Jeremiah wrote the epic Letter to the Exiles around 590 BC. At that time the Jewish people had fallen away from their faith, and in anger, God enacted a terrible punishment upon them. He had Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, violently invade their Promised Land. And after utterly destroying the city walls of Jerusalem, he placed more than 100,000 Jews — the entire remaining population of Jerusalem — into chains, and marched them the 1,000 miles east to his capital city of Babylon.
There they were enslaved and made to serve the conquering Babylonians (the sole book of the Bible written about a woman, Esther, is an amazing look into how Jews lived and survived in this challenging chapter).
This period came to be known as “the Exile” (a theme actually repeated several times in the overall history of the Jews, and in the Bible itself as well.).
In the early years of the exile, the Jews are becoming disheartened and destitute. They are ready to give up. But God sends a Prophet, Jeremiah, with an urgent message to them.
How the Letter to the Exiles spoke to Me in Prison
Bringing it to a personal level, while I was at the very early stages of my incarceration (federal charges of bank robbery, 2018), someone slid a book under my door entitled “the Key to your Expected End“, by Katie Souza. Katie was a former gangster who had found Jesus, and this Letter to the Exiles was one of the keys that unlocked her heart. She found it to be actually a metaphor, addressed directly to all prisoners.
Reading Katie’s interpretation, I felt profound changes taking place in my heart. I felt her wisdom, and the truth of what she was saying. That was the beginning of my transformation, from Criminal to Christian.
Here is the actual text of the Bible. It is entitled “Letter to the Exiles”, and is from the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 29, verses 4-14. [Jeremiah 29:4-14] Hot tip: the actual key, embedded within the letter, is Jeremiah 29:11 🙂
Letter to the Exiles
Whilst ye are in captivity,
. . during your exile
. . far from home:
Do not lament,
. . and do not fear.
Do not even try to flee,
. . nor revolt against your captors.
Rather:
Build ye houses,
. . and dwell in them.
Plant gardens,
. . and eat the fruit of them.
Take ye wives,
. . and beget sons and daughters.
Give your daughters to husbands,
. . that they may bear sons and daughters,
that your numbers might be increased,
. . and not diminished.
Seek the peace of the city
. . whither I have caused you
. . to be carried away captives,
and pray unto the Lord for it:
. . for in the peace thereof
. . shall ye have peace.
For thus saith the Lord:
That after seventy years of exile
. . to Babylon be accomplished,
I will visit you once again,
. . and make good on my word to you,
. . and cause you to return home.
For I know the thoughts
. . that I have towards you, my people:
Thoughts of Peace,
. . and not of Evil,
thoughts to bring you
. . to your Expected End.
In that day many years hence
. . shall ye call upon me,
. . and ye shall pray deeply for me,
. . with all your heart and all your soul.
…and I will hear you.
And on that day
. . you shall find me, once again.
And on that day
. . I will free you from your captivity.
Indeed I shall gather all of you up
. . from all the cities, from all the nations,
. . and from all the distant lands
. . into which I have driven you.
And I will bring you once again back
. . to the place from which
. . I caused you to be carried away captives
. . oh so long ago,
back to the Promised Land,
. . back, once again,
. . Home.
.
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