When we feel exiled
| This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and 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." Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them," declares the LORD. This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." (Jeremiah29:4-14) |
(I wrote this in Feb 2022 as we were emerging from lockdown. It turns out that it is still relevant...)
Part of our passage today is often quoted and put onto devotional posters. The original context and circumstances of the passage make it even more meaningful...
The Israelites were in exile and they didn't like their new normal! You can read about it in Psalm 137 where they complain about being at the Rivers of Babylon; about how their captors taunted them and humilated them; about their longing for the temple and Jerusalem and about how they wished great harm on even the babies of the Babylonians.
So Jeremiah writes to them to tell them that God has a plan. But we are much too quick to jump to the "prosper and not to harm you part..." He starts out by telling them to settle down and make the most of their circumstances. They are to build houses, build families and businesses and pray for the city, being part of the solution and not part of the problem!
In other words, take the lemons and make lemonade, take the tricky circumstances and make the best of them. Take "new normal" and exercise courage, choice and influence to make a difference. We may have to do that for a while... (70 years for the Israelites in Babylon) And then, once we have faithfully served, persevered and made a difference, He will bless and restore.
And there are voices who will tell us that this "new normal" (Babylon) is bad and we need to withdraw, run and hide. Now to be sure, Babylon has temptations and the book of Daniel beautifully demonstrates how Daniel and his friends engaged their "new normal" without betraying their convictions. Today there are many false prophets who major on minors and distract and divide the church from the kingdom work of increasing instead of decreasing.
Finally, the promise of "plans to prosper and not harm" is dependent on us "seeking the Lord with all our hearts."
God wants to work in and through us in the "new normals" we face. We need to adapt and engage, prioritising family, prayer and transformation through the peace and prosperity of our "new normals".
