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TEXT: Jeremiah 29:7-9; 2 Timothy 4:1-5 True or false? That’s one of the big questions that we’ve had to ask hundreds of times in the past year. And it’s not even a matter of discerning real news from fake news, we’ve also had people appealing to scripture for this view or that view: “This is God’s own truth.” How do you know; how can you tell? That’s what we are going to take up in today’s text. We’ve talked about the setting for Jeremiah. With some parallels to 2020, the people of Israel had their world turned upside down. They were defeated by a foreign enemy, they lost homes, jobs, families, their holy city, and their place and way of worship. They were taken to a foreign land and made Exiles. And it felt like God had abandoned them. Then Jeremiah delivers a message from the Lord. God had not abandoned them. Everything had changed, but nothing had changed. They were still God’s people, with a God-given purpose. They were to live life, not give up. They were to build homes in this new land, plant crops, get married, have families, and pass on the faith. And not only that, they still had a mission to be a blessing-people. They weren’t just passive recipients of God’s blessing, but were to pray for and seek the blessing of their captors, their opponents, their enemies. As Jesus would later teach, God was instructing them to love their neighbors and love their enemies! And that brings us to today’s text in Jeremiah 29:8-9. Jeremiah was not the only one delivering messages from God. There were other prophets and other messengers. And they were declaring a very different message. If you were one of the Exiles, how would you know who to listen to? How would you know what was true and what was not? Competing Truth In verses 8-9 God warns His people about false prophets and ‘diviners’. On first pass you might think this referred to Babylonian fortune-tellers – I did years ago when I first looked at this. But no, these are “your prophets in your midst.” These are Jewish prophets and spiritual leaders! And God says they speak falsely; God has not sent them! We have the record of what they were saying. One example is in the previous chapter, Jeremiah 28. One Hananiah, the son of a prophet, was saying that the stay in Babylon would be brief and that God would quickly restore them to Jerusalem and the Temple. Jeremiah says that it is not so and that the Lord is not speaking through Hananiah. Consider that message: God will deliver you soon and restore what was lost! And consider Jeremiah’s message in chapter 29: God brought you here, wants you to stay a while, and has work for you to do. How do you know? How do you ‘weigh’ two sets of competing truth claims especially when discerning the truth is complicated by each claiming to be a word from the Lord as well as both speaking to the great loss and longing of all the people. Though our New Testament reading from 2 Timothy 4 is set in a different context altogether, it does speak to the challenge of discerning what is true and from God. Paul is writing to his student and fellow pastor, Timothy, and warns that the time will come (and when has it not been that time?!) when people will not endure sound doctrine, but will accumulate teachers in accordance with their own desires. They will turn from the truth and turn to myths. I think of all the outlandish claims and stories you can run into daily now. It’s so easy to stop discerning and start listening to voices that will lead us astray. As protection against that Paul charges Timothy to root himself in God’s Word – to preach it, use it for reproof, rebuke, exhortation, and with patience and instruction. Paul warns him to be sober in all things, to endure hardship, and to fulfill the calling and work God has for him. It sounds a lot like Jeremiah to me… Exiles, this is going to be hard work, but it is the work and worship God desires from you at this time. How Do You Know? (God’s Word) If you had been on