and ye shall seek me and find me, for ye shall search for me with all your heart,
Jeremiah wrote this in a letter to Jews already carried off to Babylon, who wanted their exile over fast. God ties the promise to one condition — the whole heart — and the chapter keeps asking what He means by the trouble He has sent.
The setting: exiles under discipline
One writer says how faith should meet a discipline like the exile:
When God sends discipline, faith bows to it instead of fighting it. If the Lord acts because we have done wrong, faith does not treat the wrong lightly, and it does not treat the discipline lightly either. Faith accepts the discipline humbly and admits the wrong.
What God was thinking while He judged
Two verses earlier God tells them what His thoughts toward them are. One writer sets those thoughts behind the judgment itself:
God must carry out judgment, though such work is not what He delights in. Behind it all He says, "I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jer. 29:11). The end, which is always before God, is the blessing of His people in peace and love, the expression of His own nature.
God's faithfulness, not perfect obedience
God had made this promise long before Jeremiah. One writer points out what God did not make the condition:
God's faithfulness is in full action, just as He promised in Leviticus, in Deuteronomy, and in His answer to Solomon's prayer. He had promised that if enemies carried them into captivity and they turned to Him there with all their heart, He would bring them back. He never said, if they kept the law to the letter, for they could not have done that.
Seeking a Person, not information
The object of the search is God Himself — "you will seek me" — and that shapes what the searching looks like:
Notice that they seek "Him"; they seek to please Him, to be more like Him. This is not just an "intellectual" activity. It engages the whole heart. My heart yearning after Him day by day, all day long.
The deciding phrase: with all your heart
The reverse of the whole heart is the divided one, and that division has a practical cost in prayer:
Why is it that our prayers are not answered? James gives us two reasons. One is double-mindedness — that is, the mind half on one thing and half on another. If my mind is half on the world and half on Christ, I may pray every day of my life and get no answer to my prayers. When I seek the Lord, let it be as Chronicles puts it: "They sought Him with their whole desire, and He was found by them." God answers that kind of prayer.
A search that never fails
One writer takes an earlier case of people who sought God and found Him, and draws the rule from it:
"He was found by them." Even in the darkest moments of human history, He has never hidden Himself from those who seek Him. To find the Lord! What a treasure! Why should they not rejoice! What rest when He is found!
A promise not yet fully spent
The return of a remnant after the exile answered part of this. The next verse reaches further, to a gathering out of all the nations:
He promises an answer to their cry, and if they seek Him, He will be found. How gracious and merciful He is toward His own! In His own time He will carry out all His gracious purposes for that nation. The return of a remnant after the exile carried out part of them. Verse 14 speaks of the larger return, "gathered out from all the nations."
Summary
- All the trouble — the exile was discipline from God's hand. Faith bows to it instead of fighting it, and admits the wrong.
- All the intent — behind the judgment stand thoughts of peace. God always aims at the blessing of His people, because that expresses what He is.
- All the heart — the condition is not flawless law-keeping but undivided desire. A mind half on the world and half on Christ can pray for years and get nothing.
- All of Him — the search is for a Person to please and be like, not a subject to master. He has never hidden Himself from anyone who searches that way.
- All the nations — the return of a remnant answered this in part. Verse 14 reaches to a wider gathering still to come.