「神を尋ね求めるならば、あなたは神に出逢う」十月第三主日礼拝 宣教 2025年10月19日
エレミヤ書 Jeremiah 29章1〜14節 牧師 河野信一郎
Good morning. I am thankful to be able to offer praise and worship to God together with all of you again this morning. As I mentioned in the children’s message, I wanted everyone to enjoy the scent of autumn this morning, so I brought the pot of osmanthus that we usually keep at the church entrance and carefully nurture into the sanctuary. I hope you can faintly smell its sweet fragrance wafting through the sanctuary.
As we shared with the children, the Apostle Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 2:15 to “become the fragrance of Christ before God.” However, some of you may wonder, “What kind of fragrance is the fragrance of Christ?” In Ephesians 5:2, Paul says, “Just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God, so also walk in love.” In other words, “to emit the fragrance of Christ” means to love our neighbors as Jesus loved us.
Whether it be this osmanthus, the miniature roses by the entrance, the lilacs, or the gardenias, I believe these flowers release their rich fragrance because they know they were created by God and are loved by Him. They praise God with their scent, and at the same time, they bring us joy. We too are beings created by God, each one unique. Yet we are all living in grace for the same purpose. I pray we may become people who live for the joy of God and our neighbors. If we sincerely ask God, He will use us.
Now, at Okubo Church’s morning worship services, we have been listening to a series on the Book of Jeremiah since September. The content of the messages so far may not have been particularly pleasant to hear for many of you. Some may have found it uncomfortable. However, even as I prepared for this series, I have consistently felt that precisely because we are God’s people living in this present age, this is His word that we must listen to carefully.
I imagine everyone has experienced turning points, milestones, or pivotal moments in their lives. If these are opportunities, we welcome them. But if they are crises like illness, accidents, heartbreak, unemployment, bereavement, or divorce, they are turning points no one wants to face. I apologize for getting personal, but the turning points in my life were: believing in Jesus as my Savior at age 10; immigrating to America with my family at age 13; suddenly losing my father to illness at age 21; yet struggling through that pain to truly commit myself, studying at seminary in Louisville, and finally returning to Japan after 19 years in America to become pastor of Okubo Church, marrying my wife, and being blessed with a family. Beyond these, I made many mistakes that caused suffering, and there were plenty of twists and turns along the way.
In our lives, we each encounter opportunities, crises, and turning points. Yet the most painful are those pivotal moments caused by our own mistakes, or by the misjudgments and missteps of family, close friends, or those around us. There are countless things we deeply regret, things we can never fully undo. Yet, even in such pain, sorrow, and suffering, a turning point toward recovery, happiness, and joy is absolutely necessary. However, the mistake we often make is striving and struggling to find that turning point through our own strength and effort. Yet, the Bible tells us that God grants these turning points in life through Jesus Christ.
Now, let us listen once more this morning to God’s loving call from the Book of Jeremiah. Last week, we heard how God continually urged the people of Judah and Jerusalem through the prophet Jeremiah: “Return to me!” “Listen carefully to my words and obey them!” “Remember the covenant I made with you!” Yet they stubbornly refused. “I know your thoughts well. Because you refuse to listen, I will use the great nation of the north to destroy you like a great tree being felled. Yet I promise that from the stump I cut down, I will raise up a new shoot.”
The young branches sprouting from the root are young shepherds and kings who faithfully carry out God’s will. We heard that this Shepherd, who became our King, is Jesus Christ our Savior—who died on the cross for our sins and rose again three days later. Together, we heard from Jeremiah chapter 23 how vital it is in this troubled world to believe in Jesus as Savior, to repent and return to God, and to place our hope in the God who promises blessings.
This morning we will listen to verses 1 through 14 of chapter 29. The events described here take place quite some time after chapter 23, following the first Babylonian exile. For reference, the first Babylonian exile occurred in 598 BC, and the second exile followed eleven years later in 587 BC. As verse 1 states, Chapter 29 is “the letter that the prophet Jeremiah wrote from Jerusalem to the elders, and all the people whom he had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.“ Verse 3 states, ”This letter was given to Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” The content begins in verse 4.
In verse 4, it says, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am speaking to all those I sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.” The people taken to Babylon are described as “the elders, the priests, the prophets, and the people.” Among the Jewish community, those with status, power, wisdom, and skills were taken as captives. To these people, God commands two things in verses 5 through 7.
One is this: “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.” The second is this command: “Pray for the peace and prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it.”
However, the exiled people hesitated to hear and obey this letter from Jeremiah as the command of the Lord God of Israel, the Lord of Hosts. To build houses in the land of exile, to form families there, and to seek peace while living in that land—to settle there meant to continue living in that land. Settling in the land of exile was absolutely not an option for them. Why not? What was the reason or basis for this?
Verses 8 and 9 state: “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not trust the dreams they have seen. They are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, declares the Lord.” The reason and basis for the exiled people stubbornly refusing to settle in the land was that false prophets and diviners, not sent by God, were making false prophecies and divinations—claiming that if they endured just a few more years, they could return to Jerusalem—and the people believed these lies.
As a side note, regarding prophets not sent by God, verses 26 and 27 of chapter 23 state: “The prophets who prophesy lies, each one deceiving his own heart, interpret dreams for one another, so that My people may forget My name.” Furthermore, verse 36 of the same chapter 23 says they “twist the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts.” The exiled people, instead of hearing God’s straightforward words spoken through the true prophet Jeremiah, listened to the distorted words of the false prophets. This led them to take their own mistakes lightly and to underestimate the judgment God had pronounced upon them.
Even today, we tend to ignore words that grate on our ears and listen only to what sounds convenient. But what we need is not such soothing words, but God’s Word. We also need faith that listens to the words of Jesus Christ and faithfully obeys what we hear. Verse 10 says, “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. I will fulfill my gracious promise and bring you back to this land.“ The exiled people must spend seventy years in Babylon. This was because for centuries, the people had not obeyed God’s word. Yet God promises, ”When the seventy years are completed, I will remember you. I will fulfill my gracious promise and bring you back to this land.”
Here it says, “I will look upon you.” What does this “look upon” mean? Most Japanese Bible translations use this word, but the Living Bible translates it as “care for.” Looking up the term in the Kojien dictionary, it means “to come back and see,” “to look back over one’s shoulder,” “to be concerned about,” “to worry about,” or “to show compassion.” English Bibles translate it as “visit you.” In other words, it means God Himself, His word, and the covenant with Him—forgotten by a people who had strayed far from Him—God Himself would approach them and visit them. That is the meaning of “visit.” True to that promise, after seventy years, God visited the exiled people and brought them back to where they truly belonged.
In verse 11, the Lord says, “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.” This fulfillment of God’s care and His coming is the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ. To bring peace with God and give us a future and hope, Jesus came to us in our darkness, inviting us into the light—into the joy, peace, and hope that only God can give.
What is it that we need? Verses 12 through 14 say, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord. “I will bring back the exiles of my people. I scattered you among all the nations and regions, but I will gather you from there and bring you back to the place from which I exiled you,” declares the Lord. What is crucial for us is to repent, seek the Lord God, and return to Him. Then we can encounter God and walk daily with Jesus in joy, peace, and hope.