Jeremiah 29:10 (Purpose of the Study)
This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.
Background
• Jerusalem is attacked by the Babylonians
• They destroy Gods temple (PTP)
• And take Judah is under captivity (Babs not as harsh as Assyr)
• Judah begins to be impatient and listens to false prophets (vs8-9)
• God wants to redirect their devotion and trust to him
Jeremiah 29:11-14 (Purpose of the Study)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
God’s Heart and His Call
• God was the one who allowed the exile
• His plan was to bring the Jews closer to him
• The release of captivity would be up to God and not their efforts• He would eventually bring them back to temple worship, a close relationship with him
• He would eventually bring them back to temple worship, a close relationship with him
• But they needed to seek him and not themselves
PWR: GOD HAD BEEN SEEKING THEM IN ORDER FOR THEM TO SEEK HIM
Acts 17:24-31 (We Are No Different)
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
