WATCHWORD:
4 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: 5 “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. 6 Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! 7 And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.” 8 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let your prophets and fortune-tellers who are with you in the land of Babylon trick you. Do not listen to their dreams, 9 because they are telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them,” says the Lord. 10 This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. Jeremiah 29:4-12
Meditation:
What Say You, Jeremiah?
I think we often read Jeremiah 29:11 with a hopeful mind, kind of like a security blanket. We translate: God has a plan for me that is good, so clearly this suffering (this pandemic) I’m going through will end soon and then my flourishing will begin!
Sorry, but that is not at all what God was promising to the Israelites, and it’s not what he’s promising us, either. The heart of the verse is not that we would escape this adversity, but that we would learn to thrive in the midst of it.
Ah, so, we have thought about this and talked about this before. How has this experience changed us? How have we grown? Have we drawn nearer to God as a result? Was that His plan? Think about that. Look at verse 7: “seek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
This is not at all what the Israelites wanted to hear! They wanted to be told that they were going to go home. They wanted to be told that their suffering was going to end. Instead, God’s plan was for them to stay right where they were, and to help prosper the nation that enslaved them!
Translate that into today, and we don’t like it any better than the Israelites did! What is the Lord telling us? Prepare for a longer period of endurance of the pandemic, make good use of our time, strengthen our faith, help prosper our friends and neighbors?
Of course, but the worse hit that Jeremiah dealt to the Israelites was in verse 10 where God says that he would fulfill this “after seventy years are completed in Babylon.” This meant that none in the current generation of Israelites would ever return to their home. What a crushing thing to be told! All this should cause us to say, wait, wait, wait, what did God say? Seventy years? What? No!
Just calm down. Yes, of course, God knows the plans He has for us. In His time, He will give us a glorious future. But as long as we live our lives on this crazy earth, let’s remember that the best growth comes through persevering through trials, not escaping them entirely. And when we learn perseverance, we find surprising joy.
Let’s be clear about this. We can trust what the Lord is saying to us in verse 11, but we need to hold on to it for the right reasons. It would be a false hope to think that God is going to magically take all this dark cloud away, and presto!, we are back to our old normal. What Jeremiah is saying to US is that God will give us hope in the midst of this cloud. Trust that, and praise the Lord.
Here write this on your forehead and the door posts of your house — Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Amen.
Bulletin Board:
Let me know your prayer requests so that I can include them here.
Closing Prayer:
Holy Father in Heaven. Sometimes, my body is weak and tired. Sometimes, I have a weak will and a tendency to give up easily. Sometimes, I am so tired struggling throughout my life. You know Lord, I just can’t handle it all by myself. That’s why, I’m here asking You to strengthen my body, spirit and soul. Strengthen me in the inner person, through the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling my innermost being and personality. Invigorate and strengthen my body. Strengthen my spirit that I can resist the desires of my flesh. And set a fire down in my soul that I can’t contain. God, You are my strength. I’m strong in You, Oh Lord, In the power of Your might, And in the precious name Of Jesus Christ. Amen!
