10 The Lord proclaims: When Babylon’s seventy years are up, I will come and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope. 12 When you call me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you. 13 When you search for me, yes, search for me with all your heart, you will find me.
Reflection
What do you do when something happens that forces you from your home to a place that is foreign to you? The message in this, and surrounding scripture is, if you can’t change it and God has allowed it, find ways to prosper in it, and support those who are already there.
Chapter 29 of the book of Jeremiah includes the text of a letter from Jeremiah to Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar which says the following. “The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because your future depends on its welfare.”
God asked Jeremiah to write these words because damaging lies, spread by false prophets like Hananiah, caused the exiles to believe they were going to receive quick release from captivity which was not God’s plan. In addition, the exiles needed to learn that the Babylonians were not to blame for their captivity. In the grand scheme of things, God had deported them to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was merely the instrument God used to punish them for their sins. God wanted his people to establish a kingdom presence in exile. While they were waiting for a better tomorrow, they were to be industrious today.
We could look at this as a practical message for our time. Earth is not merely a place to live while we wait to be taken to heaven. It’s where we live out God’s will and plans for us while we are in his kingdom on earth. God’s message is to pursue the good of the culture in which we live—to get busy loving our neighbors. If we commit our hearts to the Lord, as we worship and obey through our day-to-day walk, God is ready to communicate with us and even reverse or change our circumstances. Does this remind you of the old hymn , “Trust and Obey for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus.”
If you are not familiar with it, or just want to hear this Don Moen version, try the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tezfbdlyNss
by Clarence Beverage
For Pondering and Prayer
I have always been awed by this section of scripture as I think of the fact that we are children of God as described in John 1:12. Then I think of God’s people in Jerusalem as, in effect, misbehaving children put in time out until they were gone long enough to repent and be ready to return to Jerusalem and the land of Judah. God’s love and caring for the people is what we see in our scripture. God, when he commissioned Jeremiah to write the letter, showed love for the people early on and gave them instructions to live and prosper so that they could come back, even though they were being taught a lesson, ready to be his people better equipped than when they had left.
What do you think about this? What if you could see God’s hand in a situation or place that you were not planning for or expecting? Could you look for the reason and know that it might take time to see a way forward?
What would you do if foreigners moved into your neighborhood? How would you get to know them and trust them?
Prayer: Lord, we don’t often find ourselves, or like, being out of control and facing something unexpected. But we do know this can happen. Please give us the desire, through the power of
your Spirit, to see your hand at work and be able to flourish in whatever way, or ways, you have planned for us. Amen
