Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-7
Probably each one of us can remember a time when you
received some unexpected news. A
friend that you haven’t seen in ages just sent you a text saying that she is in
town for the weekend and would love to see you. Or perhaps your cell phone rings and your boss tells you
that you’re being honored for your outstanding work in your field of
expertise. Or maybe, just maybe
your daughter in law comes to pick you up for a ‘girls day out’ and she tells
you that she and your son are expecting a baby for the very first time.
We’ve all been there; we’ve all received unexpected news
that has knocked the socks right off of your feet or made you squeal with
delight. The memory of those
moments probably still, to this day, brings a smile to your face and warms your
heart when you think back.
There is also another kind of unexpected news that you hope
you never will receive. This is
the kind of news the breaks your heart.
Surely you think it’s not happening to me or this can’t be for real but
there is no mistaking it. This
kind of unexpected news leaves you reeling. There is only profound
disappointment, terrible sadness, hopelessness and despair. I’m sure you can all imagine what that
kind of unexpected news might be like or maybe you’ve even received that sullen
kind of news.
Back in Jerusalem the prophet Hananiah was prophesying the
first kind of news to the people of Israel who had been exiled to Babylon. ‘Yeah’, he says, ‘you’re going to be
back home once again in two years – tops!’ And of course people clamored for his word and unrestrained
optimism. Why wouldn’t they want
to shake off the chains of their captivity and oppressors and go home, sweet
home?
Remember two weeks ago we looked at Psalm 137? They lamented being in captivity and were
being tormented to ‘sing one of the song’s of Zion’ when all they wanted to do
was to go back home. So Hananiah’s
prophesy would have been, for them, like winning the lottery of hope. It would have been that pin dot of
light in a very murky place, that first ribbon of light as the morning sun
begins to pierce a very dark and bad night.
But you see, Hananiah was a false prophet. He promised that Israel would be great
again and go home, but it wasn’t the truth. And so the prophet Jeremiah, sent by God, is the one who
would tell them the truth and comfort them in their disappointment.
Hear now the words of the prophet Jeremiah, the 29th
chapter.
These are the words of the
letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders
among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom
Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
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 what they
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.
Now first some historical context. If you were to take a look at a Biblical timeline that
aligns the external and internal political movements of the Ancient Near East
alongside of the prophetic collections of such as Amos, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and
all the rest in Judah (Israel) at the time, you will be quite surprised to see
that prophets, those called by God to speak on behalf of God, were the busiest
during times of geopolitical unrest.
Such is the case with the prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was from the Southern kingdom of Judah; the
Northern kingdom Israel had already fallen to the Assyrians 100 years
earlier. Judah becomes a vassal
state of Assyria and then Assyria’s last powerful king, dies. The Assyrian empire falls as does Judah
after some unsuccessful revolts and reforms and Babylonia finally conquers most
of the Ancient Near East. That
part of the world has never known true and everlasting peace.
In 597 BCE Jerusalem was destroyed and many of the people
were taken into exile in Babylonia.
So this is the political context that Jeremiah faced. It was not a particularly happy time.
In fact, it was rather unsettling.
And then, “Thus says
the Lord” to Jeremiah once again – sit down…write a letter….send it to the
elders and priests who are in exile.
In your letter instruct them to settle down, do what they’d normally do
at home that is to build houses, have children, plant gardens so you can feed
yourselves, go to the market, start business’, in fact just carry on with your lives,
it’s going to be a long time before you can go home. This letter must have been a jolt to them.
And to top it all off, to add insult to injury, they are to
pray for the welfare of Babylonia and in that way they would find their own
welfare.
I can imagine them saying, ‘Really God?’ We’re in this forsaken place, this
unexpected and unwanted predicament and you want us to ‘settle and bloom where
we’ve been planted’? You want us
to make this place our home? How
long will this humiliating experience continue? What are we to do in this heathen place? And what??? You want us to pray for
these people who took us captive.
Well that’s just plain bizarre and cruel and counterintuitive to our
very souls.
But yes. That is
exactly what they are to do.
Sometimes the unexpected happens to us, like the Israelites,
and we find ourselves in that exilic place, it’s that place that is so foreign,
so strange and unfamiliar that we can hardly understand what is going on, or
who we are anymore or even recognize our surroundings.
It could have 40 years ago and you had no control over your
circumstances or it could have been just yesterday receiving unexpected news
that put a halt to the world you once knew and transported you to a new and
uncharted territory. We have these
trauma splintered lives; no one really is exempt from suffering or pain, it’s a
part of human existence. And, my
friends, unfortunately there are no quick fixes.
Jeremiah knew that. So in his message he encouraged the
people to embrace this place where God had put them and to find ways to be
faithful and heal. Jeremiah knew
that their future depended on the acceptance of their present reality. The challenge for you and me is how to
conduct ourselves in the present in order to live into the future when you don’t
know exactly what that future will hold. It is to accept the reality for what it is, no matter how
stinky it might be because in that acceptance you find your footing once again
and you can begin to find healing, strength, salvation, and transformation.
The people of Israel did just that. They accepted their reality and settled
in, built lives and, as a faithful people, they prayed to God. And God was with them; God was with
them when they went into exile and when they finally emerged so many years
later. God never left them but
encouraged them to pray for the welfare of all and in doing so they would find
their healing. A few short verses
later God says to them, ‘For
surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for
harm, to give you a future with hope….I will restore your fortunes and…I will
bring you back to the place from which I sent you.’ And so it happened.
God is with you always. No matter where you may find yourself, God is there. It was
the Psalmist who said ‘If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed
in Sheol, you are there.’ Even
though you may think otherwise, in your unexpected places God is always beside
you working towards bringing you home.
Amen
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