Planting Gardens in Babylon Text: Jeremiah 29:1-9
Introduction: Two Kinds of Despair
We live in an age of managed despair. The world offers two primary flavors of it, and many Christians, sadly, have taken to ordering one or the other. The first is the despair of frantic optimism. This is the lie of the false prophets, the court theologians who tell the king exactly what he wants to hear. They promise a quick fix. They insist that if we just elect the right man, or pass the right law, or dream the right dream, then revival is just around the corner and the seventy years of exile will be cut down to a long weekend. This is the lie that says we can have the crown without the cross, the restoration without the repentance. It is a lie that tickles the ears and damns the soul, because it denies the severity of our sin and the sovereignty of God's judgment.
The second flavor of despair is the despair of pious pessimism. This is the lie of the holy huddle. This group sees the rot and the decay, they see Babylon for what it is, and they conclude that the only faithful response is to withdraw. They want to build monastic communes, retreat from the public square, and polish the brass on a sinking ship. Their eschatology is one of defeat. They believe the world is destined to get worse and worse until Jesus comes back to evacuate the last remaining saints from the smoldering ruins. This is a lie that spiritualizes disobedience and calls cowardice faithfulness. It is a profound insult to the commission God has given us.
Into this confused and demoralized situation, the prophet Jeremiah speaks a hard and glorious word from God. It is a word that demolishes both kinds of despair. To the frantic optimists, he says, "Settle in. It's going to be seventy years." To the pious pessimists, he says, "Get to work. Build, plant, marry, and seek the good of the pagan city you are in." This is not a word of compromise. It is a word of conquest. But it is the conquest of patient, generational faithfulness. It is the strategy of postmillennialism in seed form. It is the command to plant gardens in Babylon, believing that God will give the growth, and that our children's children will eat the fruit in a Jerusalem restored.
This letter from Jeremiah to the exiles is therefore not just an ancient historical document. It is a direct command to the modern church, living as we do in a very comfortable, and for that reason very dangerous, Babylon. We must decide if we will listen to the false prophets of our age, or if we will heed the Word of the Lord and get to work.
The Text
Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. (This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had gone out from Jerusalem.) The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying, "Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf; for in its peace you will have peace.’ For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to your dreams which you dream. For they prophesy a lie to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares Yahweh."
(Jeremiah 29:1-9 LSB)
God's Signature on the Deportation Orders (vv. 1-4)
We begin with the context and the ultimate author of this letter.
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon..." (Jeremiah 29:4)
Before God gives His instructions, He first establishes His absolute sovereignty over the situation. Notice the careful wording. Jeremiah reminds them who carried them into exile. It was not, ultimately, Nebuchadnezzar. It was not the Babylonian army. It was not a failure of Judah's foreign policy. God says, "...all the exiles whom I have sent into exile..." God did this. Yahweh of hosts, the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, personally signed the deportation orders.
This is the bedrock of all Christian comfort in suffering. If your calamity is a random accident, a slip of fate's greasy fingers, then you have every right to despair. But if your calamity, your exile, is a deliberate, measured, and purposeful act of your covenant God, then everything changes. This is not a tragedy; it is a chastisement. It is not an accident; it is an assignment. The pagan king Nebuchadnezzar was nothing more than God's mailman, delivering God's people to their new, temporary address. God is not wringing His hands in heaven, wondering how to fix this mess. He made the mess, for His own holy purposes. And because He sent them there, He is there with them, and He knows the way back.
This is the first thing we must get straight in our own cultural exile. We are here because God has put us here. The moral collapse, the institutional decay, the rampant foolishness of our leaders, none of it has taken God by surprise. He is working His purposes out, and our job is not to whine about the accommodations, but to listen for our marching orders.
The Creational Mandate in Exile (vv. 5-6)
Having established His sovereignty, God gives a shocking command. He does not tell them to start a protest, or to form a guerrilla resistance, or to sit by the rivers of Babylon and weep for seventy years. He tells them to get on with the business of living.
"Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease." (Jeremiah 29:5-6 LSB)
This is a direct reaffirmation of the creation mandate, issued in the heart of a pagan empire. "Be fruitful and multiply" was the command in the Garden, and it is the command in Babylon. This is long-term, optimistic, forward-looking faithfulness. Building houses is not a short-term project. Planting gardens and orchards is an act of faith in the future. Arranging marriages for your children is a statement of hope for your grandchildren.
God is telling them to put down roots. He is commanding them to invest in their new location, to work, to create, to build a multi-generational society right under the noses of their captors. This is the opposite of a retreatist, defeatist mindset. The amillennialist wants to rent an apartment because the landlord is coming back any day. The postmillennialist is told to build a house, plant an orchard, and plan for his grandchildren's wedding, because we are here to take dominion.
The command is simple: "multiply there and do not decrease." This is spiritual warfare, the kind that wins. It is the warfare of the cradle, the school, the marketplace, and the garden. You do not conquer Babylon by becoming like Babylon, but by out-building, out-planting, and out-populating them. You fill the earth with covenant-keeping children who love the Lord, and you do it for generations. This is how a mustard seed becomes a great tree. This is God's plan for victory, and it is a slow, steady, and unstoppable plan.
Praying for Babylon (v. 7)
The next command is even more startling. It is a direct assault on all our tribal and nationalistic instincts.
"Seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf; for in its peace you will have peace." (Jeremiah 29:7 LSB)
The word for "peace" here is shalom. It doesn't just mean the absence of conflict. It means comprehensive well-being, prosperity, health, and flourishing. God commands His exiled people to actively work for the flourishing of the pagan city that enslaved them. They are to be the best citizens Nebuchadnezzar has. They are to be so productive, so honest, so creative, that the pagan Babylonians are blessed by their presence.
And they are to pray for Babylon. Not pray for its destruction, though that will come in God's time. They are to pray for its shalom. Why? Because their own shalom is tied to it. This is the principle of faithful presence. Christians are to be a blessing wherever God plants them. We should be the best employees, the most honest business owners, the most helpful neighbors. Our cities should be safer, cleaner, and more prosperous because the church is there.
This does not mean we compromise with Babylon's idolatry. Daniel served at the highest levels of the Babylonian and Persian governments, and he never once bowed the knee. He sought the shalom of the city, but he drew the line at the king's decree against prayer. We are to be in the world, for its good, but not of the world. We seek the peace of our city precisely so that we can be a faithful, uncompromising witness to the King of all cities.
The Anesthesia of False Hope (vv. 8-9)
Finally, God gives a stern warning. He knows that this message of long-term, patient faithfulness will be unpopular. There will be other voices, promising a shortcut.
"For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to your dreams which you dream. For they prophesy a lie to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares Yahweh." (Jeremiah 29:8-9 LSB)
The most dangerous lies are the ones spoken "in My name." The false prophets in Babylon were not telling people to worship Marduk. They were telling them what they wanted to hear, and stamping God's name on it. They were prophesying a quick return to Jerusalem. They were peddling hopium. Their message was, "Don't build houses, pack your bags! Don't plant gardens, the exile is almost over!"
Notice the phrase, "do not listen to your dreams which you dream." The Hebrew can also be rendered "which you cause to be dreamed." The people were eager for this false message, and so they encouraged and patronized the prophets who would tell them what their itching ears wanted to hear. They were complicit in their own deception.
We see the same thing today. Christians who are tired of the long, slow work of discipleship will flock to "prophets" who promise instant revival, imminent rapture, or political deliverance through some strongman. They want the glory without the guts. They want the inheritance without the faithfulness. This is the lie of the false prophets. It is a damnable lie because it encourages God's people to disobey the direct commands to build, plant, and seek the peace of their city. It is a spiritual anesthetic that makes people comfortable in their disobedience while they wait for an airlift that isn't coming.
God's message through Jeremiah is a call to sober, clear-eyed, courageous, and patient faith. It is a call to a seventy-year project. It is a call to work.
Conclusion: The Gospel According to Jeremiah
This command to plant gardens in Babylon is a profound picture of the gospel. We were all exiles, carried away captive by a ruler far more tyrannical than Nebuchadnezzar. We were in bondage to sin and death, without hope in the world. And into that exile, God sent His Son.
Jesus did not come with an immediate political revolution. He came and put down roots. He came to build His house, the church. He came to plant a garden, and the first tree in that garden was a rugged Roman cross. He sought the peace of the city of Jerusalem, weeping over it and praying for it, even as it conspired to kill Him.
And through His death and resurrection, He has secured our return from exile. But He has not yet brought us to the New Jerusalem. He has left us here, in Babylon, with a commission. That commission is to build, and to plant, and to be fruitful, and to multiply. We are to seek the shalom of our cities, praying for them and working for their good, so that through our faithful presence, many of our pagan neighbors might be brought out of their own exile and into the kingdom of God.
We must reject the false prophets of despair and the false prophets of escapism. We have a job to do. The work is hard, the timeline is long, but the outcome is certain. For the same God who sent His people into exile for their sin is the God who, in His good time, brings them home in glory. So let us pick up our shovels and our hammers. There are houses to build and gardens to plant.