A Summary of Jeremiah 27 – 29

Jeremiah 27–28 | Submit to Babylon

Jeremiah 27 and 28 deal more with Judah’s responsibility to submit to Babylon. Remember? That was God’s gracious provision for the people of Judah to not lose their lives for their disobedience. If they go out and surrender to Babylon, they were promised life.

In Jeremiah 27 God tells Jeremiah to make bonds and wooden yokes, put them on his neck, and then prophesy that God is metaphorically putting the yokes of Babylon on the necks of the surrounding nations and Judah. The message of that metaphor was that the people needed to submit to God’s appointed nation to rule over them. Jeremiah gives this message to King Zedekiah and the priests and all the people. He stresses that they must not listen to the false prophets who are telling them that the exiled king (Jeconiah) and the temple vessels are coming back.

Then in Jeremiah 28 we have Hannaniah & the Broken Yoke. One of those false prophets that God just warned about – Hannaniah was his name – breaks the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and prophesies a return of the exiled king (Jeconiah) and the temple vessels! Jeremiah then gets a word from God to tell Hannaniah the false prophet that he will die for his false prophesies. And so Hannaniah the false prophet dies two months later.

Jeremiah 29 | Exiles, Live Well in Exile

Jeremiah 29 is a message aimed at the Exiles. They are told to Live Well in Exile.

God sends a letter to the exiles in Babylon through Jeremiah. He tells them to live well in Babylon and to seek the welfare both of themselves and of the cities in which they live.

After 70 years (we’ve heard that number before!) they will be restored to the land. And therefore they need to not listen to the false Jewish prophets in Babylon who are prophesying that they will return to Judah sooner than that. They wouldn’t want to return to Jerusalem if they knew what God was going to do to the Jews who were refusing to leave that city.

So, God singles out a few of the false prophets by name for punishment.