I’m late posting this, but we should not ignore the passing of John Perkins, strong believer, who, having escaped Mississippi, went back to preach the gospel and fight for the rights of others.

If we are going to help others understand who Jesus is, our own lives must reflect his character and love. – John Perkins, June 16, 1930 – March 13, 2026

Russell Moore, executive editor of Christianity Today, wrote Why John Perkins Stood (Almost) Alone, March 18, 2026. The article is worth the read in its entirety. Here are some snippets:

He was no martyr the way the word’s been reduced and degraded. The psychological category of martyr complex did not fit him at all. He was a Black Mississippian of one generation, and I am a white Mississippian of another, and I could see what he was up to. He had left our home state, after all, and come back with a burden—to preach the gospel, to see lives changed, to stand up to white supremacy and the oppression of the poor, and to empower people to escape from poverty.

And he did that in the Mississippi of the 1960s—a race-nationalist police state that sought to make examples of everyone who, like Perkins, did not “know their place.” He was beaten, jailed, and hounded in every way possible, but he never yielded. Neither did he give up on what drove him to act in the first place. He never gave up on reconciliation. [Sit with that paragraph for awhile!]

…

To those who wanted to honor civil rights and care for the poor but couch their concerns in vague generalities about “the divine,” Perkins thundered, “Jesus!”

And to those who wanted to keep the Jim Crow mentality, just substituting modern complaints for the language their grandparents would use, Perkins stood with the Bible: “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (James 5:4).

Let me interrupt. Shortly before his death, Marvin Olasky told this story in his article In Life, Facing Death, also worth the read in its entirety.

Perkins’s grandma and other relatives, who worked as sharecroppers, raised him. He dropped out of school in the third grade and gained his first lesson in economic exploitation at age 12. He worked all day hauling hay, expecting to be paid $1.50 or $2, a typical day’s pay in 1942. Instead, a white man paid him 15 cents.

Russell Moore continues:

Perkins combined preaching the gospel, registering people to vote, advocating for justice and civil rights, and starting neighborhood initiatives to give the poor hope—not only for the life to come but also for escaping poverty now. Yet he never gave up on reconciliation, even with those who hated him.

…

Perkins stood with ideas and action and the kind of moral authority that can come only from testing those ideas with his life—standing for something true and loving something real. That’s the kind of witness Perkins was. And that’s what made him seem so strange in this juvenile, demoralized time.

Life has not always been kind to black people or Jesus followers. John Perkins tried to make a difference.

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy… (Hebrews 11.35 – 38, ESV)

Have you ever been to revival service or a big event where a lot of people were making serious life-change commitments? Have you made such a commitment yourself? “I promise to read my Bible at least an hour daily.” Or, “That’s it. No more [fill in the blank].” Did it stick?

One fun thing about reading Jeremiah (or the rest of the Old Testament) at the rate of a chapter a day is that we can slow down and see things we might have glossed over in the past. I had such an experience in Jeremiah 34.

King Zedekiah had a big ceremony, “made a covenant,” that the people should free their Hebrew slaves:

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them, that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother. And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again. They obeyed and set them free. (Jeremiah 34.8 – 10, ESV)

Wow! How cool is that? But…they re-enslaved them.

But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves. (Jeremiah 34.11, ESV)

Bad choice!

And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts— the officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf. And I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives. Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. Jeremiah 34.18 – 20, ESV)

What’s this about a calf cut in two? They made a covenant! Meaning, they had said, “cross my heart and hope to die” – a covenant, which in those days meant cutting an animal in two and walking between the pieces. It’s in Genesis 15.

But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other... (Genesis 15.8 – 10, ESV)

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land… (Genesis 15.17, 18, ESV)

As a pastor from my youth thundered in a sermon, “GOD walked between the pieces!” That is, God pledged himself in that covenant. In Jeremiah, the people pledged themselves and “walked between the pieces,” meaning, “If I don’t hold up my end, cut me up.”

Covenants mean something, but the ceremony apparently didn’t change the hearts of the people. They had a high point:

• They released the slaves
• They pledged to honor the slaves’ freedom by walking through the pieces.
• No doubt, the slaves were throwing themselves a party.

A revival service! I don’t know how long the promises lasted. Maybe until the wealthy had to cut their own grass, cook their own meals, and wash their own dishes. They went back on their promises, and God judged them for it.

Big meetings and emotional commitments don’t get the job done without daily follow-through. Accountability, for example. Discipline.

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear. (Ecclesiastes 5.4 – 7, ESV)

Back to Jeremiah, I’d be remiss if I skipped the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31. The problem is, I don’t know much about this text. I think I’ve heard one sermon on it, about which I remember nothing. So let’s see what God says to us. We’ll learn together!

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD:

• I will put my law within them, and
• I will write it on their hearts. And
• I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And
• no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For
• I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31.31 – 34, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

Are we there yet? “I will put my law within them…and write it on their hearts.” Jesus promised:

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16.13 – 15, ESV)

John wrote:

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth…Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father…But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. (1 John 2.20, 21, 24, 27, ESV)

John is saying that we know the truth and don’t need a teacher. Jeremiah said, “No longer will each man teach his neighbor…” But John is teaching! Jeremiah reports that the LORD declares, “I will put my law within them…” I’m leading some men through Every Man a Warrior, and we’re working very hard to get God’s Word into our memories!

So maybe this one of those “already and not yet” passages.

Yes, “I will be their God and they shall be my people.”

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2.19 – 22, ESV)

Yes, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. (Ephesians 1.7, NKJV)

But we still need teachers:

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (Titus 2.1 – 5, NIV)

But there will be a day when ALL of the New Covenant will be fulfilled:

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22.3 – 5, ESV)

A few days ago, we let a Nobel Laureate teach us an important lesson:

When data tells you the world’s not quite what you assumed, have the wisdom to listen and the courage to act. – Dr. James Allison

Here’s a low-level, somewhat related example. What do you do when you make a mistake, and someone points it out?

I’ve written before that I’m a huge fan of Seth Godin, a marketer who writes a daily blog. A few days ago, Seth misspelled Mount Rainier, leaving out the first “i.” A common and very minor mistake, which would most likely go unnoticed by most people. I saw it and wrote him a brief note, complimenting his work, pointing out the error that he might want to fix in the online version, and telling him specifically, “No need to respond.” I really meant “no need to respond” because I was monitoring his website and would see when he had fixed it.

A few hours later, he responded anyway:

good catch

thanks Bob

Four words, and they made my day! And, naturally, when I went back to the website, he had also fixed the error. “The wisdom to listen and the courage to act.” AND, taking the extra 10 seconds to express gratitude.

A good example for us all.

The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. (Proverbs 15.31, 32, ESV)

I quoted Pastor Tim McConnell quoting Dick Eastman yesterday. I hadn’t realized that Dick passed on April 21. The Headquarters of Every Home for Christ, of which he was president for 34 years, is not far from where I live. I pass it frequently.

I’d be remiss not to repost the organization’s brief obit of Dick:

Today, we mourn the passing of Dick Eastman.

He believed two things throughout his whole life.

That prayer could change anything.

And that every person on earth deserved to hear the name of Jesus.

He gave everything he had to both.

Dick served with Every Home for Christ for over 46 years, including 34 as international president. He authored 17 books on prayer and evangelism with more than 3 million copies in print. Under his leadership, the gospel reached families in 215 nations, resulting in over 250 million people responding to Jesus.

But the numbers only tell part of the story. What Dick cared about was faithfulness. Showing up. Praying when no one was watching. Believing God for the impossible and then getting out of the way.

He leaves behind his beloved wife, Dee, daughters Dena and Ginger, and nine grandchildren, who were the joy of his life.

He fought the good fight. He kept the faith. And, today, Dick Eastman finished the race.

We love you, Eastman family. And we are praying for you today.

Dick Eastman 1944 — 2026

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4.7, 8, ESV)

PS Dick was an ordained minister with the Assembly of God (AG) denomination. A more detailed biography, Mentor and Man of Prayer, is on their website.

I had already scheduled yesterday’s blog on Changing the World when I read something from Tim McConnell, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs. He reminded us what really changes the world. Tim wrote, quoting Dick Eastman:

What Are You Praying For? There is a world in need of hope, in need of repair, in need of grace, in need of Jesus. Let’s learn to pray this week for Renewed Creation. {From Romans 8.19 – 22]

Dick Eastman, the President of Every Home for Christ, went to be with the Lord a few weeks ago. A leader in prayer movements in our times, Eastman wrote:

To be faithful in prayer is to share with God in His plan to change the world. Throughout every generation it has been the praying saint who has altered the course of history…Beloved, it is not age, experience, talent, or material wealth that makes the difference in the destiny of men and nations. Prayer alone will change the world, from our neighbors to the nations. It is true that God may use age, experience, talent, and material wealth to help carry forth His purposes, but only when each is properly backed by prayer. Without prayer, every effort is wasted, for it leaves God out of the picture. Wise is the statement that there is much we can do after we have prayed but nothing we can do until we have prayed.

Thanks for the reminder, Tim.

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6.16 – 19, ESV)

I recently returned from a quick trip to Austin, Texas, for the graduation of a friend from the University of Texas. I attended only a “small” ceremony: one of two held by the School of Natural Sciences in Moody Center, the basketball arena. There were probably about a thousand graduates. Prominently displayed below the giant screen in the center of the arena was this tagline:

What starts here changes the world.

That will preach. I shared it with the men I’m doing Bible study with when I got back. I told them that I firmly believed that what starts here–in this Bible study–changes the world.

We were treated to a living example. The graduation speaker was Dr. James Allison. Here’s part of his bio from the official graduation program:

Jim Allison (B.A. ’69, Ph.D. ’73), the 2018 Nobel laureate for physiology or medicine, is recognized internationally for his foundational discoveries in T cell biology that launched the field of cancer immunotherapy. He has spent a distinguished career studying the regulation of T cell responses and developing powerful strategies for therapy of many cancer types, establishing the field of immune checkpoint blockade therapy for cancer. Work in his lab led to the development of the life-saving cancer drug ipilimumab, the first immune checkpoint blockade therapy approved by the FDA. Ipilimumab has been approved as part of the therapeutic regimen for metastatic melanoma, renal cell carcinoma and lung cancer. Allison’s current work seeks to improve immune checkpoint blockade therapies currently used by clinicians and identify new targets to unleash the immune system to eradicate cancer.

Reread it. The dude, a graduate of the University of Texas, class of 1969 (one year after I graduated from Clemson!), developed a revolutionary cure for cancer! In 1969 he was sitting right where today’s graduates are sitting now, waiting to walk across the stage. 49 years later, he’s accepting the Nobel Prize. Eight years after that, he’s talking to the graduates about his work.

Here are a few snippets from his 10-minute speech:

• I was studying T cells rather than going directly at the cancer cells themselves.
• Something was actually a brake and stopped T cells from working. That was not the expected result. I decided we need to learn how to “disable the brakes” on the T cells.
• Some said it was a career-ending fiasco to keep with this, but science isn’t a democracy, votes don’t matter. Data matters.
• We showed that blocking this led to cures for cancers which were deemed as incurable.
• This wasn’t because someone won an argument. It was because when things weren’t turning out as we expected, we admitted when we were wrong and kept going to find the answers.
• Don’t settle for the first and easy explanation. Persist. Meaningful work often takes longer than you expect.
• Don’t underestimate the ability of determined people to change the future. I know it because I’ve seen it. And just as it says up here, “What starts here changes the world,” you can change the world.
• Think clearly and follow the evidence before you. And when data tells you the world’s not quite what you assumed, have the wisdom to listen and the courage to act.

“The wisdom to listen and the courage to act.” Amen.

I found the experience inspiring. It’s not everyday you’re in the same room with a Nobel laureate who shared wisdom applicable to any endeavor. If what you’re doing isn’t working, “have the wisdom to listen and the courage to act.”

For example, churches all over the world are running the same “Sunday morning play” – a huge emphasis on the Sunday worship service while universally bemoaning a lack of disciples among their members. It’s like trying to teach someone to play piano by taking them to concerts. Paul told (pastor) Timothy what to do:

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

Jesus, also, was clear – “teaching them to observe…”

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.18 – 20, ESV)

PS You can read Dr. Allison’s (very technical) Nobel Prize acceptance speech for detail of his work. Here’s a less technical article from Time Magazine.

PPS Here’s an inspiring early success story:

In 2006, when Allison was at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, he met the first patient treated with a drug derived from his research, who was part of the early studies on the therapy. Sharon Belvin was diagnosed with late stage melanoma at age 22 and was told she shouldn’t plan to start a family or expect to have many more years to live. After receiving the drug, Belvin’s doctors were surprised to see her tumors disappear. Allison was brought to tears after hearing her story, and nearly 20 years later, Belvin now has her own family and stays in touch with him. “I talked to her a couple of weeks ago,” he says. “She’s fine and her kid’s about to go to college.”

A final word: in the spiritual realm, there is only one thing that changes the world. Stay tuned.

It was to be 70 years of exile. No amount of false prophecy or wishful thinking would change it.

Therefore, Jeremiah wrote a letter of instruction containing verses we like to claim:

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

• Build houses and live in them;
• plant gardens and eat their produce.
• Take wives and have sons and daughters;
• take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters;
• multiply there, and do not decrease.
• But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare… (Jeremiah 29.4 – 7, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

The instructions were given to a people in exile: “build houses….have children…” In other words, live life where you are, not where you’d like to be.

And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. (1 Corinthians 7.17, MSG)

Instead of complaining and wishing evil, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile…”

It’s tempting for us who may have grown up in climates that appeared favorable to our faith, when we find ourselves in today’s climate, to forget that “Israel in exile” is a better model for us than, say, “Israel in the promised land.”

For Israel, there was a promised end:

For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For 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. (Jeremiah 29.10, 11, ESV)

“I know the plans I have for you…welfare…a future and a hope.” This promise was given when they were in exile! The words sound nice to us. The words didn’t sound nice to them! One false prophet said Jeremiah should be rebuked for what was perceived as heresy:

Now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who is prophesying to you? For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, “Your exile will be long; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce.” (Jeremiah 29.27, 28, ESV)

Israel’s exile would be long, and our New Testament marching orders are also in the context of exile:

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2.11, 12, ESV)

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life… (Philippians 2.14 – 16, ESV)

The captivity has started, and there’s no end of false prophets saying it won’t last very long. Hananiah is one:

Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke-bars from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke them. [See Jeremiah 27.1 – 10] And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years.” But Jeremiah the prophet went his way. (Jeremiah 28.10, 11, ESV)

Jeremiah went his way rather than respond because hadn’t given him the response yet. When God did:

Go, tell Hananiah, “Thus says the LORD: You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to him even the beasts of the field.”

And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the LORD.’ ”

In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died. (Jeremiah 28.13 – 17, ESV)

We can’t manipulate God. We cannot do “positive affirmations” and change what God has decided.

This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? (Isaiah 14.26, 27, ESV)

As we continue through Jeremiah, the promised Babylon captivity is starting.

After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon… (Jeremiah 24.1, ESV)

Then a vision of figs with this interpretation: the captivity would have an end:

Then the word of the LORD came to me: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. (Jeremiah 24.4 – 7, ESV)

There will be a return from captivity. When? Jeremiah 25 contains the prophecy of “70 years:”

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: “For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened…“Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation…This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (Jeremiah 25.1 – 3, 8, 9, 11, ESV)

First, this observation: 23 years of ministry with no results! That’s discouraging! Billy Graham said once, “I don’t pay any attention to statistics. My ministry merely vindicates God’s judgment. No one in any of the cities I have preached: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago,… can say they didn’t have a chance. They did have a chance. I told them.”

The same is true here. Jeremiah warned the people for 23 years, but “You have not obeyed my words.” Therefore, “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste…[and you] shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years.” 2 Chronicles records it:

Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years. (2 Chronicles 36.17 – 21, ESV)

The prophecy motivated Daniel, one of the ones taken captive, to pray :

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession… (Daniel 9.1 – 4, ESV)

A promise:

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me. (Psalm 86.5 – 7, ESV)