Settle Down - Jeremiah 26 -29

Have you ever been in a car wreck or witnessed one as it was happening? You may have spent your last dollar and did not know how you would obtain food for tomorrow. Try to imagine what was going through the minds of the survivors during the recent tornado in Joplin, Missouri and the first few minutes after. The most of us have had at least one experience that caused a torturous fear; an unreal nervous attack that plunged us into a condition of total despair. The first response necessary to regain normalcy is to SETTLE DOWN. Fear and worry, like anger, will destroy all ability to reason.

The Jewish people of Judah and especially the city of Jerusalem were awakened from a normal night of rest to find that they were being conquered by the Babylonian army and were being taken captive to live as prisoners and slaves in a foreign land. They must have been kicking and screaming and fighting back to no avail. In this lesson, Jeremiah is attempting to console these people and assure them that God would not forsake them or leave them and that they would fair better if they would just SETTLE DOWN and prepare to pay for the sins that had brought this devastation, and he gave them a direct order to pray for their enemies that conquered them.

Christians who have studied God’s word and believe it to be truth understand with their heart that they can trust the Lord and know that He has a plan for them in life’s unsettling experiences. The captives that surrendered and went peacefully and maintained their faith in God not only lived through it, but many prospered and actually assumed positions of prominence in Babylon. These were the leaders that brought the Jews back home some seventy years later…as God had promised.

This lesson starts with the 26^th chapter that states that these events took place under King Jehoiakim and that indicates that it was in 609-608 B.C. and just before the exile. God sent Jeremiah to the “courtyard” of the temple with the same kind of message that he preached in his temple sermon recorded in chapter seven. God told Jeremiah that just maybe the people would listen this time, and if they would repent He would spare them from destruction. Leaders, including priest, were angered and threatened to kill the prophet. God interceded on his behalf and his life was saved but the people were plunged into total despair. All the wealthy, educated, talented and skillful people were driven as slaves into Babylon. Only the weak, unskilled and poor were left behind without leadership, and subjected to foreign occupation. When the Jewish elite arrived in Babylon many were given a territory where they could build a new life, others were worked into the economy where their skills were needed. They were traumatized, a broken and distraught reminant under foreign rule, and they began to grumble and complain. [See 28, and 29: 1-14]

Jeremiah wrote these people a letter and said this is what the Lord God says to all that were carried away into bondage. SETTLE DOWN. “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat the produce. Marry and have children, direct your children to marry and multiply, increase, do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”[Paraphrasing] In other words, get back to normal as best you can…and depend upon God for the results.

Why were they given these instructions? Just like Christ has promised us that He will never place more on us than we are able to bare, God would give them a way out if they would only settle down and trust Him. They were told that in seventy years God would come to them and fulfill His promise to return them to their homeland. “Vengeance is mine and I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore their captors would be punished for taking them captive. In the following chapters the bible tells us that God kept his promise and the people and their nation was restored.

The conditions in Jerusalem became so catastrophic in the last days of the siege that the people were starving, actually became cannibalistic. Could this happen in America? I say to you that unless our government stops spending more than the taxes collected, the day will come when there will be no more credit available, and paper money without anything to back it up will be worthless. In my opinion, there has never been a time in our history when there was a greater need than now for God’s people to return to Jesus Christ, pray, and trust God for leadership.

Regardless of whether the American economy fails or prospers, many individuals will continue to experience difficult times. Earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods will increase in the latter days [the bible says so] and we see it happening all over this earth. Accidents and illness will continue, and at some point in the life of each reader of this lesson, a day of reckoning will come. Only the strong in spirit, mind and body will survive. The only way to surmount tragedy is to place your faith in our Lord, and truly believe in your heart that “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Just remember that he had a purpose in mind for each one of us when he made us and He will provide a way if we will “Only trust and obey.”