Jeremiah 29:7
The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:7, “And seek the
peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and
pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.”
Of course, the theme of this verse and of several verses that follow it is
“peace.” The word “peace” is used three times in this verse. Before the
Israelites were taken captive to
The first thing that God tells the
Israelites is to “seek the peace of the city.” They were strangers in a strange
land, and they needed to know how to conduct themselves. God told them to seek
peace. There are many troublemakers in this world. There are criminals. There
are people who benefit from trouble being stirred up, especially in the
political world and sometimes in the religious world. Human nature when left to
itself tends to war instead of peace. There are prejudices and hatreds and
jealousies that easily arise in human nature, and all of these things create
war instead of peace among the inhabitants of the earth. Jesus wanted His
followers to be people of peace. Jesus said in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are
the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
The second thing that God told the
Israelites about peace in Jeremiah 29:7 is to “pray unto the Lord for it.” Peace is so
hard to find in this world because of the limitations of human beings that it
takes divine intervention to find peace. Jesus is called the Prince of Peace
for a reason. Because we are spiritual beings, before we can find peace with
our fellow man, we must first of all find peace with God. The rebellion against
God and against His will is a kind of war that people are waging. These
war-like people cannot be at peace with the world, they cannot be at peace with
themselves, and they cannot be at peace with others. It says in Romans 5:1, “Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”
We need to find peace in our hearts through trusting in Jesus, and we also need
to find peace in our families, in our communities, and in our nation. That is
why it says in First Timothy 2:1-2, “I
exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions,
and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in
authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and
honesty.”
When there is peace in a nation,
everyone benefits. Unbelievers benefit, and believers benefit too. That is what is meant by the last phrase of
Jeremiah 29:7, “for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” Christians
should use the peace that is granted to a nation to serve Christ, to raise
their families in the fear of God, to mind their own business, to do their own
work, and to wait on the return of the Lord.
As a believer goes through this life,
there is one very important reality to beware of: there are false teachers.
Perhaps the number one reason for all of the problems in the world and for all
the problems in any individual’s life has to do with the false teaching that
people have accepted. The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:8-9, “For thus
saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and
your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken
to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you
in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.” Notice that it
says, “Let not your prophets….deceive you.” The false prophets are everywhere. They are in your
churches too. You might think that your church is different than all the
others. The false teachers surely are only in other denominations, not yours.
But not only are there false teachers, but there are also false teachings. Some
of the people who preach and teach are not false teachers per se, but some of
their teachings are false. This can really be dangerous for your belief system,
because once you accept someone, you might make the mistake of automatically
accepting everything that they teach. This should never be. Every single
teaching should be carefully evaluated based upon what the Word of God says,
comparing the Old Testament to the New Testament and comparing law to grace. It
says about the Christians in the city of
The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:10-11, “For thus
saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will
visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to
this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
These two verses are great verses of promise. What a merciful Savior we serve,
and often in the Bible we come across passages that tell us how much God loves,
and what a great future He has planned for all of His believers. These are
promises of grace. God tells us about the good things that He is going to do
for us without us doing anything. We who believe have already entered into
Christ, and now the spiritual blessings are simply poured upon us. Notice all
of the statements about what God is going to do. God visits, God performs, God
causes, God thinks, and God gives. Notice the great positive statement that God
made in verse 11, “I know the thoughts that
I think toward you.” Many people have doubts
about themselves especially in regards to what God must think of them. If you
think that God looks down upon you, then it will be hard to have faith in Him.
But this verse and others like it make it clear that God always has good
thoughts and good intentions toward His children. He views us highly because we
are His own, and because He sees us based upon the blood of Christ. Remember
that God said to Moses in Exodus 12:13, “When
I see the blood, I pass over you.”
It is interesting that the Lord says
that His thoughts towards us are for “peace.” God wants us to have peace. So
few people have peace about themselves, about their relationship with God, or
about their future. Peace is wonderful. Peace is a very rare and valuable
commodity. Sometimes when people die, we say that they have been laid to “rest”
and that now at last they have peace. Certainly it will be great to enter into
the eternal peace in heaven, but the Bible tells us that we do not have to wait
until then to experience peace. It says in Isaiah 26:3, “Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in
thee.” It seems that “perfect peace” has a lot to do with
thinking about the Lord and trusting in the Lord. Yes, I can imagine that if
someone spends a lot of time thinking about what Jesus did just for them by
suffering and dying on the cross and what such love means for them both now and
in the future, that such a person would be at peace. And yes, I can imagine
that if someone truly put their trust in the Lord to guide them, to help them,
and to take care of them in every way and in every circumstance, that such a
person would be at peace. Peace should be the common experience of every
Christian. Notice what Paul an apostle said in First Corinthians 13:11, “Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good
comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be
with you.”
Two great promises are given in
Jeremiah 29:12-13, “Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me,
and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search
for me with all your heart.” The two great promises here are:
a promise of the answer to prayer, and a promise that whoever seeks the Lord
will find Him. As we look at the world, we see vast multitudes who have not
found Him. That means that they did not seek Him. In the promise about finding
God, there are two requirements. The first requirement is that we must seek
Him. Jesus said the same thing. Jesus said in Luke 11:9, “seek and ye shall find.”
The second requirement to finding Jesus is that you must really want Him badly.
God said that you shall find Him, “when ye
shall search for me with all your heart.” In
other words it must be really important for you to find Him, in order to find
Him. That is one reason that some people only turn to the Lord after some
really bad things happen to them. They finally see their need of God. They
finally realize that the Lord can do things for them that no one else can do;
and then and only then they desire Him greatly. Because they desire Him
greatly, they seek Him, and because they seek Him, they find Him.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:14-15, “And I will
be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I
will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have
driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I
caused you to be carried away captive. Because ye have said, The LORD hath
raised us up prophets in
One of the truths about being a believer
is that God has a great future planned for each of us. We might be captive for
a while by the people of the world. In other words we might suffer at their
hands. Some of the sufferings might even be God’s chatisements because of our
own sins. But all of that would only be temporary. Our final state is blessing and
happiness and goodness from the Lord. But that is not true for the unbelievers.
Some of the unbelievers might seem to have it well in this world, but none of
them will have it well in the next life. It says in Jeremiah 29:16-17, “Know that thus saith the LORD of the
king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth
in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into
captivity; Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the
sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that
cannot be eaten, they are so evil.” If you do not want to fall into judgment
in your final and eternal state, then turn to Jesus and find mercy while there
is time.
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Copyright; 2013 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved