Bird's-eye view
In this sharp parenthetical section of his letter to the exiles, Jeremiah confronts a dangerous delusion. The exiles, having been carried off to Babylon, were being soothed by the saccharine promises of false prophets in their midst. These prophets were telling them what they wanted to hear: that the exile would be short and that God was still with them in a business-as-usual sort of way. Jeremiah’s task here is to shatter that false comfort. He does this by pointing back to Jerusalem, to the people who were not taken into exile, and declaring that a far worse judgment is about to befall them. The reason for this horrific judgment is the very reason the exiles are in Babylon in the first place: a stubborn, willful refusal to listen to the Word of the Lord. This passage is a severe mercy, a divine reality check intended to provoke the exiles to genuine repentance by showing them the terrifying end of the path they are on.
Outline
- 1. The Exiles' Deluded Boast (Jer. 29:15)
- 2. God's Terrifying Correction (Jer. 29:16-19)
- a. The Subjects of Imminent Judgment (Jer. 29:16)
- b. The Instruments of Covenant Wrath (Jer. 29:17a)
- c. The Utter Repulsiveness of the Remnant (Jer. 29:17b)
- d. The Consequence: An International Object Lesson (Jer. 29:18)
- e. The Cause: Willful Deafness (Jer. 29:19)
- 3. The Urgent Command to Hear (Jer. 29:20)
Context In Jeremiah
This passage, verses 15 through 20, functions as a pointed interruption in Jeremiah's letter to the exiles. Just before this, God had promised them a future and a hope, a seventy-year period of settling down followed by restoration (Jer. 29:10-14). But that future hope was contingent on them turning to God with all their heart. The false prophets were offering a shortcut, a gospel of cheap grace that required no repentance. So, before continuing his letter, Jeremiah must address the root problem: the people's penchant for listening to liars. He uses the impending doom of Jerusalem as a graphic illustration of what happens when a people prefer the sweet lies of false prophets over the hard truths of God's Word. It is a warning shot across the bow of the exiles in Babylon.
Key Issues
- The Danger of Self-Appointed Prophets
- Covenant Curses: Sword, Famine, and Pestilence
- The Metaphor of Rotten Figs
- God's Active Pursuit in Judgment
- The Sin of Not Listening
Jeremiah 29:15
"Because you have said, 'Yahweh has raised up prophets for us in Babylon'"
Here is the root of the problem, stated plainly. The exiles are justifying their disobedience. Their reasoning is that they don't need to listen to Jeremiah, who is far away in Jerusalem, because they have their own spiritual authorities right there in Babylon. Notice the arrogance. They are not saying, "We think these men might be prophets." They are declaring it as a fact: "Yahweh has raised up prophets for us." This is how all false religion works. It manufactures its own authority. Men decide what they want God to be like, find teachers who will scratch that particular itch, and then declare that God Himself has sanctioned the whole affair. They wanted a message of quick relief and imminent return, and so, conveniently, prophets arose to give them exactly that. But these were not prophets raised up by God; they were projections of the people's own wishful thinking.
Jeremiah 29:16-17
"for thus says Yahweh concerning the king who sits on the throne of David and concerning all the people who live in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile, thus says Yahweh of hosts, 'Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness.'"
God's response is to completely ignore their manufactured prophets and to redirect their attention. "You think you have it bad? You think you are the primary subjects of My displeasure? Look back at Jerusalem." He is speaking of King Zedekiah and the remnant left in the land. The exiles might have thought these people were the lucky ones who escaped deportation. God says the exact opposite. Upon them, He is sending the classic trio of covenant curses: sword, famine, and pestilence. This is not arbitrary cruelty; this is covenant faithfulness. God is doing precisely what He promised He would do to a rebellious people (Lev. 26; Deut. 28).
Then comes the graphic simile. God will make them like "split-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness." The Hebrew is vivid; these are vile, disgusting figs. This is not just about being useless; it is about being repulsive. A bad fig might be thrown out. A rotten, split-open fig is something you recoil from. This is God's assessment of the spiritual state of the leadership and people remaining in Judah. Their corruption was not a minor blemish; it was a deep, pervasive rot that made them utterly detestable in the sight of a holy God.
Jeremiah 29:18-19
"I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence; and I will give them over to be a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and an object of horror and of hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have banished them, because they have not listened to My words,' declares Yahweh, 'which I sent to them by My slaves the prophets, rising up early and sending; but you did not listen,' declares Yahweh."
The judgment is not passive. God says, "I will pursue them." He is the active agent in this calamity. The result of this divine pursuit is that Judah will become an international spectacle of shame. They will be a "terror," a cautionary tale that makes other nations shudder. They will be a "curse," a people whose name is used in oaths to invoke disaster. They will be an object of "horror and of hissing," a people whom others look upon with contemptuous pity and scorn. They will be a "reproach," a byword for failure and disgrace. The people who were called to be a blessing to the nations (Gen. 12:3) would become a curse among them.
And why? Verse 19 gives the reason with stark clarity: "because they have not listened to My words." This is the central sin. All the idolatry and injustice flowed from this one foundational act of rebellion: they refused to hear God. And it was not for lack of trying on God's part. He sent His words "by My slaves the prophets, rising up early and sending." This is a beautiful anthropomorphism. It pictures God as a diligent master, getting up before dawn to make sure His message gets out. God is not a reluctant communicator. He has been patient, persistent, and clear. The failure is entirely on the side of the hearers. The final clause is a hammer blow: "but you did not listen." Their deafness was not an inability, but a willful refusal.
Jeremiah 29:20
"You, therefore, hear the word of Yahweh, all you exiles, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon."
After this terrifying description of the judgment on Jerusalem, the focus snaps back to the exiles in Babylon. The word "therefore" connects everything. "Because this is what happens to those who refuse to listen, you must listen." The command is simple and urgent: "hear the word of Yahweh." He is telling them not to make the same mistake as their brothers in Jerusalem. The judgment on Jerusalem is a preview, an object lesson for their benefit. They are being warned that the path of listening to false prophets and ignoring God's true word leads to becoming rotten figs, fit only for destruction. The choice is clear: listen to the true word of God, even if it is a hard word about a seventy-year exile, and live; or listen to the soothing lies of your preferred prophets and perish.
Application
The temptation to raise up prophets for ourselves is a perennial one. We all have a native desire for a god who agrees with us, who affirms our plans, and who tells us that everything will be fine without the messy business of repentance. The modern evangelical world is littered with such prophets, offering health, wealth, and political victory without a call to holiness, sacrifice, and submission to the whole counsel of God.
This passage is a stark reminder that God is not impressed with our self-generated spiritualities. He judges His people based on their response to His revealed Word, not their sincerity in following their own delusions. When we refuse to listen to the hard parts of Scripture, the parts about sin, judgment, and the need for repentance, we are walking the same path as the remnant in Jerusalem. We are becoming rotten figs.
The application, then, is the same as the command in verse 20: "You, therefore, hear the word of Yahweh." We must cultivate an appetite for the true Word of God, in its entirety. We must test every prophecy, every teaching, and every preacher against the plumb line of Scripture. And we must pray for the grace to not just hear the Word, but to obey it, lest we become a reproach and a hissing, an object lesson for a watching world on the folly of a people who had the very words of God and refused to listen.