Jeremiah 29:8 - Meaning and Application

To quiet the people and make them content in captivity, God first pulls them away from the false hope their so-called prophets had given them, Jeremiah 29:8, Jeremiah 29:9. Those prophets said the captivity would be short, so the people should not settle in Babylon, but wait to go home soon. God says, in effect, “They are lying to you, even though they speak in my name. Do not let them fool you.” As long as we have God’s true word to test every spirit, it is our own fault if we are deceived, because that word can also clear away error.

When God says, “Do not listen to your dreams, which you cause to be dreamed,” he means either the wishes the people fed themselves with, or the dreams the prophets claimed to have. The people kept thinking and talking only about a quick release, so they worked themselves into hopeful fantasies. Those fantasies were really their own desires, and they became the dreams they wanted to hear. The false prophets did not flatter the people in their sin unless the people loved that kind of flattery and asked for smooth words (Isaiah 30:10).

God does more than take away a false hope. He gives them a better one to stand on. We do not want people to tear down a house built on sand unless there is a rock ready for them to build on instead. Here God promises that, even though they will not return quickly, they will return after seventy years are completed. This shows that the seventy years should be counted from the first captivity, not the last. If the church’s rescue does not come in our time, that is still enough, because it will come in God’s time, and his time is best.

God says he will visit them in mercy. Though he has seemed distant for a long time, he will come among them, show favor to them, and restore their honor. He will end their captivity and remove all its suffering. Though they are scattered in many lands, he will gather them from every place where they have been driven, call them back together, and make them one people again. Even from far away, they will be brought back to their own land, the place from which they were taken captive, Jeremiah 29:14.

This will be the fulfillment of God’s promise to them, Jeremiah 29:10. “I will perform my good word toward you.” When some predictions that claim to come from God fail, that should not shake the trust we have in the promises that truly are from him. God’s word is a good word, and therefore it will come true. Not a single part of it will fall to the ground. If he has said it, he will surely do it. That will make their return from captivity deeply comforting, because it will show that God kept his gracious promise.

It will also happen because of God’s own purpose for them, Jeremiah 29:11. “I know the thoughts I have toward you.” God knows all his works because he knows all his thoughts (Acts 15:18), and his works match his thoughts exactly. He does everything according to the plan of his will. We often do not even know our own minds, but God is never confused within himself. At times we fear that God’s plans are against us, but he knows better concerning his people. His thoughts are thoughts of good and not evil. Even what seems evil is meant for good. His plans are moving toward the expected end, which he will bring in due time.

That expected end will come, though perhaps not when they expect it. They must be patient until the fruit is ripe, and then they will have it. The Hebrew wording can mean that he will give them “an end and an expectation.” He will let them see the end of their trouble, its safe and happy close. Even if it lasts a long time, it will not last forever. The time to favor Zion, yes, the appointed time, will come. When things are at their worst, they will begin to improve. He will also show them the full beauty of their rescue, because God’s work is complete. The God who finished heaven and earth in the beginning will also finish every blessing he has promised his people. When he begins in mercy, he will bring it to completion.

He will also give them the expectation they have long desired and waited for, Jeremiah 29:11. He will not give them the hopes of fear or the dreams of imagination, but the hopes that faith holds, the end he has promised, and the end that will turn out best for them.

This will also answer their prayers and pleas to God, Jeremiah 29:12-14. God will stir them up to pray: “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me.” When God is about to give his people the good they have been waiting for, he pours out a spirit of prayer, and that is a sign that mercy is drawing near. When the promised end starts to come close, then they will call on him. Promises are given not to replace prayer, but to awaken it and strengthen it. When deliverance is near, we must go out to meet it by prayer. When Daniel understood that the seventy years were nearly over, he set himself to seek the Lord with greater earnestness than before (Daniel 9:2, Daniel 9:3).

Then God will answer them. “I will listen to you, and I will be found by you” (Psalm 80:2). We can trust his word: seek, and you will find. The rule is plain, Jeremiah 29:13: “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.” To seek God means to search for him carefully, to look for guidance in seeking him, and to look for encouragement to faith and hope. We must keep seeking, and we must take pains in it, like people making a real search. We must do this with the heart, meaning with honesty and sincerity, and with the whole heart, meaning with strength and earnestness, giving ourselves fully to prayer. Those who seek God in that way will find him, and they will find him as the generous rewarder of those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6). He has never said to such people, “Seek me in vain.”