An Unlikely Garden
Jeremiah 29:1-9 (RCL 1, 4-7)
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Key Text: Jeremiah 29:5
“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.“
Have you ever tried wishing your life away? We don’t try to eliminate our whole lives, of course, but how often do we think “I can’t wait to get out of school,” “I’d like to just skip over winter,” or even “I can’t wait for this sermon to end.” We’re ready to get on with something more pleasurable or exciting.
When we yearn for the next thing, though, we may be missing out on opportunities for meaning and joy in the present, however dull or unpleasant it may seem. Can it be good to wish even small parts of our lives away?
A sad people (vv. 1-3)
In today’s text, Jeremiah sends surprising and encouraging words to his fellow Israelites who had been taken from their homes in Judah and resettled in various parts of Babylon, not unlike modern Palestinians forced from their homes and land, pushed into overcrowded settlements in the West Bank, Jordan, or Lebanon. [DD]
Jeremiah appears to be addressing persons in the first wave of exiles, forcibly relocated after Jerusalem’s initial defeat in 597 BCE. These included most of the royal family, along with “the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths” (vv. 1-2).
The Babylonians had no interest in depopulating the entire country, but deported elite and educated, leaders and skilled craftsmen. Their intent was to rob the country of effective leadership so the remaining population would be more docile, while availing themselves of skilled artisans who could contribute to Nebuchadnezzar’s many building projects.
Jeremiah had counseled surrender rather than fighting the Babylonians, so he was allowed to remain in Jerusalem. Our passage is the text of a letter he sent to the exiles. [DD]
At first, as we might guess, the exiles were set on getting back to Judah, back to their homes and their fields and their favorite foods. The Israelites were granted a great deal of freedom within Babylon, but they could not return home. Adapting to Babylonian culture — or finding the strength not to adapt — required much time and effort. Many people didn’t even try to adjust. They just sat around wishing the exile would be over so they could go home.
Several prophets encouraged the people in this wishful thinking. They included Hananiah, who remained in Jerusalem and claimed that the captives would be freed within two years (28:1-11), and Shemaiah the Nehelite, who was with the exiles in Babylon (29:29-32). Their prophesies – grounded in what they knew the people wanted to hear – raised false hopes of an early return. With these hopeful prophesies in their ears, many people weren’t sure whether to settle down or just keep waiting to go home.
Jeremiah was a different kind of prophet. The text implies that he, unlike Hananiah and Shemaiah, was a true prophet, one who understood current events and who rightly perceived divine revelation. Jeremiah sought to inject a note of reality by sending a letter to the captives. It was delivered by Elaseh and Gemariah, two officials that King Zedekiah had commissioned (29:3). They may have been traveling to pay Judah’s yearly tribute taxes or to carry official reports to their overlords.
Jeremiah’s letter contained both advice for the present and hope for the future. What he had to say is as relevant as today’s newspaper. This is an eternally applicable epistle.
A stern message (vv. 4-6)
Jeremiah’s advice was based on his belief that the exile would last for a long time. Thus, he encouraged the captives to stop sitting around waiting for deliverance, and to get busy improving their quality of life where they were. In other words, he told his readers to quit griping and to bloom where they were planted.
“Build houses,” he said, “and live in them. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease” (vv. 5-6).
Jeremiah wanted the Judean exiles to make the most of their stay in Babylon. It wasn’t a time for them to sit and mope in squatters’ tents while subsiding on handouts, but to build permanent houses and plant gardens and raise cattle and get on with life.
They might not be in the promised land, but they were still children of the promise, called to be fruitful and multiply and make God’s way of life evident where they were.
Time is too precious to waste, but how easy it is for us to squander the present by wishing for the future, anxious to get on with the next stage of life, whether it’s graduation or marriage or getting the kids through college or retirement. We can wish our entire lives away.
Jeremiah wanted us to understand that life does not begin at the next stage. If we are wise, we will make the most of where we are in the present. That includes striving toward future hopes and goals, We don’t resign ourselves to fate and must mark time, but accept where we are in life and then creatively work to make it better. We build houses, plant gardens, work hard, and share our lives with others. As individuals and as a community of faith, we are called to grow and not fade away.
Every stage of our pilgrimage is not a prelude to life, but a crucial part of life itself. Think of a period in your life that you stumbled through, wishing it was over. How could you have gotten more from that piece of your life? How can you make your life better now?
A surprising challenge (vv. 7-9)
The Jewish exiles were inclined to cheer every failure of their captors. Encouraged by the prophesies of those who predicted an early return, they may have practiced underground resistance while in Babylon. Yet, Jeremiah urged his friends to see through the false hopes being served up by the popularizing prophets. As a word from the Lord, he said “Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the LORD” (vv. 8-9).
Instead, Jeremiah offered them this surprising advice: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (v. 7). The word translated as “welfare” is shalôm, a term that is rich with meaning. While often translated as “peace,” its basic meaning describes a state of wholeness or well-being.
Who wants to pray for the people who are oppressing them? Yet Jeremiah enjoined his readers to pray for their new homeland and to actively seek its welfare, using a strong form of the verb to emphasize that they be intentional about working for the good of the land in which they now lived. As their new homeland prospered, they would prosper, too. [DD]
Jeremiah knew that when we are dissatisfied, we tend to strike out at those around us, to our own detriment. Unhappy teenagers bring heartache to their parents. Frustrated husbands and wives lash out at their spouses. Disgruntled church members sabotage their own community of faith with explosive attacks on fellow believers.
Jeremiah’s advice suggests that teenagers who cooperate with their parents might find greater understanding and more freedom. Spouses who work to build each other up will find more warmth and fewer cold shoulders. Christians who act out of love and forgiveness will find compassion and grace returned to them, for the benefit of all.
Try to remember a time when you took out your personal unhappiness on someone else. Did it help? How could you have handled the situation better?
Our text ends with v. 9, but Jeremiah’s prophecy grew even more specific in the following few verses. He predicted that the exile would last for 70 years.
The exiles needed to learn that they didn’t have to live in the promised land to experience the promises of God. It was essential that the people remain faithful where they were, trusting that God could continue to bless them in Babylon, believing that the Lord had an even better future in store for them.
Many believers find comfort in v. 11, which I translate this way: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not harm, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah would have us understand that God is with us as, even when life is hard, even when we feel lonely or exiled. The world may bring evil to our door, but God’s plans for us are for our good.
Christians believe in an eternal hope of fellowship with God and with other believers. None of us can comprehend what eternity will be like, and none of us can describe our concept of heaven without relying heavily on our imaginations. Still, if God has planned it for us, we can trust that it will be beyond our wildest expectations.
But, we don’t live in heaven now. We live, as Carlyle Marney liked to say, in the meantime. In the meantime, we are called to make the most of who we are and where we are and what we have. Thus, we live toward the future with hope, building and sowing grace and growth along the way. [DD]
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Jeremiah 29:1-9
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
“Make the most of it.” Life isn’t always what we had planned, and when it doesn’t go as planned we are to make the most of it. This is hard for our students to get because they put their heart and soul into something; maybe even sacrificing something really big for it to happen. Then, when that “it” doesn’t occur, life can fall apart. And that is when we have to make the most of it. It’s hard for our students to see that they will get another chance and how they deal with this current disappointment will have some influence over that. The hardest part here: modeling it for your students. When things get hard, make the most out of what is going on. They watch you when times are hard to know how to respond.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Jeremiah 29:1-9
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Failure is Not an Option” from Apollo 13
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