole-heartedly, that is when encounter happens.
This brings us to the middle of this set of verses, verse 11. For I know what plans I have in mind for you’, says Adonai, ‘plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have a hope and a future. This is a verse that we all know and love, but I am going to look at it in a little different light. From the moment of creation, Adonai’s plans were set into motion. He knew then the plans he had in mind for not just Israel, but for mankind. When He set before them the choice to eat of the tree of good and evil, or not to eat, mankind stepped out of His plans from well being and into bad things, so He made a way of restoration for us to be able to step back into those plans. In Paul’s letter to Ephesus, he explained it this way, [3] “Praise be to Adonai, Father of our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, who in the Messiah has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven. [4] In the Messiah he chose us in love before the creation of the universe to be holy and without defect in his presence. [5] He determined in advance, that through Yeshua the Messiah we would be his sons – in keeping with his pleasure and purpose – [6] so that we would bring him praise commensurate with the glory of grace he gave us through the Beloved One. [7] In union with him, through the shedding of his blood, we are set free – our sins are forgiven; this accords with the wealth of the grace [8] he has lavished on us. In all his wisdom and insight [9] he has made known to us his secret plan, which by his own will he designed beforehand in connection with the Messiah [10] and will put into effect when the time is ripe – his plan to place everything in heaven and on earth under the Messiah’s headship. [11] Also in union with him we were given an inheritance, we who were picked in advance according to the purpose of the One who effects everything in keeping with the decision of his will, [12] so that we who earlier had put our hope in the Messiah would bring him praise commensurate with his glory. Ephesians 1:3-12
What is our hope and our future? Messiah, Yeshua-Jesus! What is the good and well being that is in store for us? Yeshua! What greater plan for my life be than to live in Him and He in me? What greater plan is there for mankind than that of salvation? Through the words of Jeremiah, He was letting His people know that while they didn’t realize what they were, that HE knew the plans of salvation He had for them. HE knew of the good things that would come to them through Messiah, even if they didn’t. He was telling them that He had the ultimate plan of goodness that would overcome evil in the end. That HE knew their hope and their future, even if they couldn’t see it due to their circumstances. That promise is for all of us, a promise of a life with Him, in Him for eternity.
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