Jeremiah 29:24 - Meaning and Application

We have read Jeremiah’s letter to the captives in Babylon. They had every reason to thank God, and Jeremiah too, for such a letter, and to keep it carefully among their treasures. But it is no surprise that the false prophets among them were angry, because it exposed what they really were.

Now we are told about one of them, Shemaiah the Nehelamite, the dreamer. He claimed all his prophecies came from God through dreams. He somehow got hold of Jeremiah’s letter, or heard it read, and it deeply upset him. So he decided to write back. But he did not write to defend his own calling or to give any solid proof for his prophecies about the captives’ quick return. Instead, he wrote to the priests, the usual supporters of false prophets, and pushed them to act against Jeremiah.

He wrote in his own name, without even pretending the people agreed with him. As if he had authority over everyone, he sent a circular letter to the priests in Jerusalem and to the rest of the people, likely by the same messengers who had carried Jeremiah’s letter. But his main target was Zephaniah, who was probably either the immediate son of Maaseiah, or a priest from the same priestly division that Maaseiah had headed. He was not the high priest, but a deputy priest, or some other important officer in the temple, like Pashur (Jeremiah 20:1). Perhaps he even led the group of priests assigned to judge those who claimed to be prophets, since there were many such men at that time.

Shemaiah first reminds Zephaniah and the other priests of what their office required. The Lord had made Zephaniah priest in place of Jehoiada the priest (Jeremiah 29:26). Some think this refers to the famous Jehoiada, the great reformer in the days of Joash. If so, Shemaiah was trying to flatter Zephaniah by saying he should show the same zeal for God’s honor. But wicked people often cover evil with a show of religion and concern for God’s glory (Isaiah 66:5; John 16:2). It is more likely that this was another Jehoiada, Zephaniah’s immediate predecessor, who may have been taken to Babylon with the other priests (Jeremiah 29:1).

Shemaiah’s real message was this: since Zephaniah had been lifted into office, God must have placed him there so he would oppose God’s prophets. In other words, he was telling him that he would be ungrateful and unjust if he did not use his power for that purpose, or rather abuse it. Hearts are terribly hardened when people excuse wrongdoing just because they have the power to do it. The priests were supposed to examine anyone who was mad or who claimed to be a prophet. But Shemaiah calls God’s faithful prophets self-made prophets, usurpers, and madmen, as if they were under some demon or simply out of their minds. So he turns the true prophets into false ones and assumes Jeremiah must be treated as such.

He does not ask whether Jeremiah had given proof of his calling or shown that he was not mad. That is never considered. Once Jeremiah is given a bad name, Shemaiah assumes everyone should reject him. He also reports Jeremiah’s letter to the captives in Babylon, in which Jeremiah said the captivity would last a long time, and therefore they should settle down and make the best of it (Jeremiah 29:28). What wrong was there in that? The false prophets had already said the captivity would never come (Jeremiah 14:13). Jeremiah had said it would come, and events proved him right. That should have made the people trust him when he said it would be long, rather than trust men who had already been shown to lie.

Shemaiah then asks for judgment against Jeremiah. Since he assumes Jeremiah is mad and has made himself a prophet, he expects the priests to put him in prison and in the stocks (Jeremiah 29:26). He wants Jeremiah shamed in public, his reputation ruined, and his prophecies discredited in Jerusalem. If that could be done, he hopes the captives in Babylon would also stop listening to him. He even rebukes Zephaniah for not having already restrained Jeremiah of Anathoth (Jeremiah 29:27). This shows how bold and overbearing the false prophets had become. Even while in captivity, they tried to give orders to priests who were not only free but also in authority. It is common for people who claim special knowledge to act this way.

This is a striking example of how hard sinners’ hearts can become. It should make us all fear that our own hearts might harden too. These men would not accept the clearest evidence. God had confirmed Jeremiah’s message, and it had reached them (Zechariah 1:6). Yet because Jeremiah would not say the smooth things they wanted, they decided he was not a true prophet. No one is so blind as the person who refuses to see.

They also would not be corrected by severe punishment. They were already in a miserable captivity because they mocked the Lord’s messengers and mistreated his prophets. That was the sin for which God was dealing with them, and yet even in their suffering they kept sinning against him more (2 Chronicles 28:22). So affliction by itself does not cure sin unless God’s grace works with it. Instead, trouble can make a bad heart even worse. That is exactly what Solomon said, though you grind a fool in a mortar, his foolishness will not leave him (Proverbs 27:22).

Then we are told how Jeremiah learned of all this. Zephaniah read Shemaiah’s letter in Jeremiah’s hearing (Jeremiah 29:29).

He did not intend to do what Shemaiah wanted him to do. Instead, he seems to have respected Jeremiah, because we find him later using Jeremiah as a prophet in messages to him (Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 37:3). For that reason, he protected Jeremiah. The one who still held rank and power feared God and his judgments more than the one who was now a captive.

He also let Jeremiah know what the letter said, so Jeremiah could see what enemies he had, even among the captives. It is a kindness to our friends to tell them about their enemies.

The next part is the sentence passed on Shemaiah for writing this letter. God sent an answer, because Jeremiah had given his case to God. This message was sent not to Shemaiah himself, but to the people in exile who supported him and treated him as if he were a prophet sent by God (Jeremiah 29:31, Jeremiah 29:32).

They were told, first, that Shemaiah had fooled them. He promised peace in God’s name, but God had not sent him. He claimed a false authority and pretended to carry heaven’s seal on his message. He led the people to trust a lie, and by giving them false comfort, he took away true comfort. Worse still, he made them rebels against the Lord, as Hananiah had done before him (Jeremiah 28:16). If judgment comes on those who rebel, it is even greater for those who teach rebellion by their words and example.

They were told, second, that Shemaiah himself would end in shame, as Jeremiah 17:11 says of a foolish man. His name and family would die out and be forgotten. He would leave no children to carry on his name. His family line would end with him. He would have no one left to live among God’s people, and neither he nor any of his descendants would see the good that God would do for his people.

Those who are not willing to wait for God’s timing are not worthy to share in his blessings for the church. Shemaiah was angry at Jeremiah’s advice to the captives to build their families in Babylon, so that they would increase and not decrease. For that reason, he was justly left childless there. Those who reject the blessings of God’s word deserve to lose the good that comes through it (Amos 7:16, Amos 7:17).