“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
“I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all nations and from the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive” (Jeremiah 29:13-14).
False prophets have been deceiving the people of God who struggle in Babylonian captivity by giving them false hope of a speedy return to Jerusalem. These verses are a part of a long message Jeremiah writes to them from God to provide them with a more accurate understanding of their situation.
God does promise them peace as well as a return to their homeland, but He has already given them the timeline in verse 10: seventy years; thus, God wants them to accept their situation, to “settle in” to their new home in Babylon, and to be patient while He works out His will.
While this situation is far removed from us today physically, it surely contains at least two messages for us: one is that we are to accept the physical situations in which we find ourselves (as the Apostle Paul did).
The second message is the realization that we have an opportunity for seeking and finding God spiritually in a way those people never did: we have the Lord Jesus who has paved the way for us to come to God on His terms, in His way. By doing so, we can receive forgiveness for our sins and a working relationship with Him.
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